Tiny Minneapolis theater to stage YA hit 'Be More Chill' at same time as Broadway

Last spring, Minneapolis Musical Theatre staged "High Fidelity" at the Electric Fetus record store. /Jeff Wheeler

Minneapolis regularly gets tours of big musicals after they've opened on Broadway and, in the case of in-development shows such as "The Lion King" and "Victor/Victoria" back in the '90s, sometimes saw them before Broadway. But, next spring, a musical will open here in a production by tiny Minneapolis Musical Theatre, just weeks after its Broadway debut.

The show is "Be More Chill," a musical adaptation of Ned Vizzini's young adult novel in which high school outcasts stumble upon a pill that will make them popular. With music and lyrics by Joe Iconis and a book by Joe Tracz, "Be More Chill" debuted in 2015, when a cast album was recorded in the hope that it would help the show's future life. That worked, with "Be More Chill" developing a cult following, which led to an Off-Broadway production in August (it may have helped that the set-up, a youthful loner who seeks acceptance in extraordinary ways, recalls the smash "Dear Evan Hansen"). The Off-Broadway run was such a hit that the show earned a Broadway slot, opening next March.

MMT's production will open at Illusion Theater in April, largely as a result of good timing. According to MMT artistic director Joe Hendren, the theater began pursuing the show last June, aware that the Off-Broadway run was coming but before Broadway was in the picture.

"We put in the application, not expecting much to come of it, but it turns out the licensing agent was granting productions, not just to our company. There will be productions at smaller theaters and even schools around the country," says Hendren, who recently directed "The Haunting of Hill House" at James J. Hill House in St. Paul. "We thought the news of the Broadway move might spell doom for our production but, as of right now, we're forging ahead. We have not gotten any indication from the Rodgers & Hammerstein organization, which is the licensing agency, that they're pulling the rights."

A small company, MMT often competes for titles with larger theaters in the area but Broadway is a new competitor, says Hendren, who remains "cautiously optimistic" they'll make it to the stage with "Be More Chill."

One point in MMT's favor may be that they're chilling with a slightly different version than the one that will appear on Broadway. MMT will stage the original, 2015 "Be More Chill," which has been revised in the intervening three years.

Still, says Hendren, "It's such a fun show and the fact that it's going to be running concurrent with Broadway is causing a lot of excitement, not just in MMT's core group but with other folks we've talked to."

MMT's season opens in February at Bryant-Lake Bowl with "Love Comics," described as a campy show inspired by mid-century romance comic books. Subscriptions to the season are available at aboutmmt.org.