if I were to change some things about Be More Chill, it would be this:
— “The Pitiful Children” or a short scene before/after is when all the kids in school get SQUIPed. It would lead to a less rushed ending imo with more time to develop the powers and limitations a SQUIPS in large crowds of people. Perhaps its energy is being spread so thin between so many people that its abilities are weaker. Michael still has reason to not be SQUIPed, being absent and mourning Jeremy.
— More of Mr. Heere. Like, at least one scene showing how he’s doing SOMETIME before The Pants Song. He doesn’t need a full other song even, just a bit of extra time to flesh out the character before randomly dropping him in
— Okay, this one needs explaining, but basically how I see part of be more chill’s characterization is that off the bat, all the characters feel like flat, American high school stereotypes, and that’s the point. Then later, through song and scenes, the audience is diverted from their original expectation of the character to see them as not JUST the stereotype, or even unhappy with their role (in Jenna’s case). The problem is, I dont think it’s very clear or executed well, so I’d focus more on that as a writing standpoint.
Jeremy seems like a loser serial masturbator, which he is, be he’s also a damaged kid with a pretty unstable home life.
Christine seems like a ditzy, attention seeking theater kid, and she is, but she also has an intense need to be seen and recognized by SOMEONE, and fears being unnoticed.
Michael seems like a cool, laid back stoner dude, and he is, until he breaks down at the party and shows how he never truly learned how to deal with him bigger emotions.
Chloe seems like a super preppy, trendy, popular girl, and she is, but she’s also a major control freak and has been taught by the people around her and the structure of society that she is only as valuable as whatever man she has around her.
Brooke seems like the cute, easygoing, sweet popular girl, and she is, but she also lets everybody push her around to the point where she is a puppet for people to get what they want, not seen as a person.
Jake seems like a cocky, arrogant jock, and he is, but he’s also a kid from a household that abandoned and neglected him, and because of that fears losing status and people, deciding to not isolate himself per she, but to change from thing to thing fast enough that he won’t miss them.
Rich seems like a homophobic, crazy bully, and he is (with the SQUIP), but he’s also from an abusive household with a dad who drinks, and is a huge nerd at heart. He’s probably the least mentally stable out of all of the cast and that should be leaned into more. We need Rich saying something absolutely terrifying and sad like it’s everyday business and Jake being like ‘oh…yeah, dude…? Are you good?” And Rich just laughs and tells Jake to ignore him.
Jenna seems like the head of gossip at school, and she is, but she also wants attention for herself and hasn’t received that, to the point that she doesn’t know how to have small conversations properly and is shocked when people aren’t trying to use her.
— More expensive headphones. Just more of them. Have Rich be obviously pining and trying to cover it up by being homophobic. The funny part is he doesn’t even do anything to Michael other than writing “reinds”
— Give the girls more time.
— Okay, honestly, since in this hypothetical version I’m adding a lot of scenes, I’d probably scrap DYWR and DYWH. Not because they’re bad, but because they can easily be replaced with regular, shorter scenes to leave more room for other planned scenes and maybe short songs. They should still duet, though. We need a song to show how Chloe and Brooke’s friendship actually worked.
okay, that was a lot, and now I want to write my own version of be more chill
