New musical showcases Hamilton’s “hottest young talent”
A new musical that’s been a ‘word of mouth’ hit on Broadway and West End, is opening in Hamilton this Friday, August 23.
‘Be More Chill’, a pop-rock, sci-fi musical, tells the story of an anxious teenager, Jeremy, who takes a pill in order to become more popular. The soundtrack has played a large part in making the show a sleeper hit – racking up 300 million streams and attracting a teen audience to the theatre.
The show’s director, Te Kawau Toi (Wintec Performing Arts) student Ella Veitch, says she wanted to stage the show because it embodies young people and what they go through in their high school lives.
“To be honest, it’s what we all go through in our whole lives, figuring out how we fit in to social situations and how we navigate doing that”
Veitch said “Jeremy is not the cool guy at school. He and his friend Michael only have each other. The whole show follows his learning, his mistakes, his successes and everything in between”
Joining Veitch in the creative team are Musical Director Ye-Gon Ryoo and choreographer, Rachael Bloemendal.
Musical Director (Ye-Gon Ryoo) Photo: supplied
The show is being produced by local theatre company Bold Theatre whose last outing was the popular That Bloody Woman about suffragette Kate Shepherd. Bold Theatre’s Charlotte Chuen said they chose the show after calling for local creatives to submit proposals to pitch for their 2024 season.
Chuen described ‘Be More Chill’ as “a fantastic new musical that appealed to us for its on-point subject matter, its pop-rock music score, and primarily as it is allowing us to showcase some of Hamilton and the Waikato’s hottest young talent”.
Chuen said they established Bold in 2018 “to provide young talent opportunities to perform and create as they are starting out, and to give our local audiences more fresh new theatre to see without having to head to Auckland or Wellington.”
The show is recommended as more suitable for a mature audience and is on from 23-30 August 2024 at The Meteor Theatre, Hamilton. https://themeteor.co.nz/event/be-more-chill/
