What’s It Like to Star in a Cult Musical?

Songwriters

Performers

Stephanie Hsu on why her role in Be More Chill is so groundbreaking

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Stephanie Hsu realized something was happening when she started getting tagged in fan art of her Be More Chill character: theatre-obsessed teenager Christine Canigula. She was surprised that young people from all over the world had discovered an obscure musical that only ran for a month at New Jersey’s Two River Theater back in 2015. “We had so much fun while we were out there, but I wasn’t thinking that it would generate such a huge following,” says Hsu. “It really felt like one day I woke up two years after we did the show, and all of a sudden I had all of this fan art being sent to me. And I was like, what? That was the experience of a lot of the original cast members.”

Based on Ned Vizzini’s eponymous young-adult novel about a geeky teenager named Jeremy (Dear Evan Hansen‘s Will Roland) who becomes popular after ingesting a minuscule supercomputer that tells him how to be cool, Be More Chill humorously explores serious issues such as anxiety, depression, peer pressure and unrequited love. Jeremy has a secret crush on Hsu’s character, Christine, but he doesn’t seem to notice that she’s as much of an outcast as he is.

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Hsu is also excited to further the representation of Asian Americans on stage, since they are depressingly underrepresented in the industry. “I had the amazing pleasure of working with Sandra Oh last year [in Wild Goose Dreams at the Public Theater],” says Hsu. “I realized that, growing up, she and Lucy Liu were the only Asian actresses I had to model a career after. I remember my mom said, ‘Well, you can’t go into this business because nobody looks like you.’ And she wasn’t wrong. What I love is there isn’t anything about my character’s ethnicity in Be More Chill. She just happens to be played by me and I happen to be Asian. Our fans who are Asian American or from Asian countries are so grateful. That visibility is important for me.”

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These days, Hsu is receiving more Christine fan art than ever — just check her Instagram. To her, that reaffirms how resonant Be More Chill is. “It’s inspiring to see kids who are so moved by a piece of art that they then make art about it,” she says. “I feel like this crazy fandom has taught us what’s so special about the show.”

To read about a student’s experience at Be More Chill, check out this post on TDF’s sister site SEEN.

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Top image: Stephanie Hsu in the Two River Theater production of Be More Chill. Photos by T. Charles Erickson. Fan art by queeniie_art.

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