Stephanie Hsu Discusses Her Role in "Be More Chill"

Steve Adubato goes One-on-One with actress Stephanie Hsu, who's heating up Broadway in the new musical Be More Chill.

7/8/19 #2229

Excerpt:

"We love everything about you! Everything about you is going to be so alive! Well... Be more chill! Wow. That's good stuff. You're looking at Stephanie Hsu. That is from Be More Chill. She is an actress in this play. And you play whom? Christine Canigula. And she's what kind of character? She is a theater enthusiast. She is what I like to call a weird bird. And yeah, and she's the love interest and the totem of truth in the show. What's the premise of the show? So the show is about a high school kid named Jeremy Heere, who is a little bit of a nobody and he just wants to figure out a way to get by in high school and make life a little bit easier, and hopefully get a chance with weird bird Christine Canigula. And so... Oh, you're the love interest? I am. Yeah. Yeah. I... okay. got it. Yeah. Yeah Yeah. But he's not getting to you? He's not. No. And she's thinking about theatre. She's thinking about, you know, feminism as a high schooler. Got it. And so he decides to take this pill that is called a SQUIP. And... A what? A SQUIP. A SQUIP. Go ahead. A Super Quantum Intel Processor. Yes. What happens? It implants in your brain, and it tells you what to do. And so... you know, so he takes this pill, and you know, life does become a little bit easier and he climbs the echelons of high school hierarchy, but all at a cost. And that is sort of the premise of our little skit. Wow, that is so interesting. Now you were born and raised in LA? I was. Yeah. Your high school experience? Yeah. You remember any of this? I do. I... Come on, seriously? I loved high school. Oh you did? I did. Yeah. You did not eat any pill? I'm sorry. You didn't...? [laughter] I didn't... But... I didn't need a SQUIP. No. You did not need that? No. No. And you were very involved in theatre? I was. I was involved in theatre, sort of later on in my high school trajectory. I started playing basketball. Five feet tall, I'm playing basketball. Look at you! You're a point guard? Yes. I was a... And...? I was secret perimeter shooter. And you could shoot the three-pointer? Yes. So you're... you have a good three-point shot? You're a point guard? and you're involved in experimental theatre? Yeah. I started experimental theatre when I moved to New York. Define it. Experimental theatre, to me, means devising work. So a lot of it involved multimedia and multidisciplinary work which is not necessarily traditional music and musical theatre, but considering sound as concept and body and dance and creating work with the..."