Roland’s best musical moment comes early in the show with squeakily and eloquently-rendered lines such as “I don’t want to be a hero/ Just wanna stay in the line/ I’ll never be a Rob De Niro/ For me, Joe Pesci is fine.” For Salazar, his nervous “Michael in the Bathroom” is a second act tour de force, a rollercoaster ride of anxiety-driven vocal emotionalism and melodic complexity. The duo make for a handsome team, a techno Hope & Crosby where one guy does a stupid thing to get the girl (in this case, Christine, played by big-voiced Stephanie Hsu), and the other must make things right - even if that means combating the human manifestation of The Squip, played to self-described Keanu Reeves-esque perfection by Jason Tam. After Jeremy takes the pill, Michael finds himself a cast-off loser who alone recognizes the dangers of the Squip, and must save his friend from eternal millennial rakishness and pain. What Salazar (a popular cast holdover from the 2015 production) does as Michael is act as a necessary buffer between Jeremy and the high school’s cool kids. From the rapid fire “ca-ca-ca-ca-c’mon” verse of “More Than Survive” at the show’s opening, to the lush yet taut finale of “Voices in My Head,” Iconis’ music and lyrics come at you like DEVO meets Pasek & Paul. It also reveals Iconis’ buoyant blend of old-school showbiz schmaltz and techno-tronic New Wave force. Jeremy’s bunk-rocking duet with his pal Michael (George Salazar), “Two-Player Game,” is both a charming paean to friendship in the internet age and a chance for two tenors to show off their pipes.

That’s what sets the action of “Be More Chill” in motion. Only one of the pals, the musical’s gawky protagonist Jeremy (a Jon Cryer-like Will Roland, familiar from the original Broadway cast of “Dear Evan Hansen”), succumbs to the charms of the Squip, an oblong grey pill that promises upgrades in personality, dress and confidence. But it’s the mix of twitchy nu-tech and old fashioned humanity that makes the show, based on the YA novel by Ned Vizzini, a memorable thrill ride, a zealously caffeinated high school musical complete with slamming locker doors, stolen kisses with fresh lip gloss, broadly-drawn bullies and - the heart of the story - two buds playing chiptune-scored video games and smoking pot in their bedroom.

Be more chill musical