Episode 160 – Be More Chill Composer and Lyricist, Joe Iconis

Joe Iconis had a helluva summer.

Be More Chill, his musical that premiered at Two River Theater in New Jersey in 2015 (!), opened off-Broadway, sold out in an instant, extended, and then the Producers announced the show would move to Broadway.

And not because someone gave it a “must move” review or because a super-rich philanthropist wants to give Joe a shot. Oh no, this show is happening because fans found it on social media, fell in love with it, and demanded that it happen.

And that’s historic . . . and awesome.

Everyone in the biz has known the Kleban and Jonathan Larson Award-winning composer/lyricist of tunes like “Blue Hair” was going to pop at some point . . . but, as only can happen in our industry, no one ever could have predicted it would happen like this.

So how did it happen?

That’s just one of the things Joe and I talked about on my podcast this week.  Listen in to hear him us chat about . . .

  • Just how that Be More Chill album went viral (and what you can do to make yours do the same . . . you may not like the answer).
  • Why he works with the same “crew” of performers on so many of his shows.
  • What doing “concerts” had to do with his success.
  • How he dealt with the disappointment of his first show not going all the way when he thought it might.
  • The fear of disappointing fans when your show is a social media success.

Click here to listen to my podcast with Joe!

Listen to it on iTunes here. (And if you like the podcast, give it a great review while you’re there!)

Download it here.

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Ken created one of the first Broadway podcasts, recording over 250 episodes over 7 years. It features interviews with A-listers in the theater about how they “made it”, including 2 Pulitzer Prize Winners, 7 Academy Award Winners and 76 Tony Award winners. Notable guests include Pasek & Paul, Kenny Leon, Lynn Ahrens and more.

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