What was science fiction when “Be More Chill” debuted now is reality, according to Adam Day Howard, who will direct Youngstown State University Theatre’s production of the musical.

Featuring music and lyrics by Joe Iconis and a book by Joe Tracz, “Be More Chill” is the story of an outcast teen named Jeremy who ingests a SQUIP (Super Quantum Unit Intel Processor) to help him interact better with his classmates and become more popular. Using the processor leads to some unintended consequences.

SQUIP isn’t that great of a leap from tools readily available today.

“ChatGPT is free and we all have access to it, and everyone I know uses it almost every day for one thing or another. And it can be wrong and it can be accidentally malicious,” Howard said. “Tie that in with the fact that young men can be so easily radicalized because they have been, not in any way abandoned, but the focus has always been about what’s wrong with men, not what’s right with them. And when men pick up on that, they’ll look for anyone who’s willing to give them the time of day, and that makes it really easy to radicalize men.

“In this case, AI is doing it, and that’s the scary, real-life crap that this show takes lightly. Jeremy, his conscience gets the better of him, and he realizes that what the AI is telling him to do is a terrible idea. And he pulls himself out of it by saying, ‘I’m stronger than you think I am.’ That’s really one of my reasons for choosing the show.”

In addition to its themes, “Be More Chill” appealed to Howard because he wanted to give students a chance to do a more contemporary show. Its score also is influenced by contemporary music, everything from The Cars and Talking Heads to Blink-182 and Plain White Ts.

“It gives me the opportunity as a voice coach and as a music director as well as director, to teach the students more about the contemporary musical theater sound and how to produce that healthily and sustainably,” Howard said. There’s a sort of subconscious thought in a young singer’s mind, in a musical theater student’s mind that the proper breathing and support and technique of Golden Age classic musical theater singing can go out the window when it’s contemporary sounds that you’re after. If you make that assumption, you will very likely damage your voice, because as soon as you abandon the proper breathing, abandon the proper support for the sake of a contemporary sound, you hurt yourself.

“We’re living in this amazing renaissance of musical theater right now, where you get all sorts of music and all sorts of sounds and all sorts of influences. It’s up to music directors and vocal coaches to make sure that all of those sounds are created in a way that could potentially run eight shows a week.”

The cast includes Nicholas/Vixen Atwood, Alex Bosca, Liam Burk, Natalie Ciccone, Samantha Cox, Romerio Dawkins, James Desharnais, Lincoln Hall, Natalie Horvath, Owen Mills, Sam Nabring, Ben Podnar and Ilse Zijlstra. The performers will be accompanied by a four-piece band.

Howard credited the costumes by Katherine Garlick for playing an important role in the look of the production.

“The costumes are absolutely fantastic,” Howard said. “There’s a little bit of anime, video game references. If you have played any video games since the 1980s you will recognize some of the references in the costumes and the projections, not to mention the script. Both of us being Gen X people, we immediately click on the touch points, things like ‘The Matrix’, things like ‘Akira,’ ‘Dragon Ball Z,’ ‘Mega Man.’ Those are the references that keep coming up.”

Gunnar Carwile is technical director, Todd Dicken is scenic designer and Jonathan Zelezniak is lighting supervisor.

The student crew includes Liam Donnely, Noah Dudai, Landon Eli, Crystal Fisher, Owen Mills, Manny Tolbert Jr., Abby Underwood and Robert Mitchell III.

If you go …

WHAT: “Be More Chill”

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through Nov. 23

WHERE: Spotlight Theater, Bliss Hall, Youngstown State University

HOW MUCH: Tickets are $18.50 for adults, $14.50 for senior citizens and non-YSU students, $10.50 for YSU faculty and staff, $6.50 for children ages 18 and younger, and free for YSU students and are available online at www.ysu.tix.com and by calling 330-941-3105.