TW: Mention of suicide/death.
Joe Iconis the creator of light-hearted, funny, and empowering musicals, “Be More Chill”, “Love In Hate Nation”, “The Black Suits”, and more. Through “Be More Chill”, Iconis highlights the importance of not altering yourself to fit in or make other people happy. It’s evident that all of his musicals have a strong underlying message, but what if we dig deeper? What if we dive into something a little more specific, like the songs that make up these musicals?
Starting with, “Broadway Here I Come”, a song most musical theatre fans are likely familiar with. It’s a beautiful ode to the artists who have overcome struggles and put in hard work to get on Broadway. Taking a closer look at the lyrics one may find another meaning. The song starts, “I'm high above the city. I'm standing on the ledge. The view from here is pretty. And I step off the edge.”, an almost clear message that the speaker of the song is jumping off a building. And the lyrics go on to say, “and now I'm fallin'...”, it becomes even more evident that this is the case. In the pre chorus the speaker sings, “don't you cry”. Here, the singer is possibly trying to reassure their loved ones that there is no reason to be upset over their death. And when the lyrics “broadway here I come” are sung it can mean the character in the song is moving closer to the streets of Broadway, rather than their work making it on Broadway. And I think “as the impact grows near” supports the idea that he is indeed falling to his death.
On the other hand, the chorus could mean that the singer is so close to making it on Broadway and they feel like they're floating or falling through the air. And “stepping off the edge” could mean that the character is starting their journey of hard work to achieve Broadway. I could analyze the lyrics of this song for hours, but I will spare you the time. I think this song's meaning is ambiguous and Iconis wrote it in this way purposefully. I find this song to be so masterful because of that.
If we move on to a lesser known song of his, “Jeff”, we can find that this song really only has one meaning, a rather depressing one. Upon first listening to this song, I found that it was comedic. I did not pay close attention to the final lyrics of the song, “naked Korean (later changed to "Caucasian") girl, I wonder what you think. Naked Korean girl, as I step off the brink”. Similarly to the character in “Broadway Here I Come”, the man in this song is obviously committing suicide as well. These lyrics can only mean one thing: that he is falling off the girl’s balcony. These lyrics can easily be overlooked, but the true theme of the song is depression. It just goes to show how creative Iconis is because the music is fairly upbeat, but at heart, the lyrics make this song devastating.
Another song of his that is not only seemingly happy, but uplifting is “Kaboom”. This song was written for his musical about journalist Hunter S. Thompson. When I initially listened to this song I was unaware of this fact, so I believed it to be the story of how his musical “Be More Chill” came to be. I believed the lyrics to be Iconis describing himself, even if slightly fabricated for artistic purposes. The song begins, “I was your average heartless kid. Then one day Mrs. Werring handed me a book and said ‘Here, read this book. The book is by some guy who's dead’. I read it and I'm glad I did”. I associated this with Iconis because his musical “Be More Chill” was adapted from a novel by Ned Vizzini. This maybe unintentional, this could still serve as another meaning for the song. Although, expert writers like Mr. Iconis hardly ever do something unintentionally.
Either way, the theme of "Kaboom" is achieving your goals and wanting to create something that will make an impact on somebody because someone else has inspired you. Sounds incredibly uplifting, right? But the lyrics in the bridge “there's a great green light across the ocean. And it's where I want to go.” remind me of the green light from The Great Gatsby. Iconis could be alluding to that infamous symbolism that represents Gatsby’s aspirations for the future, which ultimately Gatsby never achieves due to his life being cut short. And I don’t know much about Hunter S. Thompson, but I do know he killed himself. Arguably, this song could be about desperately wanting to achieve one's dreams, but ultimately never getting there, a rather dark message.
Whether you believe in the more joyful messages of Iconis’s music, the somber ones, or both, art is always up for interpretation. And when Iconis hides several meanings in his songs it shows how talented he truly is. I will treasure Joe Iconis's work forever because he has “made me wanna make something of my own”.
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