The cast album, discovered and shared online, has now been streamed more than 170 million times worldwide, making it among the most streamed theatrical cast albums.
Mr. Goehring, the director of the theater arts program at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, had not seen the Two River production and was unaware of the show’s growing online fan base, but he was an admirer of Mr. Iconis’s work and decided to direct a college version of the show. When fans started to fly in to see it, he snapped up the commercial rights.
That, in turn, led to this summer’s Off Broadway production, in a rented theater at the Pershing Square Signature Center, which runs until Sept. 30. Again, the Times review was unenthusiastic, but the crowds have been raucous. Most days, 1,500 people enter a digital lottery for two to four last-minute seats, and a one-week extension sold out in six hours.
Among those who saw the show this summer: Robert Wankel, the president of the Shubert Organization, which then offered the producers the Lyceum on Broadway. Mr. Wankel said he had been struck by the youthfulness of the show’s fan base, a sharp difference from the usual Broadway audience.
“This has truly been created by social media, which is fantastic,” he said. “Social media these days, I don’t have to tell you, can make or break something, and in this particular case, they’re loving it.”
So now the show’s creative team is discussing tweaks as they prepare for what they are thinking of as “Be More Chill: 3.0” — Broadway.
“The fact that we’ve gotten here because actual human beings love the show is truly remarkable,“ Mr. Iconis said. “It gives me faith.”
