Be More Chill's Will Roland on Wanting to Play a 'Lovable Weird Guy,' His History with Joe Iconis & More

Will Roland made his Broadway debut in the Tony-winning hit Dear Evan Hansen as family friend Jared Kleinman. Two years later, Roland is now the leading man of the new musical Be More Chill. "I'm working so much harder than I was before," he said on a recent episode of Broadway.com's #LiveAtFive. " [In Dear Evan Hansen], I would come off from 'Sincerely, Me,' which was 90 seconds of dancing in a short-sleeve shirt, and now I spend 90 minutes on stage in a cardigan. When I come off stage, they just wring me out on my way to my dressing room."

Be More Chill had its world premiere at Two River Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey in 2015, the sci-fi musical was given new life in 2018 when it played off-Broadway at the Pershing Square Signature Center. Following a sold-out run, the Joe Iconis-Joe Tracz musical is now playing at Broadway's Lyceum Theatre. Roland has been there through all of the show's incarnations.

"I met Joe Iconis six weeks into my freshman year at NYU when he came to talk to the vocal performance program," Roland said. "I was wearing a corduroy suit sitting in the front row, and I went absolutely nuts [over Iconis]. I called my mom like, 'Mom, I met this cool guy in class today!' Joe and I orbited each other; finally, my senior year, I made my Joe Iconis and Family debut in the Third Annual Christmas Spectacular. We just did number 11 this past year. I have done readings of every show [Iconis has] done since then. I did the very first reading of Be More Chill. It’s been a long journey for me and Joe, and me and the show."

While he is soaking up every moment of leading the Be More Chill company, Roland is already thinking about what's next. "I never could have imagined five years ago what I would be doing now and what has happened," he said. "My hope of hopes is that some brilliant writer comes to see Be More Chill and is really excited about my work, and I get to be the next Michael Scott. I would love to do a Steve Carrell thing where I get to be a lovable weird guy. I would love to play a dad who finds out he has a baby from some crazy fling and a baby shows up on his doorsteps. I’m really jazzed to play a dad as soon as possible. I think dads are really complicated and cool. I want to flip that pancake from playing a teen to a dad."

Catch Roland in Be More Chill, now playing at the Lyceum Theatre.

Watch the full episode of #LiveatFive below!