Area Stage Company’s mostly solid professional production of the problematic sci-fi musical "Be More Chill" captures attention and sets the tone for the piece even before the show begins.

Just when you start to worry that Be More Chill might be shaping up to be a conventional coming of age comedy, it instead takes a turn for the gloriously insane. This is Area Stage Company’s first show as a tenant of the Adrienne Arsht Center, and the partnership is definitely getting off to a smashing start with this high-strung high school musical.

Ah, the teen years. Navigating that fraught passage from childhood to adulthood has never been easy. For many kids, it’s a journey filled with emotional land mines: grappling with identity, popularity, intimacy and more.