Dear Evan Hansen

Dear Evan Hansen, today was an amazing day, because I am blessed with getting to see this show live instead of on YouTube. Love it or hate it, Dear Evan Hansen has so much discussion and debate to be had, and regardless of your views it starts a conversation. This play takes you on a journey where you haven’t got a map, you just have to study your ethical compass.

The story follows Evan Hansen, a highschooler with social anxiety and an unhealthy attachment to classmate Zoe Murphy. Under advice from his therapist, he writes himself notes about his thoughts and feelings dealing with his anxiousness and almost total inability to socialise. Nothing seems to change, until one day stereotypical “bad boy loner” Connor Murphy (coincidentally Zoe’s brother) sees one of Evan’s notes that claim everything would magically fall into place if he could just talk to Zoe. Connor angrily takes the note home with him, and then days later, he has killed himself. His grieving parents find the letter addressed to Evan, and rush to him, begging him to tell them all he knew about their son. Instead of telling the Murphys that he had barely any interaction with Connor, Evan finds himself telling tall tales about how himself and his best friend Connor Murphy used to go to the orchard the family used to go to. As the Murphys desperately search for closure, Evan is soon forging emails detailing how Connor was recovering and secretly longed to reconnect with his family, he just didn’t know how. Evan even starts a fundraiser “The Connor Project” with his classmates to bring suicide awareness. However, as Evan’s lies start to contradict themselves and he gets closer to Zoe, he realises he will eventually have to come clean.

Despite Evan being so morally questionable, you can’t help but feel for him as he navigates his story. Ryan Kopel does an excellent job of creating Evan as a complex character. On one hand, he’s manipulating Connor’s death to get close to Zoe, but on the other, it does look like all he wants to do is comfort a grieving family in the only way he knows. The debate over whether Evan is justified in his actions creates a much-needed discussion, and adds some real depth into the story. I will say, I like the ending of the play a lot more than I was expecting to. I was ready to see Evan get away with everything consequence-free, but it was refreshing to see that he’s learnt a lot without ending up with everything he wanted.

The performances of the songs have some great highlights. “Sincerely, me”, featuring Kopel, Killian Thomas Lefevre (Connor), and Tom Dickerson (Jared, Evan’s family friend,) honours a fun song with a comedic dance routine playing out the emails. Lefevre perfectly captures how wildly imaginative (and inappropriate) Evan and Jared are in their portrayal of Connor. Here, Dickenson shines as Jared, using humorous gestures to push himself into the friendship dynamic. This performance shows how he parallels Evan in being a bit of a misfit, participating in the lies for attention, even getting jealous of Evan and Connor’s faux friendship. These attentions to detail just build up the complexity of the characters and strengthen the plot and general interest in the build-up.

Another standout is “If I Could Tell Her”, where Evan is attempting to tell Zoe (Lauren Conroy) all the wonderful things her brother had supposedly said about her, whilst trying to keep his own feelings censored. Kopel and Conroy cleverly master their characters, acknowledging the awkwardness whilst channelling their inner desire, Zoe to bond with her brother, and Evan to, well, bond with Zoe. There are other notable mentions, such as “Waving Through a Window”, “You Will be Found”, and “Good for You”, but there is an obvious favouritism to these. The remainder of the soundtrack on stage is good, but a bit repetitive and therefore outshined by the big dance numbers.

Evan Hansen opens the conversation for new, difficult topics such as mental health, social media and suicide. The message of it is incredibly necessary, but amidst all the promotions and online discourse, we the audience have come to view Evan as a straight-up villain or hero, rather than a teenage boy who made mistakes and learnt from them. I believe this version, directed by Adam Penford, shows Evan as more of a complex character, and while the story is, of course, focused on him, there are attempts to develop other characters, such as Heidi Hansen and the Murphys. I would recommend watching this, but be careful to consider all points of view. The online community have a lot to say, and it’s very interesting to see how this play has both positively and negatively affected its audience. Overall, there are amazing performance from the actors, and I’d hope to see them in more up-and-coming productions.