Dear Evan Hansen is a heart-rending story about a teenage boy so filled with anxiety and loneliness that he makes mistakes he can’t easily fix. Then he gets caught up in social-media celebrity that it makes matters countless times worse. He manages to unravel it all before the show ends, but it leaves an already devastated family without the comfort that the teenage boy provided. Although the odds are stacked against the character Evan Hansen (played with the necessary geekiness by Stephen Christopher Anthony), the musical Dear Evan Hansen is nothing if not a Broadway phenomenon. It is not only successful in every way possible (being a multi-Tony Award winner), it has achieved cult status in certain circles. How ironic, then, that this nerdy nobody is someone audiences identify with so well. Evan (the character) gets sweaty hands at the mere thought of meeting the teen girl of his dreams, and he can’t even get one of his almost-friends to sign the cast on his arm during the first day of school.
He writes a letter to himself on the advice of his therapist, and it falls into the hands of Connor Murphy (Noah Kieserman). Connor goes home and kills himself, and the letter, found on his person, is mistakenly believed to be Connor’s suicide note to his only friend. The letter starts out, “Dear Evan Hansen;” hence, the musical’s title.
When Evan is introduced to Connor’s parents after Connor’s death, he sees their pain and lets them think what they want. As time goes on, he begins inventing all sorts of adventures that he supposedly went on with Connor. Gradually, Evan insinuates himself into the Murphy household. He is a special and frequent dinner guest, and he has access to Connor’s younger sister, Zoe (Stephanie La Rochelle). This is the dream girl that Evan writes about in the so-called “suicide note.” He fears getting too close too fast to Zoe, although he is gratified that his tales about Connor have a positive effect on her, too. The Murphys are an intact family, with a father (John Hemphill) who is the breadwinner and a stay-at-home mother (Claire Rankin). They are affluent, which is unlike Evan’s own situation, in which his single mother, Heidi (Jessica E. Sherman), is almost never home. She is either working to support the two of them, or she’s at class learning to be a paralegal. Heidi is as anxious as Evan about his friendless existence, though she summons up the courage to lead him in positive directions. Money is tight, at least right now. Both Heidi and Connor’s mother feel ill-equipped to deal with their teens, and they sing a duet about their uncertainty (smartly captured in the song, “Anybody Have a Map?”) Not only does Evan “join” a family that desperately wants to know all about their dead son, he’s also become a social media celebrity. During a school program to honor Connor, Evan delivers a speech that is released to social media and goes viral. Along the way, Connor is usurped by others for various purposes: to sell memorial buttons, to spiff up someone’s resume, and even as a fundraising tool.
The story of Dear Evan Hansen is played out on a simple set, with various props moved in to suggest locations. The most distinctive element are tall, narrow projection screens that depict people’s faces, bits of Evan’s letter to himself, video clips of Evan’s speech, and random news feeds.
The national tour’s opening night in Milwaukee was a rare sell-out. The audience, younger than for many performances, seemed drawn to the material. Songs such as “Waving Through a Window,” “For Forever,” and “You Will Be Found” received an extremely warm reception, with cheering in addition to enthusiastic clapping. It’s clear that the younger audience members identified with the teenage Evan, just as the older folks in the audience might identify with the parents.
Dear Evan Hansen offers something fresh, new, and extremely relevant to the generation that grew up with and participates in social media. It’s a Tony Award-winning phenomenon that continues to sell out each night on Broadway. It is not a perfect show, but it hits enough of the right notes to draw legions of millennial-aged fans.
