Dear Evan Hansen, one of the new generation musicals premiered in 2016, arrived at the Grand Opera House this week. On paper, the subject matter doesn’t seem promising. It concerns a socially anxious boy, Evan, who’s bullied at school, has no friends, and whom we first meet writing himself a pep talk letter at the request of his psychiatrist. But then, in a twist worthy of Thomas Hardy, the school baddie, Connor Murphy, seizes the print-out. When Connor later kills himself, the letter is found on him and everyone assumes it’s his suicide note, saying to a mate it’s not been an amazing week and that he’s depressed.
Evan goes along with this, weakly, but starts to benefit from his status as supposed best friend of the dead boy. Things snowball, Connor’s family semi-adopt him, he dates the girl he wanted, Connor’s sister Zoe. He lives the dream. The musical works because we care about Evan and that’s in part the writing – we see the world first through his eyes – and partly Ryan Kopel’s excellent acting and singing. His early songs like For Forever are vulnerable, yet oddly hopeful too, with rising phrases and when his voice almost breaks, it’s very touching.
The plot by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who also wrote the music, is strong and the other performers play their roles well. This is a high school musical, with swearing, joshing, real life stuff, nothing like Grease but something authentic. The youngish audience clearly found it relatable and enjoyed the social media references. Alana (Vivian Panka), the overachieving girl who appoints herself co-president of the Connor project is entertaining. So too Jared (Tom Dickerson) who makes up emails to back up the subterfuge. And Connor, delivered with panache by Killian Thomas Lefevre when alive and dead, was memorable.
Another reason Dear Evan Hansen works well is although it deals with sad topics, it has the uplift at the end characteristic of the musical form. There is hope after things implode and the truth comes out. The scene between Evan and his Mom Heidi (excellent Alice Fearn) was very moving, as she sang one of the night's great songs So Big/So Small and apologized for not understanding how troubled he’d been since he saw his father leave when he was seven. There would come a time when the drama would seem very far away, she said. Her ability to act through singing was something of a masterclass. The show ends with a reconciliation between Zoe (affecting Lauren Conroy) and Evan, which was believable, and shows you can make a musical out of tough material.
Jane Hardy
