Dear Evan Hansen – the Musical is a moving. heart-warming and emotional show. It deals with serious issues, but with warmth and humour, and some amazing music. Here’s my Dear Evan Hansen – the Musical theatre review.
Overview of Dear Evan Hansen – the Musical
Dear Evan Hansen – the Musical follows the story of Evan Hansen. He’s a 17 year old boy who struggles with social anxiety. His psychiatrist has given him an assignment to write letters to himself, starting ‘Dear Evan Hansen’, about how each day is going to be a good day. Evan writes and prints out one of these letters. But Connor, a boy at school with drug issues, takes the letter from Evan. A few days later, Evan learns that Connor has committed suicide. The ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ letter was found in Connor’s pocket, and Connor’s family believe that it’s a letter that Connor wrote to Evan – so they believe Connor and Evan were secret friends.
Evan tries to explain their mistake, but ends up agreeing that he and Connor were friends who exchanged emails in secret. And so begins an elaborate story, based on this lie, where Evan pretends that he and Connor were friends. Evan asks his geeky family friend, Jared, for help creating fake emails that can prove that him and Evan were friends and so keep up the lie. Evan becomes close with Connor’s family, spending most evenings and nights there when his mum is working late.
Connor has been in love with Zoe for a while. Zoe is Connor’s younger sister. They end up spending more time together, and a romance starts to develop between them. At school, The Connor Project is born, which aims to raise awareness of suicide and provide support. Evan’s speech at The Connor Project goes viral on social media, getting a huge amount of support.
Evan gets caught up in these lies, still pretending that he was a close friend of Connor’s. The Connor Project puts on a fundraising campaign to raise money to restore an orchard where Connor used to spend time. However, as Evan’s lies get more elaborate, social media starts to turn against both him and Connor’s family. Evan ends up confessing his lie, and dealing with the fallout, including Zoe’s reaction.
The show ends on a bittersweet note. The orchard has been restored in Connor’s memory, and Zoe parts with Evan as friends. There’s an acknowledgement that although Evan was wrong to lie about being Connor’s best friend, there were still some positives that came from it.
What I liked about Dear Evan Hansen the Musical
The serious issues the show deals with
Dear Evan Hansen – the Musical is a show that deals with a lot of serious issues. One of the main themes through the show is mental health, with suicide, anxiety and depression all key themes. The show also deals with issues around family relationships, lies, and the importance of truth. And Dear Evan Hansen – the Musical also deals with issues around social media. It explores how social media can be both a good force, such as for spreading awareness and support for The Connor Project, and also a negative force – such as later in the show when social media users turn against Connor’s family.
Dear Evan Hansen – the musical deals with these issues really well, with sensitivity and humour as well as sadness. I really enjoyed watching a show that explored such important issues and portrayed them in such a complex and understanding way. Throughout the whole show I was smiling and laughing, but also moved to tears. It takes a really special theatre show to make the audience feel such a wide range of emotions. The issues the show deals with are really serious and sad, but it’s still overall an optimistic and heart-warming show.
Exploring different relationships
I also liked how Dear Evan Hansen – the Musical explored a range of different types of relationships. The show explored family relationships as well as friendship and romance.
The show deals with two types of families. Evan’s family is a single mother, who works very long hours and isn’t around much. On the other hand, Connor’s family (the Murphy’s) are on the surface a ‘perfect’ nuclear family, but their family is still full of issues. Throughout the show, you see Evan becoming more of a part of Connor’s family, and the impact this has on his own mother. There’s a really powerful song in the second half of the show, sung by Evan’s mother, Heidi. Heidi’s song is about being a single mother, and feeling like she isn’t enough for Evan.
In the theatre, there was a mother and daughter sat next to me. In that song, the daughter was crying and the mum reached over to take her hand, holding her hand tightly through the song. It just shows how emotional the show was, and how it moved so many members of the audience. It was a really special moment to witness.
Dear Evan Hansen – the Musical also explores different types of friendships, and young love in the developing romance between Evan and Zoe. I thought the portrayal of all the different types of relationships in the show was excellent, and really showed the different dynamics of each relationship.
The music, songs and staging
I thought the music, songs and the singing were all great in Dear Evan Hansen the Musical. An absolute highlight of the show was the song ‘You will be found’. The ‘You will be found’ song was an amazing moment in the show that I know I’ll remember for a long time. The song itself is great, with really empowering and moving lyrics about how you’re not alone. It was so moving to see everyone on stage singing together and being together.
And the staging of this song was great as well. All around the stage were large screens, like phone screens showing social media. It was showing how Evan’s speech was going viral and gathering support from people all around the world. The people on the screens, as well as everyone on the stage, just really added to the song lyrics of not being alone, and being found. It was such a moving, empowering moment.
There was another song that was really moving, about how ‘no one deserves to be forgotten’, and ‘you still matter’. It was a nice song that had a really powerful meaning in the context of the show and the mental health issues that the show dealt with. This song, along with the whole show, made me remember how tough it could be at school, and also how tough it can be for anyone at anytime in life. But it was also a reminder that no matter how difficult things seem, there is always support and everyone and everyone’s life matters.
‘If I could tell her’ was another great song, where Evan is telling Zoe all the things he likes about her, pretending it’s what her brother said. The song is really well written. In the song, Evan lists so many small but really meaningful things that he’s noticed and loves about Zoe. The song was really sweet and felt like real, pure, true love.
What I wasn’t so sure about
There wasn’t really anything about Dear Evan Hansen – the Musical that I wasn’t so sure about. I honestly liked the whole show.
Some people could criticise the show for not being the most ground-breaking in terms of its plot, set design or staging. There wasn’t anything revolutionary, where you thought ‘wow, I’ve never seen that done on stage before’. But I didn’t mind that. I thought the plot, actors and music were all more than good enough for it to be a captivating performance without ground-breaking, revolutionary staging. I thought it all worked really well, and the staging of the social media screens was great.
Would I recommend Dear Evan Hansen the Musical
I would definitely recommend Dear Evan Hansen the Musical. My Dear Evan Hansen the Musical theatre review is really positive, so I definitely recommend this show. I loved the show – as soon as it was the interval, I was looking up on my phone for where it was touring next so I could book to see it again.
The musical is about a 17 year old, and it’s a good show for older teenagers to see. It’s not suitable for younger children due to the theme of suicide, but older teenagers will love the show. But adults of all ages will love the show as well. It’s a really moving, empowering show that will make you smile and laugh and cry. You’ll leave the theatre with a warm glow, remembering Dear Evan Hansen the Musical for a long time.
Hope you enjoyed my Dear Evan Hansen – the Musical theatre review! Check out my other theatre reviews for more shows in the West End, across the UK and the world.
