Dear Evan Hansen (Broadway) Review

Review of Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway

Rumor had that Dear Evan Hansen was closing on the Internet way before I had even considered buying tickets for it, and when I saw what their sales metrics were, I had a gut feeling that when I went to NYC in June 2022, it was going to be one of my last chances to see the show.

It was problematic, that’s for sure, but I think that the movie makes it seem like Evan gets away more with what he did without as much reflection. More on that later, I felt the stage version was less problematic (but still so). I’d always wanted to see this show because the soundtrack did make me feel seen even with my mental health issues, and someone I knew actually worked on the show when it opened. So seeing the opening night lunch box every time I stayed with her really left an impression at the end of the day.

And so I bought my ticket. I was in the second to last row on the balcony, but I felt like that seat was good enough. This is a theatre where most of the balcony seats seem like they have a decent view, even if you’re technically in the cheapest seats in the house.

Then, a week after I bought my ticket, it was officially announced that Dear Evan Hansen was closing. And what might’ve been an empty theatre the night I went turned into a sold out crowd. That was a bane for me, as the family next to me smelled like they stepped in an NYC puddle and got some on my leg, but at least I got to see the show for only $60.

Dear Evan Hansen is a complicated show.

I’m sure if you’re reading this, you’re familiar with the show in some capacity. I had never watched a bootlegged version online and had only listened to some of the songs before, but there weren’t any major surprises I left with.

It is a show about mental health and Evan Hansen, a teenager with no friends, finds himself isolated at school with no friends. Suffering from anxiety and depression, he tries to write himself letters about how today is going to be a good day, but when he writes a note saying it won’t be, it’s picked up by resident alienated student Connor Murphy. Because Evan has a crush on Connor’s sister, he gets upset and takes the note with him, which is then found on his body as Connor commits suicide in the show’s beginning.

Evan then gets himself tangled up in a lie with Connor’s parents, claiming that he was Connor’s best friend, and then he enlists a family friend in order to fake a bunch of emails between the two. These provide the comedic relief from the harder subjects, as the character of Connor Murphy appears on stage and has a lighthearted moment where Evan creates the version of him in his mind.

This I found to be pretty complicated, as I understood the need for some humor in such a dense show, but, at the same time, it’s creating a mythology around suicide. Evan is no different from the kids claiming to have known him, like Alana, and is processing his own strange grief in a different way from other people.

He befriends the Murphys, where they treat him like their own son, and starts to date Connor’s sister Zoe. But somewhere along the way he begins to lose himself and what the truth is, starting to believe the lies even when people like Alana begin to unravel the truth.

Evan is so desperate for something to be real that he is willing to take the drastic steps to quote-on-quote help the Murphys, which the show sys he does to justify that, but, at the end of the day, he did all of this because he doesn’t know how to cope with situations. I don’t agree with the notion that he might be selfish or did this for gain; he was just a mentally ill kid who wasn’t equipped to deal with such a situation.

The standout of this show was Jared Goldsmith, who portrays Jared (how fitting). I think that he played the snarky kid that roasts Evan pretty well, but when Evan finally gets deep into his lie, there’s a layer of hurt in Jared’s character, along with Alana’s.

They, too, were dragged into this mess because they did not have many friends, although Jared denies it at the beginning of the show. I saw the first Asian Evan Hansen, Zachary Poser, and I thought that he did an excellent job, but Jared was the standout for me. The entire cast was quite good overall though!

One key moment that I immediately noticed here was that the scenes where the mother is included more were cut in the movie. I think that the movie did a poor job of explaining the family dynamics, making it more of a self-centered adaptation where Evan was capable of roaming freely within his own mind.

The Broadway show opens up with “Does Anybody Have A Map?” that immediately sets up the dynamics between the two different mothers and how it’s like an estranged relationship where they want to be close, but are unable to due to financial barriers and the need to be a single mother supporting a young son.

Set Design and Stage Blocking

The stage is pretty minimal for this one. There’s rotating circles that change with the scenes. For example, there’s Evan Hansen’s bed on one of the circles, the Murphy family table in another, a tool set, then the family couch on one final one.

There are pillars on each side of the strange with projections of social media accounts, as this was one of the first shows to incorporate the technology into it. Tweets, IG posts, and videos are played on those pillars and on a screen.

The band lingers on audience left and can be visible throughout the show, which I actually found to be kind of distracting. I like the setup Hadestown and Company did where they were part of the stage (in Hadestown) or were directly above it. Because I was on the balcony, I noticed them a little too much.

The best scene for me was “You Will Be Found.” Their voices echo across the theatre and they move across the stage, looking at the social media posts projected on the walls, and I found that moment to be beautiful. The audience gave a standing ovation after that, so I can see that the overall vibe was that people liked the show. The crowd also skewed much younger for a Thursday night, which I found to be interesting.

Overall Thoughts

It is a good show when it comes to the music, but the book itself does not age well. I think the movie is what ended up killing the show, because while its initial source material can be a bit problematic, the movie almost comes across as justifying Evan’s actions by losing focus on the other elements that made this a holistic story. If I do not think too hard, I would say this is an excellent show that provides context for discussion about mental health awareness and discussing it, but should not be the end all be all when it comes to representation.