In a world where likes and clicks are mistaken for connection, the musical bravely explores what it means to stand out just by being yourself.
Here’s a question for you: when you wake up in the morning, what is the first thing you do? I’d fathom a guess that eight out of ten would say they grab their phone and do a quick FB and IG check. As though knowing how many likes and views our posts and stories get will determine how the rest of the day goes.
Mindsets and feelings volley between FOMO, YOLO, JOMO, and whatever other acronym is popular these days to describe the daily rat race. Many a case has been made for the impact this has on mental health, especially on teenagers for whom social media has become a barometer of social acceptance. Dear Evan Hansen (DEH) explores the constructs of connection, what it means to be with, or without, and what that means in the context of our every day.
In the opening scene of the hit musical, we meet the titular character—a 16-year-old teenager with crippling anxiety on the first day of school. He is on his laptop writing a “prescribed” note to self, saying “Dear Evan Hansen, Today is going to be a good day…” Who hasn’t sat with their cup of coffee, on any given day, repeating this exact same phrase to themselves? Right off the bat, we are asked to ponder our own fears and insecurities through that one line — and it is the first of many over the course of the two-plus hour show. Fair warning, have tissues on the ready.
What makes DEH work is its simplicity. It eschews all the bells and whistles, or an excess of it, and draws your focus on its central character, Evan, and how he deals with the death of a classmate. In the midst of that tragedy, he finds himself connecting with the world in a way he could never have imagined. In modern speak, he went viral.
Joseph Peacock as Evan comes off as vulnerable, with a heavily-veiled selfish streak, clinging desperately to the acceptance he’s always craved for. At the same time, his Evan wears his heart on his sleeve as though one misstep will send him right back into anonymity. As he sings Words Fail, he breaks the audience’s hearts right alongside his own.
Jake Halsey-Jones, as Connor Murphy, and Tom Dickerson as Jared Kleinman, were a good counterpoint to Evan, delivering on a solid performance, as seen in Sincerely Me which was humorous despite its sad circumstance. DEH also did good on the casting of Rebecca McKinnis and Helen Anker as the mothers of Evan and Connor, respectively. You’d be hard-pressed to not commiserate with them as they feign strength as a front.
The anthemic You Will Be Found performed in the context of DEH is even more powerful of a ballad than we know it to be. Watching the song play out against a montage of social media posts flashing on the screen, it drives home the point that, as humankind, we are all connected. As Evan’s speech breaks the Internet, messages of support and compassion come flooding in. As the ensemble sing the lines “Even when the dark comes crashing through, when you need a friend to carry you…you will be found,” emotions flow outwards to an accepting audience. But at the same time, it carries with it the grim reminder that what is so easily given can be just as easily given away.
DEH opened at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway, running for 1,672 performances from 2016 to 2022. The musical featured original music by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul—the same writing duo behind the Oscar-winning film LaLa Land—working with Steven Levanson for book and script.
The show got rave reviews during its run, and went on to win six Tony Awards, including Best Actor in a Musical for Ben Platt as Evan, and for Best Musical. DEH was adapted into film in 2021, with Platt reprising his original role, joined by the likes of Julianne Moore, Amy Adams, Amanda Stenberg, and Kaitlyn Dever.
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Dear Evan Hansen is a story that is equal parts coming-of-age, facing your fears, owning up to your misguided choices, and, most importantly, self-realization. Dare I say, there is a little bit of Evan Hansen in all of us—that person who wants to be noticed, but also hesitates for fear that the world will judge us solely for our flaws.
The line in the song Waving Through The Window that says “I’ve learned to slam on the brake, before I even turn the key…before I lead with the worst of me” has become more the rule than the exception today. But what this musical hopes to imprint in us is this — those connections we want lie on the other side of that fear. In You Will Be Found, the ensemble sings, “There’s a place where we don’t have to feel unknown…” So it’s up to us to write ourselves that note saying, “Today is going to be a good day” and seek it out. Because you know what? Life happens, with or without us. Might as well go for it.
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Dear Evan Hansen is a production of GMG Productions, and runs until October 5, 2025 at The Theatre At Solaire. Tickets are available through TicketWorld.
