Dear Evan Hansen is a musical production written by playwright Steven Levenson featuring music by lyricists and composers Justin Paul and Benj Pasek with orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire. It premiered on July 10, 2015, and is currently running on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre under the direction of Michael Greif. David Korins worked as the show’s scenic designer, Japhy Weideman as the lighting designer, Nevin Sternberg as the sound designer, Peter Nigrini as the projection designer, and Emily Rebholz as the costume designer. At the 2017 Tony Awards, it received the award for Best Musical along with five others and three nominations. At the Sunday, March 18th matinee, Taylor Trensch starred as Evan Hansen, and the rest of the cast consisted of Rachel Bay Jones, Laura Dreyfuss, Jennifer Laura Thompson, Michael Park, Ben Levi Ross, Kristolyn Lloyd, and Will Roland.
This play follows the story of high school senior Evan Hansen, who struggles with anxiety, depression, and living with a single mother. To counter this, his therapist asks him to write letters to himself, explaining why each day is “going to be a good day.” One of his letters is stolen by Connor Murphy, another student who, like Evan, does not have any supportive friends at school and also deals with a drug addiction. The next day, Connor commits suicide, and because he was found with Evan’s letter, his parents mistakenly believe that he and Evan were friends. Though he tries to deny this at first, Evan eventually is caught in a spiral of lies that revolves around his and Connor’s “friendship,” fake emails, and a charity fund called the Connor Project. He begins spending more time with Connor’s family, especially his sister Zoe, than he does with his own mother, and they grow to accept him virtually as a replacement for their son, relying on his fabricated stories and presence as their only source of happiness. After a few of his new friends begin to realize some of his stories don’t quite match up, he spills the truth to Connor’s family and his mother.
The designing of this show, in every aspect of the word, was exquisite. From the ceiling hung various thin panels, upstage and downstage, onto which social media posts, emails and words relevant to each scene were projected. I appreciated the way they integrated the Internet and the media into the story as well as the appearance of the play—for example, in instances during which Evan felt overwhelmed, the words and pictures would scroll more quickly, flash brightly, and change rapidly. When he was writing emails, his words would slowly appear on the screens as if they were being typed. These words were also projected onto the stage itself; I had never seen any technique like this used before, and I found it to be a unique and interesting addition. The sound design also played with these same themes—ringtones, dings of text messages, and other sounds of modern technology were employed throughout the show to match the visual effects. At times it was overwhelming, but in a positive way, because the audience was able to experience the effects of constant social media influence along with the characters.
The costume design, particularly pertaining to Evan and Conner, was also tactful and reflected the plot well. At the beginning of the show, Evan wore light colors. Throughout the course of the story, however, as Evan began to take on the role of the Murphy’s son and became more invested in Connor’s life, he began to dress in darker colors. At one point, he wore Connor’s tie, and by the climax, he wore the same gray sweatshirt as Connor. The rest of the characters’ costumes were aesthetically well-designed but did not hold the same significance.
Even without these choices of design, however, this production still would have been incredible—and that is because the performance quality of each and every actor surpassed every expectation one could hold. I will forever remember the face and voice of each of these performers; it would be impossible for me to not, because they all played their characters flawlessly and each adapted an unforgettable persona of specific mannerisms, postures, and inflections. Evan, for example, is a character dealing with anxiety, and there is a scene onstage during which he gives a speech to his school and panics for a few moments. These brief, silent few seconds somehow have become the most memorable seconds of the entire two-hour show, because Trensch took on the role so well. Every audience member held their breath as he fell to the ground and fumbled with his note cards. It felt so incredibly raw and real. Laura Dreyfuss as Zoe Murphy also stood out to me. She played her character in a way that felt so different from a typical female Broadway star. Her voice was constantly raw and full of emotion, and she never sang to simply show off her vocal range—she sang in a very narrative way that worked well for the show compared to some of the other voices. Rachel Bay Jones as Heidi Hansen shared these traits.
Overall, this production was extremely successful in telling a heartbreaking story. It incorporated humor and positive messages into dark themes and never came off as corny, inappropriate, or too depressing. The music mixes more modern sound, such as the acoustic guitar in “Requiem,” with classic show tune pieces such as “Sincerely, Me.” This musical will surely become a well-regarded classic and is certainly one to which audiences will and should continue to flock.
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