Editor’s Note: This story includes mention of suicide. If you are struggling with suicide or your mental health, you are not alone. Resources are available here.
I first learned about “Dear Evan Hansen” in 2016 when a family friend told my mom about the show’s buzz during its off-Broadway run. I had loved Ben Platt, the lead actor, from the Pitch Perfect films and made it my goal to find out as much I could about the show online. My 14th birthday present was tickets to see the show. Seeing it before the cast album was released, I held onto the little bits of the songs that I found online and by its release, I was addicted.
This is why I was extremely excited to see that Dear Evan Hansen would be coming to the IU Auditorium this season. I was excited to see how audiences would react to the musical that I had loved so much.
“Dear Evan Hansen” as a show is extremely catchy. Whenever I think about musical theater, I think about Stephen Sondheim’s “Merrily We Roll Along” and the song “Opening Doors” with the lyric “there’s not a tune you can hum,” regarding a draft of a musical. Of course, Sondheim was making fun of the critics that plagued him, but when you walk out of “Dear Evan Hansen,” you have about an entire score of songs stuck in your head. The one stuck in mine? “Disappear.”
“Dear Evan Hansen” follows perpetually anxious high school senior Evan as he attempts to do an exercise given by his therapist. His therapist instructs him to write letters to himself everyday about why it’s going to be a great day. His mom suggests that he finds people to sign his cast after he broke his arm by falling out of a tree. Evan struggles with public speaking, freezes up in front of his crush Zoe, is unable to order takeout and has no friends. The only person he can go to is the ever-sarcastic Jared, his family friend who constantly reminds him that they aren’t actually friends.
On the first day of school, Evan, played effortlessly by Michael Fabisch, attempts to navigate interacting with his peers. The song “Waving Through a Window,” perhaps the show’s most iconic song, displays his loneliness. Evan muses that he is always on the outside looking in. He feels very trapped in his own mind. Fabisch makes this tenor power anthem look easy. It seems as if male musical theater songs just keep getting higher and higher, Evan Hansen is not an easy role, but Fabisch is him.
Evan runs into Connor, a very depressed and angry student and brother to his crush Zoe, when printing out one of his letters. Not to flex, but I did see Mike Faist play this role when he was in the original Broadway cast (and then promptly started my obsession with him). In the letter starting with the words “Dear Evan Hansen,” Evan writes about his unhappiness with life, but he finds hope in Zoe even though he really doesn’t know her. Connor notices that Evan’s cast is blank and offers to sign it. The signature is hard to miss as it takes up the entire cast. It is a moment of mutual understanding, the two both acknowledge that they walk the world without a friend. This quickly turns when Connor discovers the letter and assumes that Evan wrote it so he would find it and freak out.
The next day, Evan is called to the principal’s office to meet Cynthia and Larry Murphy, Connor’s parents. The two inform him that Connor took his life, and the only thing they found on him was the letter addressed “Dear Evan Hansen.”
What follows is a lie like no other. Evan gets incredibly wrapped up in life with the Murphys, trying to provide them with comfort, lying that the two were secret best friends. Like every lie, it all comes crashing down.
IU freshman Kayla French had listened to the “Dear Evan Hansen” cast album but had never seen the show live.
“The show has super catchy songs, it’s funny and sad at the same time,” French said.
The themes of the show are very heavy, yet it never feels overwhelmingly depressing. The song “You Will Be Found” is the Act One closer, serving as inspiration to the characters and to the audience. In the song, you hear the words “you are not alone” echoed over and over again. It is a beautiful ensemble number that resonates.
“The show shows viewers that you are not alone in the things that you’re feeling, and that there is always someone out there that cares about you, even if it doesn’t feel like it,” French said, “The show is just very touching, and I know I will be thinking about its message well after I leave the theater.”
