If you mention the word musicals to me it will not take me long to get on to telling you how much I love Dear Evan Hansen. However, fun fact – I’ve never actually seen it! I visit New York relatively frequently so I like to keep my eye on the new shows on Broadway. A few years ago I heard the song Waving Through A Window, instantly downloaded the rest of the Dear Evan Hansen album, read the storyline and bam one of my favourite musicals happened! So imagine how thrilled I was to discover my favourite musical has recently been released as a novel!
Dear Evan Hansen tells the story of Evan. Evan has anxiety and in order to try help him his mum sends him to a therapist to attempt to get him get out of his shell. One of his therapy tasks is to write daily letters to himself to try encourage himself, hence the title Dear Evan Hansen! One day one of Evans letters ends up in the wrong hands and thanks to this, Evan finds himself accidentally pretending he was best friends with his classmate Connor, who killed himself due to depression. Now, Evan isn’t living in the shadows anymore as everyone wants to know about his friendship with Connor. However the longer the lie goes on the deeper wrapped in the web of the lies Evan finds himself.
The book was everything I expected it to be and more. Like previously mentioned I’ve never actually seen the musical so I was absolutely thrilled to be able to read the entirety of the story. It’s also interesting as you so easily see where the songs fit into the story even when it’s in book form.
I relate so much with Evan Hansen as a character which is probably the reason I am so obsessed with this story. I feel like everything that Evan does I would’ve done exactly the same thing in his position. I believe he really does mean well when he starts his lie then he just ends up rolling with it and I find myself sympathising with him more and more as the story goes on. The story could so easily have been a story about an annoying kid who wants to be liked so lies about being friends with someone at school who committed suicide and you just don’t care what happens to him as he lied. But it’s not, Evan bumbles through his lie and his intentions are always good. I just can’t explain how wonderful of a character Evan is but I’m sure if you read the book / see the musical you will love him too and find yourself in tears as you go further into his story.
Dear Evan Hansen is probably the most important story on stage at the moment due to its focus on multiple mental health issues throughout. It presents mental health in a realistic way and I think we need more of this. It doesn’t make fun or glamourise mental illnesses, it’s all very real and I’m sure many people can relate to the story.
Regardless of if you like musicals or not this books so great as a stand-alone. If you know nothing about the musical, it doesn’t matter. It’s the same wonderful story just in a book without the songs. I honestly think you should make this book one of your must reads of 2018. Also if you read this book and love it, you have to listen to the songs! They really just completely add to your reading experience as you imagine the songs in parts as your reading.
Synopsis –
Dear Evan Hansen,
Today’s going to be an amazing day and here’s why…
When a letter that was never meant to be seen by anyone draws high school senior Evan Hansen into a family’s grief over the loss of their son, he is given the chance of a lifetime: to belong. He just has to stick to a lie he never meant to tell, that the notoriously troubled Connor Murphy was his secret best friend.
Suddenly, Evan isn’t invisible anymore–even to the girl of his dreams. And Connor Murphy’s parents, with their beautiful home on the other side of town, have taken him in like he was their own, desperate to know more about their enigmatic son from his closest friend. As Evan gets pulled deeper into their swirl of anger, regret, and confusion, he knows that what he’s doing can’t be right, but if he’s helping people, how wrong can it be?
No longer tangled in his once-incapacitating anxiety, this new Evan has a purpose. And a website. He’s confident. He’s a viral phenomenon. Every day is amazing. Until everything is in danger of unraveling and he comes face to face with his greatest obstacle: himself.
A simple lie leads to complicated truths in this big-hearted coming-of-age story of grief, authenticity and the struggle to belong in an age of instant connectivity and profound isolation.
I had a Waterstones voucher to redeem and after a very quick browse I picked up Theatrical by Maggie Harcourt. The cover grabbed my attention, the title suggested it was theatre related and by the time I’d read the blurb the book was in my hand and I was walking to the till to pay.
Flashback earlier in the year and I was only vaguely aware of the musical Heathers. Yes, I’d seen the 1980s movie of the same name and yes, I was aware a musical version existed and I had heard Seventeen, one of the songs from the musical, but other than that my knowledge on the musical was relatively limited. However, earlier this year the show moved to London playing at The Other Palace theatre before very recently transferring to the West End’s Theatre Royal Haymarket and having seen both theatre’s performances it’s safe to say I am now well and truly obsessed with this musical.
melissay 