Dear Evan Hansen

I’ve been waiting to see Dear Evan Hansen for so long. I absolutely adore every single song, I love the book and story, I just have never seen the musical on stage as it was only open in America. Sadly the last time I went to America it wasn’t open yet and currently (though not for much longer) it isn’t in the UK. Well, during my recent trip to New York I finally got to see the show! It completely and utterly met my high expectations that I had in my head for the show so naturally I have to write a post about it.

If you’ve never heard of Dear Evan Hansen, it revolves around a seventeen year old called Evan. Evan has really bad anxiety and in order to try and combat that, his doctor suggests writing letters to himself, hence the name Dear Evan Hansen! One day, Evan’s letter is discovered by his classmate and before he knows it he gets tangled up a web of lies that he just can’t get out of.

People seem to have a difference in opinion of Evan when you read reviews of this show. However, I really like the character as I feel like if I was in Evan’s position I would’ve done the exact same thing and I think that we can all relate to Evan’s longing to be accepted. For me personally, I find that the relatability of Evan gives me far too much of an emotional attachment to this show as at so many points I can imagine myself as Evan. However, the other point of view is that Evan is entirely at fault for lying so they struggle to feel sorry for him.

I have to admit that now Dear Evan Hansen is coming to London this month (and I do have tickets for it) that part of the reason I saw the show in New York instead of waiting a few weeks for my London show, was to see Andrew Barth Feldman playing Evan. Andrew Feldman is scarily exactly like how I imagined Evan to look like so I really wanted to see him do the role. However, the show I saw actually had one of the understudies, Josh Strobl playing Evan. Thankfully, my brief disappointment of missing Andrew Feldman was quickly forgotten! Josh Strobl was an unbelievable Evan and I do believe it was his Evan Broadway debut! I felt that he really captured Evan well and I felt so moved by his performance. If you live in the States and can catch one of Josh Strobl’s Evan shows I would highly recommend his performance! My show also had another understudy, Kaitlyn Santa Juana playing Zoe. Again, she was incredible for the role and I particularly enjoyed her version of Requiem. I felt like Josh Strobl and Kaitlyn Santa Juana had good on stage chemistry and I just can’t believe they’re both the understudies as I would never have known they weren’t the main cast actors.

I knew I would get emotional but I was not prepared for just how much I did. I had a few (and by a few I mean alot…) weepy moments throughout but my throat felt like it was burning as I tried to hold back the tears during You Will Be Found before I completely just broke down in uncontrollable crying. You Will Be Found comes across so strongly on stage. For me, that song on stage is one of my favourite end of act 1 scenes in any musical I’ve seen. That moment came as such a heartbreaking surprise for me as I hoped I would make it to Act 2 without having an emotional breakdown in a theatre but when you see the whole of act 1 on stage and this is the moment that even despite his lies Evan started to make a real difference and some of the words and performance just really affected me.

Dear Evan Hansen is such a simple concept for a musical but it provides so many story elements people can relate to which is why personally I get so attached to Evan. The waiting to be accepted, Evan’s longing to have friends, his need to help make people happy when given the opportunity, Evan’s dad leaving him and his mum working so hard to make a good life for Evan, Zoe’s reluctance to accept her brother was anything but a monster, a grieving family…I think every single person in the audience will manage to connect with at least one part of this story which is what I feel helps contribute to its success.

The set is quite interesting too. On the one hand it’s very basic, at the most you might just have a bed or table on stage. However, the screens permanently on stage play a massive part of the show frequently showing social media messages on them. The so heavy inclusion of social media is quite unique still in shows and I think Dear Evan Hansen uses it effectively. I think the heavy inclusion of social media completely makes it relevant to today’s society and it’s interesting to see how it can be used both for positive reasons and then flip for negative in the same breath. I’m sure everyone has had some degree of experience in the good / bad effects of social media and that really helps to connect the show to the audience.

Dear Evan Hansen is the first show that I’ve seen where I’ve been completely obsessed with everything around it but have never seen the show, normally I’ll know the odd thing or have casually listened to a couple of the songs then see the show and become obsessed that way. I’m so thrilled that it was every bit as good as I imagined it to be. Now, listening to the songs gives a whole new element of enjoyment as I can imagine them being performed on stage. I can completely see why Dear Evan Hansen gets all the hype as despite getting so upset watching it (and I wasn’t the only one as I certainly heard other people crying!) I enjoyed every single second and would see it again tomorrow in a heartbeat.

Have you seen the show? Would love to know what you thought!