We dont get much live theater in these parts. Oh of course there's community theater which I find wonderful, there's high schoolers doing their best where one person seems to be the Tom Brady while the rest are Mike Glennons. Then there the traveling Broadway shows of which I never miss.
Dear Evan Hansen came thru town this week and I really looked forward to it. The Tony Award winner has been in my wish list for years and when it got cancelled last year I was bummed.
I knew virtually nothing about this musical and that was on purpose . I didnt see the movie which most people said was awful. I never listened to the soundtrack. I never heard any of the songs other than the ubiquitous Waving Through the Window which is a pleasant enough tune. I only knew it involved teen suicide and its affects on the people left behind.
Like the first time you see anything you know nothing about, it was a surprise. I assumed the anxious kid was going to kill himself. I assumed he would be bullied throughout. I assumed the burn out kid would be his nemesis. Well as it turns out the bully, Connor, kind of was.
This play is about feelings, grief , more feelings and a lie that spirals out of control. Evan spends the play trying to avoid going down the drain of deceit. Every scene makes it worse. Evan, the medicated anxious loner, suddenly is thrust into the spotlight where he has fake friends, adoring fans, and is thought of as a hero when in fact hes just a liar. He gets a girlfriend based on the lies, he gets a new "family" due to his untruths and he ignores the only real friends and family he had. All the while you know this will not end well.
I am one who accepts fiction as fiction. Thus, as Evan dug himself deeper and deeper into his hell hole, I knew that something so popular as this play had to right the ship at some point. Did it? I think so thanks to Evans mother, the true hero of this story.
Dear Evan Hansen was pretty much all I thought it would be. As unpleasant as Evan was making it to watch, you knew the character was not what he had become. Its well worth the time and money to see.
PS: As much as I expected this play's story to turn around and make it right, Max was angry at the character being a "sociopath" during Act 1. He also thought it trivialized suicide. I am not that serious about a damned musical. But its a valid critique.
So basically you will find Evan a lonely kid who rights his wrongs or you will think Evan is a complete narcissist without a care for others.
