Dear Evan Hansen Review
I pride myself on cultivating refined pop-culture palate: only the best shows, games, comics, and novels. I get that same swell of pride everyone else does when I recommend a show or book to someone who’s never heard of it but soon loves it. So it was a very fun surprise when one of my students recommended Dear Evan Hansen to me a few years back
“It’s just so GOOD!” she said. She was right.
I wasn’t into musicals growing up. I felt like they “all” (hadn’t seen or really listened to any, mind you, just straight prejudice here) sounded the same: a glitzy chorus line singing through smiles about something inane.
Dear Evan Hansen isn’t that. It’s about a very confused young man caught living the lie that he was best friends with the troubled kid in his high school that just committed suicide. There is exactly ONE funny, crowd-pleasing song in the show (“Sincerely Me,” and it’s great), but the rest of the show is a largely sympathetic though not entirely forgiving look at the lengths people will go to in order to feel seen and accepted. The play’s show-stopping number, “You Will Be Found,” is about this very subject: how desperately anyone, but particularly young people, just want to know that there are people out there who care, though taken with the rest of the story, it leaves certain unsettling undertones.
The other thematic magic that the show works is really forcing the audience to question to what extent the truth matters. The answer’s uncertain. In this show, some lies help people and some truths are too terrible to say out loud. The degree to which you side with the protagonist is a great debate to have with any fan of the show, and it’s one that I wish I could have more often.
The show’s a delight to see on stage, but the soundtrack does a very good job of carrying the story on its own. And particularly if you don’t think of musical theater as your “thing,” I strongly suggest putting those reservations aside and giving this one a listen. Because it really is so GOOD. And what’s more, I dare anyone to listen to the entire soundtrack with an open mind and not have at least one nerve struck by the writing, composition, and performers.
If you escape unscathed, let me know, because I need to study you for science.
4 signed casts out of 5. The soundtrack is streaming now.