By Kaylee Johnson
Campus News
“Dear Evan Hansen” has become a household name in recent years. Since its Broadway debut in 2015, fans have flocked to see and resonate with it. This stunning musical takes tragic realism to a new level of relatability, as its main character, Evan, is a teenage boy, and much of the musical is based around the modern nuances of attending high school and trying to fit in. Social media and technology are major themes and accessories in this show, as are some pop culture references. Suicide, mental illness, and broken homes are touchy topics, and some may wonder, how can those topics be tackled in a lighthearted way that makes struggling youth feel seen. Dear Evan Hansen did exactly that, tastefully and honestly. The reason it is so popular is not because it is anything dazzling or spectacular, rather it is touching and genuine in a way many performing arts are not.
I had the pleasure of seeing “Dear Evan Hansen” at magical Proctors Theater in Schenectady during its touring production. The timeless energy and ambience of Proctors make it the ultimate place to see a performance, as it immerses audiences in a blanket of elegance and artfulness. What I found so surprising about “Dear Evan Hansen” is it did not try to be aesthetically pleasing, even though it seemed that their core audience was adolescents, who thrive in the visual age of entertainment. They had minimal props, and a few monitors showing tweets/social media posts in the background – representative of the impact social media had on Evan Hansen. Other than a few core props though, “Dear Evan Hansen” seemed more like an off Broadway, raw, gritty independent show that you might see in a small theater in the Upper East Side. It is unapologetically itself and does a beautiful job of living in the moment, and while some its references may be viewed as topical years from now, the main message will remain present, painful, and powerful.
“Dear Evan Hansen” is about a teenage boy with social anxiety and possibly some other mental illnesses that is given a therapy assignment to write letters to himself. Through a maze of many events, the school bully stumbles upon one of the letters, where Evan awkwardly talks about his attraction to the school bully’s little sister, Zoey. It is the mistaken for a suicide letter to a friend when his parents find his dead body. Instead of fessing up, Evan decides to pretend to be the bully’s best friend and dearest confidant – the only person he wanted to extend his goodbyes to. These lies become compulsive, defiant, and dangerous, as Evan begins to experience all of the attention he has always desired, but never gotten. His mom, a single parent and nurse, had little time to spend with him and his absentee father, he craved unconditional love. He found that in this strange twisted familial trauma.
There were moments of “Dear Evan Hansen” when I could feel the entire audience shudder, gasp, and cry. The performance was cathartic, a two-way mirror of sorts. It is what I needed to see when I was in high school, and yet, still an important life lesson and look down memory lane for me as an adult. For teenagers, it is a unifying bridge letting them know there are others struggling too. Through the arts, the cast of “Dear Evan Hansen” works hard to advocate for the normalization of discussing mental health disorders and therapy.
The enchantment of Proctors Theater intertwined with the depth of “Dear Evan Hansen” brought me to new heights as a theatergoer. If you missed the show, do not fear, many other wonderful touring Broadway productions will be hitting the stage in the next few months, including: “Cats,” “My Fair Lady,” “Mean Girls,” “Pretty Woman,” and “Hadestown.”
If you want to see “Dear Evan Hansen,” the tour will be hitting a few different theaters Upstate and in New England this spring and tickets are selling out fast. Visit dearevanhansen.com.
Facebook Comments