This highly imaginative and moving musical was presented off Broadway by the Second Stage company in May of this year. It enjoyed a sold out run for a month, and was honored by a dozen awards for performance, book, music, lyrics, direction, even for its scenic projections. I saw it then, and added my own very positive comments to its long list of them by my colleagues. I had some concern about the announced move to Broadway, fearing that some of the intimacy of its very personal story would be lost in a larger theatre, perhaps with changes in casting to make it more enticing to the general public, for at Second Stage there was a perfectly formed company, but no big box office names among the principals.
I needn’t have worried. Under the lead banner of Producer Stacey Mindich, who has guided this show from a long ago lunch to readings to Arena Stage to Second Stage, a group of over thirty have joined forces with him to move the show to the Music Box on Broadway, wisely bringing with them the whole kit and caboodle of actors and the entire staff of professionals including Director Michael Greif and Choreographer Danny Mefford. Only John Dossett, who played a pivotal but small role in the original, was replaced by Michael Park because Mr. Dossett moved on to a top featured role in the incoming musical War Paint.
If anything, Dear Evan Hansen, with the extraordinary Ben Platt in the title role, has grown in stature and lost none of the intimacy that made it so effective in the original. And how refreshing to find another new work, based on nothing but the imaginative minds of its author Steven Levenson and Composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Mr. Levenson is a founding member of MCC’s Playwrights Coalition and has served a solid apprenticeship via several plays at the Roundabout and at Ars Nova among others.The Pasek-Paul collaboration has been developing with the encouragement of the Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre and awards for A Christmas Story: The Musical and Dogfight as well as the just arrived film LaLa Land.Clearly these three give us hope that the theatre’s future is now in some very gifted hands.
I would refer you to my review, published on this site on May 5th of this year. I repeat that this highly original story of the growth of Evan Hansen, his journey from the pain that loneliness brings as his only companion to the catharsis that sets him free as he faces the truth about the letter he wrote to himself, the one that began “Dear Evan Hansen.” That letter, in the wrong hands, causes lies to be told, lies that could have caused the destruction of two families and a number of accessories. The material is well plotted, and it builds to a smashing climax which raises the stakes and gives Mr. Platt a chance to soar with eloquence.
Reminiscent of the startling performance of Alex Sharp in the equally brilliant entry last season of The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night Time, I found myself equally mesmerized by this new musical, now bringing new luster to 45th Street at the Music Box.
I must mention again the consistently first-rate performances of Mike Faist, Rachel Bay Jones, Kristolyn Lloyd, Will Roland, Jennifer Lawrence Thompson, Laura Dreyfuss, and the newly added Michael Park that play so beautifully in support of the remarkable Ben Platt.
Dear Evan Hansen is a major contribution to musical theatre and the Broadway season.
Running Time: Two hours and 30 minutes, with an intermission.
Dear Evan Hansen is playing at The Music Box Theatre – 239 West 45th Street, in New York City.
LINKS:
Review: ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ at Second Stage Theatre in NYC by Richard Seff.
Review: ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ at Arena Stage by Derek Mong.
Magic Time!: A Love Letter to ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ by John Stoltenberg.
Mike Faist on Playing Connor in ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ at Arena Stage by Joel Markowitz.
Fantastic News! ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ to Have A Spring 2016 Run At NYC’s Second Stage by Joel Markowitz.
