Evan Hansen Has Been Found

Having seemingly taken a half a lifetime, at long last Dear Evan Hansen has opened in Sydney ahead of its Australian tour. Les Solomon reports.

For a show that was the hot tip at one stage to re-open the Theatre Royal, it was beginning to seem like it would never get here. Why has it taken so long?  The show opened on Broadway late in 2016 (after extensive out of town try-outs) after beginning its life with an idea as early as 2012. 

One of the reasons for the long wait for Evan was Covid, which closed both the West End and Broadway versions of the show in the midst of that dark ugly period of nothingness. There was, however, another reason why the show took so long to get here, and that was the movie version. 

Rushed into production in 2019, supposedly to grab the enthusiasm for the stage show, it bombed badly at the box office. There were reasons for this, most notably that the massive fan base that had supported the stage show felt Broadway star Ben Platt was too old for the leading role. He was only a couple of years older than he had been for his last live show, but some odd make-up choices in the film and the more mature roles that Platt had undertaken on hit streaming shows (eg The Politician) made people feel he had matured beyond the role.  

Add to this the fact that the film substantially changed the story, added new songs, took songs out and played with the ending of the film by creating a sub plot that never sat well with audiences for the character of Connor.

It should also be noted that the film was released early in the return-from-Covid period and it did much damage to the stage show when the word got out that the movie just did not work. This helped close the show a little earlier in both major theatre centres (again coupled with the problems of the return from Covid for theatre) and I feel these factors substantially slowed down its arrival in Australia.

With the movie now well and truly out of the way (and hopefully forgotten) it’s time for Australia to see the show. The Sydney Theatre Company and producer Michael Cassel have been correct in waiting for the time to be right, and, judging from the massive interest in box office sales, their timing has been perfect.

The show has also found an interesting choice for its leading man in Beau Woodbridge, who has the “son of” tag as a result of his famous tennis playing father Todd. I am sure Beau would have probably won the role anyway as he has shown since childhood what a promising music theatre star he is, but the family association doesn’t hurt. The supporting cast is led by the original Mary Poppins herself - Verity Hunt-Ballard. 

So, to the show itself, with music and lyrics by the genius team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. 

I had the distinct pleasure of hosting Benj and Justin when they did a show in Sydney prior to performing at the Adelaide Cabaret Convention some years ago. At that time they were new, green and raw in their early musical choices, but even then Evan must have been floating around in their minds. 

They refer to the show as being the culmination of everything they have done, and this new team, surely the Rodgers and Hammerstein of this generation, have since proved their worth with both an Academy Award and a Tony Award (the show won six Tonys in total in 2017). 

Like the rest of the magical creative team that brought this story to life, the idea was always to make a musical that spoke to the current younger generation while still making sure that it was never marketed as just a musical for teenagers. 

The provocative ideas and themes explored within the show quickly make it clear that it successfully taps into today’s zeitgeist, but also inspires and appeals to an older market.

The hero of the show’s success from the beginning has been lead producer Stacey Mindich, who has slowly and carefully nursed the baby that is Evan and who could see from her early meetings with Pasek and Paul that their show was tapping into, and had a specific understanding of, the younger generation of today. 

Using that generation’s obsession with social media and the whole variety of aspects of computer dominated living, the musical is propelled by a story of a teenager, who, through a series of unusual and unexpected circumstances, suddenly goes from a lost soul “waving through the window” at all his peers, to finding fame (ill-gotten as it may be) as a result of the power of the internet and all it could offer today’s younger generation.

They also had problems with how to make Evan likeable, despite the fact that from the outset the audience know he is basing his fame and adulation on a lie associated with a tragic teenage suicide. 

The stage play succeeds in spades in doing this (and the fact the movie often fails to make Evan likeable was another reason for its poor reception). On stage, Evan is centred amid a whirlwind of a world, almost as if he is in the middle of a giant computer dictating his life.  

The production team, under the genius direction of Michael Grief, enabled the show and the central character to take the audience with him into dark places, but always with the words of the show’s hymn-like hit song “You Will Be Found” never far away. 

The song itself has become an anthem for a generation looking for hope at a time of great social and political upheaval. Its spirit and message of hope through darkness is what takes Evan to a place that ultimately offers a form of rejoicing in the question so many young people have today - Is it all worth it? The answer of the show is a strong and resounding “Yes”. 

To conclude with the words of Benj and Justin, “we want young people to know that a sense of isolation is a temporary thing and whatever pain you feel, you can use it to help yourself and save yourself. So many wonderful musicals we know did that for us and to think that this show might have the potential to do that for someone else, that’s the most meaningful thing of all”.

The Australian production, originally set mainly for Sydney, has now exploded into a national tour. Yes, Evan and his friends will be with us for some time.

Photographs from the Australian production by Daniel Boud