By Jamie Wise.
Dear Evan Hanson is a musical, book, and film about an isolated teenage boy. Evan Hanson gets stuck telling a lie that he can’t keep up with, in the hopes to gain friends, love, acceptance, and maybe even popularity.
This was an incredible thing to watch. I know people may have reservations about watching the musical because of their thoughts on the film. But I’ve watched both the film, and now the live performance of Dear Evan Hanson. And despite having an almost identical script, the stage show couldn’t be further from the film.
Once you’ve watched the musical you fully realise it was meant to be experienced live. I was blown away, from the amazingly talented cast, and emotionally gripping scenes, to seamless set changes.
I would recommend this theatre production to anyone I know. As a 16 year old who’s struggled a lot with mental health and self image, I thought this production was on point, with its representation of being a teen – not knowing where you belong, and suffering with social anxiety.
I particularly thought the emotion conveyed by lead actor Ryan Kopel, playing Evan Hanson was incredibly accurate. I felt like I wanted to hug him for most of the performance, and even though I was in one of the very back rows I felt as if I could have.
It felt incredibly intimate despite how big the Mayflower Theatre really is, which was almost unbelievable as the movie felt distant to me despite watching it in bed on my laptop.
There were times I could hear the entire venue laugh, and there were times where a silent hush was put upon the room. Sometimes they happened consecutively.
The control the whole cast had on us was incredible, they all oozed with charisma, and talent. I’m sure a fan favourite for most people will be the character Jared Kleinmann, played by Tom Dickerson. And rightfully so, his performance definitely gave the audience some of our biggest laughs. He was a beautifully energetic character, he was just silly. And yet said what most of us were thinking, and gave some real perspective on the absurdity of the situations Evan was getting himself into. It was incredible the way we’d be entangled in these lies that Evan would weave, and just completely sympathise for him, and then suddenly be pulled out of the haze by Jared’s witty comments.
However, my favourite was the character Alana Beck played by Vivian Panka. Her character was so funny, she was just that one girl who had a new charity project each week. She would come into school crying, because your boyfriend cheated on you. And then you’d have to comfort her. She played that character so well, you kinda wanna slap her, but you can’t because she’s basically a puppy. She had a lot of serious parts about her role, which she played wonderfully. But she would drop these perfectly executed little lines like “he was one of my CLOSEST acquaintances” she gave everything!
But honestly I don’t even know if she’s my favourite bit about this musical, and I don’t know how I’d begin to choose!
And that’s the great thing about this musical, it’s kind of got everything. Even if you walk home thinking you didn’t find any of the jokes funny, you probably teared up at least once.
Even the people just moving props were dancing with them, everything just seemed to flow. Nothing about this musical was janky, or incomplete, it was great.
Tickets for Dear Evan Hansen (Tuesday 21– Saturday 25 January) are on sale at at mayflower.org.uk or 02380 711811.
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