Review: Dear Evan Hansen at Sunderland Empire
Hit Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen checks in at the Sunderland Empire this week, pairing catchy songs with social anxiety. Michael Telfer reports back.
If I ever feel compelled to produce a list of my favourite themes for musicals, talking lions, magical nannies, telekinetic schoolgirls and northern boys that just want to dance at the ballet will probably battle for the top spots.
The principal themes of Dear Evan Hansen, namely teen isolation and high school suicide, would be at the other end of the table, jostling for position with the Middle East crisis, Steve Bruce's tenure as Newcastle manager and Now That’s What I Call Eastenders.
And yet somehow Dear Evan Hansen is brilliant, as evidenced by the host of Tony, Grammy and Olivier wards the original Broadway and West End productions won between 2016 and 2022.
Read more: Curated Culture 19.11.24 - our weekly what’s on recommendations
It really shouldn't be. The central topics make for uncomfortable viewing at times and nearly all the characters are demonstrably shallow, flawed or both.
Evan Hansen (played by Ryan Kopel) is a bit of a wet blanket with a warbling voice and a timidity that borders on infuriating to everyone but his doting and hard-working mother Heidi (Alice Fearn). The story joins him at the start of a new school year with a freshly broken arm and instructions from his therapist to write himself an uplifting letter each morning.
These ‘Dear Evan’ missives provide the musical with its title, and when one falls into the wrong hands it starts the chain of events that unwittingly propel Evan into a new family, romance and an ever-growing web of deceit.
A chance encounter with the school’s misanthrope in chief Connor Murphy (Killian Thomas Lefevre) results in Connor signing Evan’s cast and then stealing that day’s letter when he spots a reference to his sister Zoe (Lauren Conroy), who Evan has an all-consuming crush on.
Connor subsequently takes his own life, and when his devastated parents Larry and Cynthia (Richard Hurst and Helen Anker) find Evan’s letter on his person they put two and two together and get thirty-seven.
Believing Evan to be Connor’s best and only friend, they invite him round to dinner and mine him for information about their late reclusive son. Evan blunders his way into an unholy mess and with the help of his only friend Jared (Tom Dickerson) he manages to make a misunderstanding into a conspiracy in the space of one or two songs.
By the final act Evan can barely remember who he’s lied to about what and the house of cards is starting to teeter...
The main cast are all fantastic and the story does an impressive job of injecting brevity at the right times to give the show a good balance between being thought provoking and thoroughly entertaining.
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s score works brilliantly – the songs are a mix of upbeat soft rock numbers and intimate acoustic tracks. My favourites were the hope-filled You Will Be Found and the comedy set piece Sincerely Me.
Adam Penford’s brisk direction ensures the two hours and forty minutes (including interval) rattle through, and the innovative and ever-changing set barely gives the audience a chance to draw breath between scenes.
Along the way we are treated to f-bombs, truth bombs and a social media pile on. The show comes with a 12+ age recommendation, and I’d suggest this is about right given the language and content.
Dear Evan Hansen is at the Sunderland Empire until Saturday 23 November. Visit the website for bookings and more information.