Dear Evan Hansen
Directed by: Stephen Chbosky
Written by: Steven Levenson
Starring: Ben Platt, Kaitlyn Dever, Amy Adams, Julianne Moore, Amandla Stenberg, Danny Pino, Colton Ryan, Nik Dodani
Drama/Musical - 137 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 22 Sep 2021
Written by: Steven Levenson
Starring: Ben Platt, Kaitlyn Dever, Amy Adams, Julianne Moore, Amandla Stenberg, Danny Pino, Colton Ryan, Nik Dodani
Drama/Musical - 137 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 22 Sep 2021
When Broadway/West End plays and musicals attain an undefined but noticeable presence on pop culture awareness charts, then some executive out there will green light them for a film adaptation, whether necessary or not. Recently, musicals have dramatically increased their jump from stage to screen. Hamilton, In the Heights, Come From Away, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie – these are just the ones from the past year. There are three more on the way before the calendar strikes 2022. Dear Evan Hansen sports 1,363 performances at Broadway’s Music Box Theatre. I am no musical theater expert, but that sounds like enough to determine awareness is high and there is a built-in audience ready to receive the musical about a socially anxious teen, alienation, suicide, and a massive, mostly unintentional, thread of lies through a more accessible visual medium.
Musical film adaptations shouldn’t be that rigorous. Hamilton kept it on the stage and ran the event through a few times so the cameras could get on stage. In the Heights was far more intrepid by taking over a Manhattan subsection for a few weeks. Dear Evan Hansen should fall somewhere in the middle of that spectrum. Therefore, why the bravery? Sure, everyone expects an adaptation to lose a song or two and to switch up some dialogue because now you can edit and scene jump as necessary. But, writer Steven Levenson, the same gentleman who wrote the story and book, changed the ending. I’ve never seen the show as a Broadway musical. However, something with 1,363 performances has some diehard fans out there who can quote and sing this drama forward, backward, and upside down. You think they are going to spread positive word of mouth and sing the praises that their beloved Evan is about to undergo a serious retooling?
Musical film adaptations shouldn’t be that rigorous. Hamilton kept it on the stage and ran the event through a few times so the cameras could get on stage. In the Heights was far more intrepid by taking over a Manhattan subsection for a few weeks. Dear Evan Hansen should fall somewhere in the middle of that spectrum. Therefore, why the bravery? Sure, everyone expects an adaptation to lose a song or two and to switch up some dialogue because now you can edit and scene jump as necessary. But, writer Steven Levenson, the same gentleman who wrote the story and book, changed the ending. I’ve never seen the show as a Broadway musical. However, something with 1,363 performances has some diehard fans out there who can quote and sing this drama forward, backward, and upside down. You think they are going to spread positive word of mouth and sing the praises that their beloved Evan is about to undergo a serious retooling?
Evan (Ben Platt (Pitch Perfect 2), the same guy who played him on stage starting in 2016 at age 21), starts his senior year of high school pretty much where he ended the previous year, on the lowest rung of the social ladder. Evan has severe social anxiety, depression, struggles to communicate, adapt, fit in – you name it, he’s probably on a pill for it. He doesn’t have a learning disability, he’s even on track to apply to college, but when it comes to hanging out with the bros, or God forbid, look a girl in the eyeballs, Evan has some work to do. His therapist says for Evan to write himself some motivational diary entries about what a good day he’s about to have and pep himself up a bit. The school library is probably not the most appropriate venue for such an internal exercise. Connor Murphy (Colton Ryan) snags Evan’s letter, walks away with it, and coincidentally(?), not sure on this part, kills himself with the letter in his pocket.
The letter begins, “Dear Evan Hansen.” Of course, Connor’s parents believe this is a suicide note, and in a shattering scene featuring an on-point Amy Adams (Arrival) as Connor’s mother, Evan doesn’t have the heart to tell the truth. So, the entire plot here could be overturned by a 90-second awkward conversation. But look at Connor’s mom. She is a shell of a human being. Perhaps it is the more humane thing to let Connor’s family believe he actually had a friend in the world and wasn’t this completely alienating presence who made life uncomfortable for whomever he came across.
In best Three’s Company fashion, the lies and misunderstandings spiral out of Evan’s control. Everyone thinks he and Connor were the best of pals. There are speeches, a Kickstarter, and even a viral video. In its own way, the whole enterprise is cathartic. Fellow teens latch on to the message that you’re not alone and they retweet the relevant hashtags. Connor’s sister, Zoe (Kaitlyn Dever, Booksmart) even latches onto Evan, first as shellshocked sibling who can’t believe her misfit brother harbored tender feelings, but then as a romantic interest. She likes Evan, even past all that twitchy anxiety. Connor’s parents semi-adopt Evan as a replacement son. Evan’s real mom (Julianne Moore, Still Alice) has much sharper feelings about this than she can express, because when it comes to her son, walking on eggshells is the name of the game.
Director Stephen Chbosky knows his way in and around teenage alienation – he made 2012’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower – one of the best alienated teen films of the past 10 years. There is only so much he can do with Evan though. He’s got songs to deal with. I assume some of these musical numbers are sacrosanct to the Evan fans out there, but I found none of them particularly catchy, most of them are full of exposition, and I have a feeling this subject matter would work much better as a film if you cut out all the songs and made it into a straight-ahead drama.
Dear Evan Hanson arrives with the feeling that it’s not going to land well. It’s going to piss off the fans who are supposed to love it no matter what. New fans are going to squint at the peculiar songs. Most will continue to poke fun at the fact that Ben Platt is 27 playing 17. I suppose some actors can do this, but Platt looks closer to the upper end of that spectrum. But the man can sing. No qualms here about his casting. He out sings every other cast member by an order of magnitude. Oh, but that ending. No, Dear Evan Hansen is about to be an unsettling cautionary tale to all those musicals leaping off Broadway and marching down the line toward cineplexes. Are you sure you want to mess with a sure thing?
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