Tickets were gifted in return for an honest review.
The Tony and Olivier Award-winning musical hits the road as Adam Penford's non-replica production tours the UK and Ireland. It comes with a lot of hype, and a fairly young audience packed into Northampton's Royal and Derngate for its opening night of the production's 2025 tour dates. It certainly lives up to the hype, with this modern musical packing a hefty emotional punch, with themes of anxiety, depression, suicide, and more thrown into the mix.
The show centres around Evan Hansen who is battling his own social anxiety and navigating all the thoughts that come with it. He is challenged to write letters to himself to combat those feelings. This is until one day his letter is discovered by fellow college student Connor Murphy. This brief encounter suddenly changes everything as Connor kills himself and is discovered with Evan's letter on him. Evan suddenly becomes entangled in lies and deceit as he forms a relationship with Connor's parents and his crush on Connor's sister, Zoe, based on the fact that he and Connor were secretly best friends, which of course they were not.
Ryan Kopel gives a truly outstanding performance as Evan. Right from the get-go you can feel his palpable anxiety and his nervy awkwardness. Kopel navigates the role with such skill that you feel every emotion. You can sense this teenager longing for connection and how he can't escape the ever-growing web of lies. It would be easy for an audience to lose that connection to the character for some of the things and choices Evan makes but Kopel has you right with him throughout. The power carries into Kopel's vocals too adding extreme heart to numbers. The emotional rollercoaster 'Words Fail' in the second act is sung with gut-busting feeling that has many of the audience in tears.
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Alice Fearn as Heidi Hansen. Photo by Marc Brenner |
On the flip side of Evan is the grieving family. Understudy Jessica Lim covered the role of Cynthia Murphy with so much feeling, here is a mother so shattered by the loss of her son that she puts all those feelings back onto Evan. The emotional journey that Lim brought to the role was heart wrenching to watch. Richard Hurst does a fine job of bottling those feelings as Larry Murphy, he is grieving but not necessarily on the surface but strikes a lovely bond with Evan. Lauren Conroy gives a fantastic well-rounded performance as Zoe Murphy. The fractured relationship she has with Connor means her grief is messier. The growing bonds all the Murphys make with Evan despite the audience knowing it's based on the lies but there is a real sense of these characters just simply needing each other despite those lies and that is so well captured.
Alice Fearn gives a strong performance as Evan's mum Heidi. She spends a lot of time working and not forming the bond with Evan which ultimately sees him lean on to the Murphy family. Fearn captures this with her acting and her powerhouse vocals. Despite the distance between the pair, you can always feel how important Evan is to Heidi.
Tom Dickerson brings some lightness and comedy to the role of Evan's family friend Jared Kleinman. Their friendship is based on a lot of teenage banter and Dickerson is a constant light presence with a sense of playful fun to him. Dickerson does a great job of carrying the emotion of the role especially as Jared and Evan clash over the ever-growing Connor Project. Vivian Panka is also superb as Alana Beck, another college student who lashes onto the project with largely well-intended feeling, you can sense how this project gives her new meaning.
Killian Thomas Lefevre layered Connor manages to navigate both lightness and dark. In moments he can be a powerful figure on the stage in others more comedic moments like in 'Sincerely Me' show a more playful side. The show does a fine job of balancing these emotions throughout. It doesn't make a comedy of the moments but shows there is also light with the shade.
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Ryan Kopel as Evan Hansen, Tom Dickerson as Jared Kleinman and Killian Thomas Lefevre as Connor Murphy. Photo by Marc Brenner |
Visually Morgan Large's set used a slot moving pieces. Be that props or sliding pieces of scenery, sometimes set pieces like the beds and scene changes do happen with a hefty jolt. Matt Daw's colourscape tonally keeps the show routed in the feelings of the characters. Again the balance of light and shade play out in the visual. Ravi Deepres' video design takes the audience into the social media world with the use of screens with messages and videos as the Connor Project continues to grow. The sense of the world of social media that simply washes over Evan and begins to drown him is cleverly realised.
In Benji Pasek and Justin Paul's music and lyrics you have a set of songs with are now staples in any musical theatre fan's life. The anthemic 'You Will Be Found' that closes the first act is a real stand-out moment of theatre with the entire company on stage and the powerful lyrics such as "So let the sun come streaming in, 'Cause you'll reach up and you'll rise again". There are a couple of numbers with don't quite have the impact but largely this is a powerful score that befits the story. The live band under the musical direction of Michael Bradley makes a cracking sound and adds to the emotional heart of the score.
Whatever you take away from the show and the questions of whether is Evan an inherently good or bad person for what he does you leave the theatre after an emotional rollercoaster. This is a show about connection in a social media world that will strike a chord with the younger audience members and packs an emotional reminder about connection and ultimately that whatever you're feeling it's okay if you're a little lost. A powerful study of life and the mental struggles we all face as we strive for connection.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Dear Evan Hansen plays at Royal and Derngate in Northampton until Saturday 18th January 2025. Tickets are available from https://www.royalandderngate.co.uk/whats-on/dear-evan-hansen/
The tour continues with dates booking through until 5th July 2025. Visit evanontour.com for full tour schedule and booking details.
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