Original Visit: Dear Evan Hansen, Noël Coward Theatre London, 25th February 2022
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Storyline:
The storyline of the show left me a emotional wreck! Evan is a lonely lad, with no friends, who has to write a letter to himself "Dear Evan Hansen" to document his day. Another lonely lad, Connor, writes signs Evans cast, but also steals one of his letters. Connor takes his own life, with Evans letter in his pocket. His parents assume that him and Connor were close friends. Evan struggles to explain to Connors parent's the truth, so the lie snowballs. He gets one of his "family friends" to make fake emails to show how close he was with Connor
With memorial pages and events happening, Evan got closer to Connors parents. This was because of his mum out to work and training to be a lawyer.
The lie starts to unravels, when one of his friends starts to see holes in the events in the fake emails. When the original letter becomes public, it forces Evan to confront Connors parents with the truth.
His mum feels devastated when she sees the letter, as she had no idea how he was feeling. It turns out he got the cast from deliberately falling out the tree.
Songs & Cast:
The songs are just perfect. Every song is perfect for each seen. There is a mixture of solos and full cast songs. Several songs stand out, Waving Through a Window, Good for You,but the big one is You will be Found.
I literally got goosebumps and cried during this song, along with most of the audience as it is such a emotional song
The cast fit their roles perfectly. Sam Tutty as Evan is a perfect casting, He shows the emotion of the scenes perfectly and his singing is brilliant. Its a shame he is not on the official soundtrack!
Lucy Anderson plays Connors sister Zoe Murphy. She plays the role brilliantly, showing her way of grieving, anger, is different to those of other family members.
Iona Fraser plays Alana Beck. She is one of Connors classmates, and creates the Connor Project memorial page, with help from Jared and Evan. She is the one who releases the original letter to try and raise funds for a memorial project. She is also the first one to start to see the holes in the fake emails.
Mitchell Zhangazha played Jared Kleinman, He was the understudy in the performance but you would never have known and his performance was perfect. He is Evans only friend, but calls it a "family friendship". He helps Evan create the fake emails. He becomes jealous and angry with Evan, as the lie benefits Evan with him gaining a family unit, rather than single parent, popularity at school and a girlfriend.
Staging:
The staging is all done with the use of screens showing the text messages and facebook posts between the characters .
During the scenes with the speech, the screens show the spread of the video on social media sites like Facebook and Youtube. As you are waiting for the show to start, there is the sounds of the different notification sounds from the social media plaforms, like the twitter tweet.
The bulk of the physical sets are minimal on 2 round platforms with changing sets, such as sofas and beds.
Merchandise:
There is a wide range of merchandise to purchase. Including magnets, keyrings, striped t-shirts, facemask and pins. There is only one program to purchase, no souvenir picture program
Seat:
Balcony A24. This seat is advertised as restricted view, due to the safety bar. It does impair the view slightly but if you sit slightly down in the seat you can see straight through the bar. If you dont like heights then this is not the seat for you.
The Final Score:
This has got to be one of the emotional shows i have ever seen, and will 100% be coming back to see it. All of the songs are brilliant, and now on a constant loop on my phone!
If you come and see this show bring some tissues as you will need them!
Update:
Noël Coward Theatre London, 25th June 2022
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Saw the show again on the 25th June 2022. Felt need to see it again before its closure in October. Once again was a emotional wreck!
Even though knew the storyline and had the songs on repeat the show hit me. Coupled with seeing earlier on at West End Live, when the entire Trafalgar Square joined in with the songs, it has certainly cemented itself as one of my top 5 shows! I hope it comes to one of my local theatres in the near future!
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