Hayden Naughton enjoys a musical for our modern age
I thought I'd be a bit clever here and write my review using a premise from the play, if you don't know the story or anything about the play this will mean nothing to you, but if you do you may choose to exhale through the nose in a somewhat amused manner.
Dear Evan Hansen,
Upon being invited to your performance at the Palace Theatre, I drew a blank. While I know your play was hugely popular and successful and turned into a film (usually an indication of the quality of a musical), I knew little to nothing about the general themes of the play. Firstly, the Palace Theatre is something we should be proud of in Manchester, bold in its grandeur but consistently pumping out hit after hit like an understated Lady Gaga.
Anyway, the play. Sat in the stall with the curtains about to rise, I listened for clues of story or song. The most I could hear was, "All the best songs are in the first half", which made me laugh as I know how these things tend to work. A play belts out its biggest hit usually before the interval to keep you wanting more. I sound like a theatre geek here but I just noticed the pattern recently when fuming that Wicked was actually Wicked: Part One.
Evan Hansen is the portrayal of a teenager who has undisclosed social/psychological difficulties in a social media age. He has a therapist, takes pills for what we assume is anxiety and has zero friends.
The actor portraying Evan (Ryan Kopel) is one of two standouts, awkward yet endearing and with a set of pipes on him like a church organ on Red Bull. He carries the story of an innocent lie that snowballs to give his character everything before, you know, anyway, no spoilers here.
Besides his portrayal being excellent and I think intentionally awkward, the play does an excellent job of displaying social media storms, family norms and how hard it can be to fit in. One thing that stuck with me leaving the show was not a single main character has a friend, and that's not due to the small cast size. That's due to the world they live in.
Another stand-out performance is the mother, Heidi Hansen, performed by Alice Fearn, a theatre veteran, and it shows for one of the more touching numbers in the show. Her character is reminiscent of an American version of the mum in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and during the curtain call the biggest cheer seemed to be for this character. Her voice genuinely made someone approximately three rows behind me blub like a child
Overall, Evan Hansen is a new-age emotional rollercoaster in a VR headset, such is the age we live in. Its twists and turns can leave you feeling anxious, but you knew that going in, and I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Tickets for Dear Evan Hansen are available through to Saturday.
Buy them here.
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