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| Ben Levi Ross |
In a little over two years, the Tony-winning musical Dear Evan Hansen has had an amazing legacy. Besides catapulting its cast to stardom with an impeccable songbook, its story exploring human connection has connected with audiences, leading to endless fan art and becoming the latest musical with talks of a big screen adaptation. With the show currently in the middle of its First National Tour, it's a good chance for audiences outside of Broadway to understand the joy that has come from a story of one socially awkward teenager changing the lives of millions. It's a message that in our fraught times needs to be heard, and thankfully the cast delivering it have the power to bring it in the most charismatic, emotional, entertaining ways possible.
Following a successful run at Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theater, Dear Evan Hansen returns to Southern California at Coasta Mesa's Segerstrom Theater with the same amount of energy and enthusiasm greeting it. From the moment that the show opens with a clever "Silence your cell phone" message featuring phone icons, the story unfolded from Evan's (Ben Levi Ross) laptop as he tries to find ways to be happy. This involves writing letters to himself exploring what makes him happy. Through the light of the screen, the show enters a world whose backdrop is digital screens presenting fragmented messages that give a look into his mind. In this fragment is something certain, an answer that reveals the true Evan.
From there, the stage's minimalist design rolls limited sets in and out of the scene, sometimes hiding them behind screens that make the images transparent. In this artistic approach, the film feels like maneuvering the internet, even as the story takes place inside of a living room or a school's hallway. This is a world that may not look like our own, but embodies one that fills the mind of the modern youth who are uncertain of what the world looks like, in part because of their anxiety that makes connecting with it difficult. In a story that will come to explore how everyone is a bit disconnected, it's ingenious to slowly pull away from Evan's personal struggles and discovered that everyone is just as scared as him about being accepted.
What carries the show is the central cast, whose quivering voices add depth to the musical format by making abrupt shifts hold an emotional power over the audience. Ross creates Hansen as a fragile teenager, whose nervous tics are so convincing that he feels plucked from a high school in Middle America. The way he twitches as he sings such songs as "Waving Through a Window" add dimensions to the song that the soundtrack just cannot. His voice drops out, his eyes close in panic, and he somehow manages to find strength by the bridge. To witness Ross as a performer is to see a young actor find a role and dedicate every fiber to it. By the end, there's no doubt that he believes the words he says to the audience every night. There is a desire to sympathize with him because, on some level, we all have been him even if we never created KickStarter projects or became a viral sensation. The quest to be found is powerful enough, and the show's first act closer "You Will Be Found" effectively plays this to the back row.
The supporting cast is just as important to the story. Even the comic folly that is Evan's "family friend" Jared (Jared Goldsmith) evolves over the course of the story, managing to grow in confidence through his snark into an emotional piece of Evan's story. His mother Heidi (Jessica Phillips) starts off as the encouraging mother and slowly unveils a sad backstory that makes her lack of presence in Evan's life a tad justified. The contemporary exploration of family and friends in our lives is perfectly executed by writer Steven Levenson's book that manages to mix heartbreaking subtext that budges into the comedic at just the right time. The story may sound like a tough sell, but the ability to make it feel human only enhances why it's so essential. These characters feel real, even as they exist in a heightened world. It's a world that hasn't really been seen on stage quite like this before, and the message only amplifies an approach that looks into the fragments of our lives and find deeper meaning inside them.
Dear Evan Hansen is a show that feels like the start of a bigger conversation in theater. The ability to understand each other is key to humanity's survival, and few shows have managed to make it feel as tangible and accessible as this. With great performances in the small cast, most notably Ben Levi Ross, the show jumps off the scream and attaches to everyone's emotional core, never letting go for long. Evan Hansen may come across at first like an unexceptional teen, but by the end there's a lot that makes sense about him. For a kid who is awkward and unable to string together a complete sentence, he has the power to change lives. We all do, and that alone is what makes the show's approach all the more powerful. It isn't just about supporting a hero on a journey to success. It's one about better understanding ourselves.
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