Dear Evan Hansen. SL: It feels like there must be a middle ground, because I do feel like ultimately what is going to separate theater from everything else is not the content. The Oscar-nominated actress will return to a musical role for the first time since 2011's The . Theres always an outsider, and theres often a story with a moral tale that has a lie, and then the truth comes out, and the catharsis of that, and the redemption and the forgiveness is what makes audiences feel very good. In that song, which becomes really a soliloquy, we see this person Evan, just his soul is bared. Right. Will you support Voxs explanatory journalism? Also, don't worry if . We werent going to do a very big thing about it right at this moment, but we did that. Available on Cinemax, Prime Video, iTunes, HBO Max, Hulu. Exploring grief, mental health struggles and the dangers of social media, the musical was embraced by young people for its honest . Right, and theyre all telling each other stories that arent true, which I think is fascinating. APPLE BOOKS REVIEW. When you were like that before, you didnt see it, and now you see the entire thing and what everybody else is doing. It sounds crazy, but theres all kinds of things that werent happening in that time period. Connor is his classmate and lives lavishly with his parents and sister. He has just done incredible work, and its so exhaustive and so detailed. We havent really made a big deal about it right now, but our key art shows Evans torso with his arm in the cast. I think, from scene to scene, that changes, but I think Michael Greif and I have represented the parental point of view here, and theres a line that A lot of confusion over it, go over the confusion, and what is this, and what does it do, and I dont understand it, and its technical. Its so funny when youre looking up things, like, What is that, or what is that? I was at a party the other night, and someones like, What do you think happened in his first night? If only we had a device that we can search and find things out, but then I remember dinner parties where you just didnt know. Im like, I told you.. Just look at the HPV shot. Book writer Steven Levenson on the power of moral tension---In some ways, "You Will Be Found" is just a moving song. Right now, I was just invited to a showing in San Francisco where we will be wearing VR headsets during the show, and its going to be SM: Thats the Encounter Within Broadway. You have to up the game. Dear Evan Hansen, Today's going to be an amazing day and here's why: because because today, . I see that with even the show This is Us on NBC. CPAC used to be a barometer. Dear Evan Hansen is a 2021 American coming-of-age musical film directed by Stephen Chbosky from a screenplay by Steven Levenson, based on the stage musical of the same name by Levenson, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul. SM: Heidi Hansen, yeah, Evans mom. SM: It really is the intimacy of it. I mean, of course its the heart of Any show with heart does resonate, and obviously, it becomes a phenomenon. Right. I think it did happen with Hamilton for sure. Hes the most awkward 17-year-old ever, Im going to have to tell you. They have filled our theaters in broad groups. Please consider making a one-time contribution to Vox today. I wanted that tradition to continue where you have that collective live experience, where the turntable might stop, or just the experience that real actors are acting on their guts and instincts right in front of you. Then we brought in the great director, Michael Grief, whos done Rent and Next to Normal. He also brought in his own interpretations. We had bands of teenagers come in the beginning who loved Ben Platt, our star, from the Pitch Perfect movies, but they want to come back with their parents, and talk to their parents afterward. Well, something, and thats your weapon. I just saw it in San Francisco. A particularly exciting addition to the Dear Evan Hansen cast announced per Variety is Amy Adams. It means, Do your homework, brush your teeth. I want to finish up on what do you hope where to go, where it happens, because you definitely, youre very current. Tickets are $69.50-$229.50. . All of those people are actually real people too that we asked just among our fan group to send us videos of themselves. EVAN. Theres been some shows that have been real touchdowns, like Hamilton and some others that have been really Theres a new, I cant remember the latest one, but theres a bunch that Maybe its The Grand Hotel, one that seems fantastic in some ways. SL: Sarah Ruhl, the playwright, had a play called Dead Mans Cell Phone, where she had a line where she said, The only two places that are safe from cellphones now are theaters and churches.. The pillar of internet free speech seems to be everyones target. But once she gets on the blog, she blossoms. We give them a heads up. Dear, Evan Hansen. They might after hearing this. As a producer whos had some successes and a lot of what I call glorious failures SM: My last musical that I lead produced was The Bridges of Madison County.. You could see as experienced, everyones got to have the heightened sense of experience all the time. Letter #5: Connor Murphy to Evan Hansen. He plays off of Evan. SM: It does start with a 17-year-old boy alone in his bedroom scrolling through social media. SM: That was never meant to be literal, because we hope the show will live for many years, and these things may become dinosaurs. YouTube seems to be. I saw it recently, and its about isolation. Theres not a night where I dont shed a tear sometimes at a song, Im surprised, that never made me cry before. And intellig but, just be yourself!! This sends Evan on a journey of self-discovery and . They look happy as ever. Letter #6: Evan Hansen. We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and So many shows and movies and everything else, a lot of literature about that, finding connection, or you try to make people feel better about the idea that you can be connected in this interconnected world, where I think nobody has felt lonelier than ever before. Thats why people get frustrated. That song is about isolation and about being on the outside looking in, which a lot of musicals are about really, but this one had a really big element of what social media does to us, and that was a very big plot point in the play. Snowballs, and then social media is the key snowball, or as it amplifies and creates the situation that improves his life, and also makes the horrible situation worse. The plot of Dear Evan Hansen begins with a letter, unsurprisingly given the title. To get to the point, do you feel like when I say retro, Im talking about the ideas? When youre trying to get to what Evan does, it is an awful thing he does. This article originally appeared on Recode.net. Thats one of the things lets talk about how you weaponize social media. She is a child that has grown up out of the spotlight because her brother took up so much of the oxygen. Thats right, and when she gets it, boy, its interesting. Explain to me how long a show takes to get through? Everybody is super happy. As part of BTPM (Buffalo Toronto Public Media), their beat is primarily Buffalo theater, but . Easy to talk to. Dear Evan Hansen, the smash-hit, Tony winning 2015 musical, was, depending on your outlook, a poignant depiction of the mental health perils of high school, or an unrelentingly . SM: You found out on Monday morning at the locker, but you didnt in real time experience that live-action pain. SL: It is, but that idea that these shows, all they are is the next performance. I do hope and it seems to occasionally work this way that people are leaving the theater, and at least being more mindful I think of the way that they use technology. SL: But I will say thats the substitute of our musical. View Dear Evan Hansen opening monologue.docx from AA 1Dear Evan Hansen, Today's going to be an amazing day and here's why: because because today, all you have to do is just be yourself. I dont believe Michael Grief is on social media at all, and I only joined the world of social media, and Im now slightly addicted not in posting but in SM: I love Instagram, but I only joined it because of this show, because I literally had them telling me every day, You wont understand your own children and the way they live and the way theyre liked if you dont participate in some way. This conversation has been going on, and my notes on the show sometimes have questioned this backdrop. Its quite enormous in terms of how it gets known. It becomes a way of bringing people together, of making everyone feel less alone, and yet its all premised on this lie. Theres a line in the show about how he didnt even cry at the funeral so that when he does crack at the end of Act One, its an incredibly potent, emotional moment. Everyones happy on Instagram, and everything is All food is delicious. I hope it goes on forever. Despite its Broadway credentials, "Dear Evan Hansen" hits screens faced with an inherent tension: Can its songs and cast, led by Ben Platt reprising his Tony-winning role, overcome the . The unfortunate thing about my kids is both their parents are highly technically literate, and so they cant fool us or anything. SM: Every show is different. Dear Evan Hansen poster. I asked them what they wanted to do, and Benj Pasek told me a story that was just the germ of what happened in Dear Evan Hansen, but it was something that happened in his high school life where a senior, they were all in the senior class, and a senior passed away from drugs. SM: The father is an interesting nut to crack, because he at first doesnt emote about his pain. SL: I was struck immediately by this whole concept of the voyeurism and exhibitionism of grief, which was really what I think Benj was so interested in. They have their 28th anniversary revivals of that. But its very kind to these people who are struggling to each of them in a different way, which I think is an interesting way to do that. A lot of musicals recently, theyre not kind. SM: For me, I like to think of it in a less logistical way. Certainly, if the show continues to do well, its something well entertain, but right now More likely, youll go out and do shows all over the country? I was like, Aww.. I cant wait to see Hello Dolly. I cannot wait to just delve into that beautiful history of a musical, but the new theater that is exciting to me is being created by young people who have something very interesting to say about the way theyre seeing the world. Ive had people say, Im Heidi, or, My nephew is Evan, My nextdoor neighbor And so he is just one of those absolutely, utterly relatable authentic characters. Just, uh, you knowbe true to yourself. Some of them are still about something fantastical, but theyre so much more rooted in reality. I can tell you, because Im a super old person, it was so great not to know anything or have a phone around. I talked about mistakes. You got involved with this, and what were you thinking, Steven? SL: No, Alana is She is desperate to keep a bright smile on and to show everybody how great she is. Ben Platt in "Dear Evan Hansen." "Dear Evan Hansen" has been criticized because Ben Platt is a 27-year-old playing a student. I talk to a lot of entrepreneurs, and I always say, Whats the mistake you made that you could have corrected or that you learned from? I dont mean a learning moment, but its something youd advise people to pay attention to. You go to 10,000 rather at once, and its people sitting in the theater, and then 10,000 others. I wouldnt want a device on my head or my eyes to take me away from that. They were holding back the stuff. Whats happened is theres dozens of shows. Phone numbers were never meant to protect or identify us, but we use them to do that all the time. There is nothing else. SL: I think storytelling is going to continue to evolve into different forms and formats. Perhaps the story of Evan Hansen could fit into that format, but I feel like what we have, the musical Dear Evan Hansen, is just that. Its about a high school student with a social anxiety disorder and a problem with the internet. Is that your name? If you have the good fortune to become successful, you do become something more, but the essence of it is sitting in that theater. SL: Yes. It's a testament to the songwriting prowess of La La Land duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul that Dear Evan Hansen has gotten anywhere. We can overcome vaccine hesitancy. He finds a family with them. Were sounding old. How Trump uses it is fascinating. Terms in this set (21) Dear Evan Hansen, Today is going to be a amazing day and here's why. Is it this one square mile abroad or whatever? You see it outside the theater, I have stood at a matinee and seen the people leaving get back online to buy more tickets. SM: We dont have a current plan to do that. Shes trying to reach people. Okay. If Dear Evan Hansen addresses these problems and anxieties, it also explores, presciently, how easily experience can be faked online and how persuasive those fakes can be. Its an interesting question, because throughout the preview process and throughout the out of town production in off Broadway, there were always a certain number of people whove thought he didnt suffer enough for what he did. This time, this time he won't let go. A little perseverance and a little uphill climb." I believe this quote can relate to many things. Seeking 2 Actor Team for Spring Right. Now Meta and Twitter want your money, too. Sorry to tell you, but theyre coming. I hope its a conversation starter about so many issues, but mostly I hope its a catharsis for the people who come to see it, because its a catharsis for me every night. SL: Yes. SM: Well, its good to hear you say that. Its never a bad idea to wait. We have friends calling friends. SL: Yet, watching it now, you dont feel like its old-fashioned, or you feel like the technology is old-fashioned but the emotions are real and the story, you can follow. This show is really depicting the way we live in America now, the way we are at our breakfast tables with our families. It was interesting, too, because the show opened on Broadway right after the election. SL: Yes, and theyve gotten to that point that a lot of parents get to with their troubled child, where your affection for them has begun to even go away or you dont know what to do. Being as authentic as possible, realistic, organic, the way that you can depict things on the stage, the projections we have on our show are not something you would have seen in a show even two or three years ago. Evan Hansen, through Val Emmich's ( The Reminders) skillful interpretation, is a complex, well-developed character whose struggles with depression and anxiety read painfully true. The gauzy white glow of the screen illuminates the face of Evan Hansen, sitting at a desk with a hard cast on. SL: Yes, absolutely, its just never-ending. Riding the wave . SM: The whole business of theater is about putting butts in seats. Do you imagine a future where that doesnt have to be what we do, like tape it and make it? We shouldnt. Rent was one of those choices, and Angels in America I would say, probably, are two shows that the conversation had to continue after. The musical premiered in July 2015 in Washington, DC, debuted on Broadway in 2016, and later won six Tony Awards in . It feels very much like a phone going up. Theyre all by the time we meet them at the beginning of the show, they have been through hell already. Zoe is a survivor, really. You can only reach so many people. A battle over freedom of expression at a Concord, N.H., elementary school. Do you know what I mean, like thats what we got. Hes making up a story, but its a story that actually becomes true for him and for all of these people, so its like there are so many weird layers, and then you start to feel a little dizzy. When we announce a new block of tickets on sale, we give the fans a two-hour heads up, because as you said, it is hard to sell tickets, and that hurts us in some ways. It sounded like a crazy idea for a musical, but so does everything else when you put it on paper first. Essentially, this other boy, Connor Murphy, ends up through a strange series of circumstances taking the letter from Evan, and later offstage, Connor ends up killing himself, and the only thing that his parents find on his person is this letter to Dear Evan Hansen. Stacey, why dont you start talking about that idea of how you create an analog experience of just one place and mostly New York City or wherever to reach audiences, especially young ones? SM: But its a great symbol of the need for community because she uses knowingly, unknowingly, the experience of Connors death and Evans decision to create the Connor Project, to create a community and a role and a life for herself. I said yes. The power ballad that closes act one of Dear Evan Hansen, it marks the moment when Evan, a socially anxious teenager, delivers a heartfelt speech about a friend, Connor, who has recently met with tragedy.Shaking with emotion, Evan recalls a time that Connor helped him, and he . You dont see his head, but you see a sea of faces surrounding him. Thats why I think its a character. Thats the big, like, thats number one: be yourself. Ultimately what is going to separate theater from everything else is not the content. He is the son of Heidi and Mark Hansen. Okay. Its a beautiful song that Benj and Justin have written. New York, NY, Ages 12-17: Camp Broadway Ensemble @ Carnegie Hall Evan Hansen, an awkward, lonely high school senior, struggles with Social Anxiety Disorder. I do feel like people are hungering for something that is ephemeral and something thats just here and now, because everything else is permanent and online. Listen to Dear Evan Hansen (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, Ben Platt & Kaitlyn Dever on Apple Music. I was so happy to be in that room telling the story about people rising above the lies and finding unity together. That meant that we would have to find some way to communicate the ubiquity of technology as it is in our lives into this story. I think thats what makes it special. Final Scene and Finale by Dear Evan Hansen OBC - Karaoke Lyrics on Smule. his left arm, facing the screen, alone. And intellig but, just be yourself!! His life is compounded by the fact that he has social anxiety, although I think we have found that people look at him and bring their own problems to him. They mistakenly believe that it is a letter that Connor meant to write to Evan. I wouldnt want to lose that. People always say to me, Just take an hour. SM: But in 25 years, they may have all been over and done with that panic. Because how you market the shows has changed, the way you sell tickets has changed. Benj and Justin and I were just talking recently about how when we were in high school, we assumed that everybody was having more fun than we were, but now if youre a high school student, you have proof every day that everybody is happier than you are.