Review by Paul Towers, 2/10/24
Dear Evan Hansen by Steven Levenson, music
& lyrics by Benj Pasek & Justin Paul
Directed by Adam Penford
Produced by ATG productions
At Curve til Saturday 5th October 2024
Dear Evan Hansen is a musical best aimed at
neurotic, self-obsessed socially awkward teenagers looking to validate their
misery. And their poor parents.
A whole generation is growing up thinking
that their entire world exists only online and this is the show for them. For
anyone over 25 it is a depressingly accurate window into their world and we
should all despair for the future.
Evan Hansen (Ryan Kopel channelling Emo
Phillips, for the older reader) is the above neurotic, socially awkward
teenager living with a single mother. The object of his fantasises is Zoe (Lauren Conroy), who lives with her druggie
brother, Connor (Killian Thomas Lefevre) and their parents Larry and Cynthia
(Richard Hurst and Helen Anker). When Connor kills himself Evan pretends to
have been his best friend.
All this misery takes place in the first
half. It gets worse.
The staging is fairly simplistic with sliding
semi opaque sheets that slide across and various bits of furniture going on and
off. The cast work hard, Kopel’s vocals are good and the ensemble fill the
stage. A live band of nine beef up the sound and some inventive video
projections from Ravi Deepres move the story along.
Dear Evan Hansen is continuing to tour next
year and is at Curve until Saturday 5th October
#DEHUKTOUR
Pics: Marc Brenner
https://ptheatre.blogspot.com/
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