REVIEW: Multi Award Winning DEAR EVAN HANSEN Finally Arrives In Sydney With A Fresh New Production

Friday18th October 2024, 7:30pm, Roslyn Packer Theatre

DEAR EVAN HANSEN, the coming-of-age musical that centers on youth mental health arrives in Sydney in a new co-production between Sydney Theater Company and Michael Cassel Group.  Under Dean Bryant’s direction, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul (both Music and Lyrics) and Steven Levenson’s (Book) modern musical is given a crisp new interpretation.

The DEAR EVAN HANSEN of the title comes from the therapy ‘homework’ that 17-year-old High School “Senior” Evan (Beau Woodbridge) has been assigned to help overcome his crippling social anxiety that extends as far as going hungry at night because even though the pizza order can be made online, he’ll still need to interact with the delivery person.  The letter becomes the focus of a misunderstanding that compounds to a lie that spirals out of control after it is mistakenly believed to a final message from school bully and fellow social outcast Connor Murphy (Harry Targett). 

With the story set in the contemporary world of social media, quick fixes and instant gratification, Bryant keeps characters as the central focus with a minimalistic stage design created by Jeremy Allen.  The rear backdrop and a front sheer allow for video projections, designed by David Bergman, that reinforce that much of DEAR EVAN HANSEN is set in the modern era of “likes”, “re-tweets” and “viral” videos which have allowed people to feel connected and part of something without having to actually be connected, fuelling the rise in social anxiety.  Allen works with Matt Scott’s lighting design to allow the differences in spaces to be clear, from the suspended fluorescent lights housed in institutional gridded boxes to represent the high school, to soft lighting for Evan’s bedroom and the Hansen family living room, in contrast to the bright stark white for wealthier Murphy’s who have designer furnishings and little warmth.  The connection to social media and dependence on personal technology is also expressed using mobile phone screens used as a source of illumination.  Isabel

Hudson’s costume design is beautifully nuanced to quickly convey the characters as while each is unique, they are all expressing a degree of wanting to fit in or stand out through their clothes.  Evan is kept relatively neutral in both tone and attire, reflecting his desire to avoid standing out while everybody’s ‘acquaintance’ Alana, portrayed by Carmel Rodrigues, is wanting to stand out and be noticed so her bright but somewhat juvenile clothes echo her need to join every club and do whatever it takes to get enough extra credits to be accepted by her college of choice.  Evan’s mother Heidi, (Verity Hunt-Ballard) is a struggling single mother juggling her job and college so is much more relaxed and casual than the uptight rich bored housewife Cynthia Murphy (Natalie O’Donnell) who is a bland and boring in shades of beige as her stark white home. 

Relative newcomer Beau Woodbridge is a perfect fit for Evan Hansen.  He gives the 17-year-old a subtle complexity that sits below the therapists diagnosis of social anxiety and depression, ensuring that it is clear that mental health is not a clear cut situation.  Woodbridge has a warmth and sincerity that ensures Evan remains likable despite the lies he builds, all as a result of, once again, not being listened to, this time by Connor’s grieving mother.  Pasek and Paul’s score is challenging with the range for Evan’s songs requiring Woodbridge to reach into head voice for which he pulls back slightly as he seeks to maintain control. 

As Evan’s nemesis and the center of Evan’s deception, Harry Targett delivers a suitably moody Connor, another social outcast but has managed his social exclusion by bullying his classmates, getting high on drugs, and terrorizing his younger sister Zoe (Georgia Laga’aia).  Targett balances the memory of the moody out of control teen with the fabricated history that Evan and Jarad (Jacob Rozario) dream up with brilliant physical humor while ensuring that the moments when Evan is ‘haunted’ by Connor are more in keeping with his attitude in life.  Connor’s younger sister Zoe, who is also the object of Evan’s unspoken affection, is presented with a subtler moodiness by Georgia Laga’aia.  Laga’aia ensures that Zoe is seen as more grounded and ‘nicer’ than her brother, but deep down is also troubled from being overlooked by her distracted parents.  She ensures that the teen intuition and skepticism is clear while still infusing a degree of American teen movie optimism in her expression. 

Classmate Jared, the son of a family friend is given a degree of campness and attitude by Jaren Kleinman as Jared only tolerates Evan to keep his parents paying for his car insurance.  Preppy college hopeful Alana is given an American enthusiasm by Carmel Rodrigues as the senior seeks to endear herself to everyone and show that she’s worthy of being accepted into her college of choice (a university entrance procedure that is quite foreign to Australian audiences).  Both Kleinman and Rodrigues ensure that their characters are also seen as outsiders, having their own social anxieties though not as severe as to require medication like Evan or destructive like Connor. 

The adults of the story are portrayed by Verity Hunt-Ballard as Evan’s mother Heidi and Natalie O’Donnell as Cynthia and Martin Crewes as Larry, Connor and Zoe’s mother and father.  Hunt-Ballard gives Heidi an earnestness of a mother trying what she feels is her best for her troubled son but ultimately missing the cues that he needs her home rather than being shunted off to doctors and medicated.  O’Donnell also expresses that Cynthia is struggling but this time with a guilt in the belief that she didn’t know her son but, similar to Heidi, didn’t take the time with her son, shipping him off to rehab and distracting herself with her parade of rich person hobbies as she seeks to perpetuate her image of a perfect family even though it is crumbling around her.  Crewes gives Larry a frosty detachment as the high-power lawyer more caught up with work and his phone than paying attention to his family.  At times Crewes vocals struggle with the range that Pasek and Paul have written for Larry which requires a lower register. 

Dean Bryant’s presentation of DEAR EVAN HANSEN is visually captivating in its creativity and simplicity, and he allows his performers to carry the story.  The work seemed to resonate with audiences when it premiered in 2015 at Washington D. C’s Arena Stage and in 2016 when opened off-Broadway, potentially due to youth with mental health challenges finally being portrayed in a main-stage musical, even though it does have a challenging plot-line of teen suicide, deception and more pointedly deception without consequence.  There is a high degree of middle-class Americana woven into the work which has been kept as an American story, complete with the ‘sweetness’ of catering to an American audience but the underlying message of needing to ‘see’ the people in our society and ensuring that no one is forgotten or left behind is important, particularly as society moves to be even more dependent on technology.  With the rise in cyber bullying, online gaming where people never actually meet, and the need for instant gratification, it is becoming even easier for people like Evan and his classmates to end up suffering in silence.

https://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/whats-on/productions/2024/dear-evan-hansen

Photos: Daniel Boud

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