Dear Evan Hansen Review and a London Day in the Life

Anyone who knows me will know my three joys in life, in no particular order, are: cinema, books and musicals. Obviously, books and cinema are much more accessible than musicals nowadays, and 300x more affordable. I mean I have access to the soundtracks but writing reviews about soundtracks doesn’t sound particularly substantial. Anyway, end of May or early June this picture-perfect afternoon (it actually was) my friend Georgia and I were sat in my bedroom trying to revise for our A Level exams. We were bored. Georgia and I spend money when we’re bored. And that ended with us in debt but a day trip to Central London booked to see Dear Evan Hansen.

With the release of the movie starring Ben Platt, who now is the Evan Hansen thanks to him bringing the character to Broadway for the first time, being released October of last year, which I saw in cinema, I didn’t go into this musical blind like I usually do with such shows. I’m going to see Book of Mormon next month knowing 4 songs at most. However, by no means did it sour my watching of it in the slightest.

For those of you who don’t know, Dear Evan Hansen is a musical production that follows depressed, anxious teen Evan as he falls into a spiral of lies following the death of his high school classmate Connor Murphy. It’s a heart-breaking yet refreshingly comedic take on mental health and suicide with the key message of ‘you will be found’.

The current face of Evan Hansen in London is Sam Tutty, who from a plethora of YouTube videos I discovered was insanely and unfairly talented. However, we had Marcus Harman in the titular role. Also disgustingly talented by the way. He played the role to perfection, with the incredible vocal range and the very Ben Platt-like gestures and stutters I loved in the movie. So perfect in fact it took us until the interval to actually realise it was an understudy at all (we we’re sat right at the back and we’re both relatively blind so that could’ve been it).

The highlight of the show had to be Rupert Young though, who played Connor’s dad, Larry. With vocal abilities that make your jaw drop to him being the reason I finally let loose a tear, it’s no wonder his CV on the DEH website is so bloody long. (As I write this I’m starting to wonder if I’m actually getting the actors right, I’m going completely from vague face shape I remember and the pictures on the website).

As with every live performance, there’s a couple of mishaps. We had a wrong line in a song, a timing issue in the opening song and a couple of pitchy harmonies. None of which really ruined it though so I can’t spend too long grumbling about it. Plus, there were so many good parts that largely outweighed everything else. The set was incredibly cool, I cannot wrap my head around how they can just walk on and off moving sets without tripping over their own feet. Jack Loxton, who played Jared, was hilarious the entire way through. And I adore all the extra dialogue they cut out of the soundtrack, partly because I’m never quite sure what’s scripted and what’s improvised and partly because that’s the bit that gets me obsessed with the characters to the point, I start muttering the extra bits I remember in the gaps when I’m singing the songs in the car.

When comparing it to the movie it’s a tricky one, because at the heart of it all the film is an incredible remake of the stage production. Though I think it’s easier translating stage script to screen than it is with the likes of a novel. The movie cuts some of the best songs, namely Disappear and Good for You, both of which were my highlights of the stage show. It’s hard to be mad though, because watching it on stage you can tell the songs we’re written to be performed live, and the film wouldn’t have done it justice at all. Obviously on stage you miss the cinematic elements with the camera shots and time cuts. A lot of the show consists of two characters stood in boxes of light taking to each other via the internet, a device that shouldn’t really work on stage, but DEH does do quite well, however it’s an easier watch in the movie. There’s also a repetitive flashback sequence of Evan running towards a tree in the film that was beautifully shot and adds that sense of ‘oh fuck’ to the film as we learn more and more about how Evan broke his arm. Something the show loses, however the show’s final reveal of this in a scene with his Mum which was much better done and hard-hitting than in the film. The show also incorporates a lot more of Connor Murphy whereas the film leaves him behind for the most part (physically I mean, the entire plot is about him, he’s mentioned throughout the entire thing) after the first act. The pop up of Connor throughout the show made it for me, embarrassingly he might be one of my favourite characters, no matter how much they antagonise the poor kid.

Overall, I don’t think anything quite compares to a good musical and this was a great one. We had an all-boys school school trip sat in front of us, they must’ve been 15/16, and a lot of them were crying, so when I tell you it’s heartbreaking. I really and truly mean it. But don’t let that deter you, and if you can’t afford to see the musical, which is closing for good on the West End and Broadway very soon, I’d definitely recommend watching the film as soon as you can. It’s not far off a masterpiece.

While I’ve got you, if you’re still reading of course, the day didn’t start and end with seeing Dear Evan Hansen. We spent the entire day in London and got up to some cool stuff. So, if you care, I’m not subjecting you to an entire blog post about it, but I’ll run you through it quickly. We started our day in Euston, where we walked off the train saw some attractive lad in a suit and tried to decide if he was going to a wedding and if he was actually attractive or he was just in a suit. We made our way to Taco Bell, which was my choice I’d never had it and wanted to try it, while we sweated in the 25º London heat and I tried to keep my bra covered by my top. I’ve never faced such a difficult feat. Taco Bell was average, I got a crunchwrap supreme and realised a bite in that when I’d dislodged my braces the other day I can no longer bite or chew on my back teeth. Not fun.

We made our way to the theatre, sweating some more, walking past all the other theatres and advertisements for musicals, Georgia and I pointing at them and claiming we want to see that one every few seconds. In the theatre we were sat next to another attractive lad, spent the wait for the show to begin deciding if he was actually attractive or he was just taking his Nan to see a show (incredibly cute).

After the show we wandered into Forbidden Planet, I walked around the whole shop pointing at overpriced collectibles claiming that I can’t afford them. Oh, how tempted I was to spend £140 on a Mjolnir replica though. We accidentally walked into a book signing, we googled the guy while we were stood there, found out he’s a comic book artist for DC. Incredibly cool.

The only must we had for the day other than seeing the show was to go to Waterstones Piccadilly, considering we are both massive book lovers and it’s the biggest book shop in Europe. Luckily, I didn’t spend a month’s wages in there but as we walked in, I did see a big pop up that the set of Charlie Spring’s bedroom from the Heartstopper show was still up, which I was convinced closed down last week following London Pride, you can imagine how excited I got. Heartstopper is one of my biggest hyperfixations at the minute. The Waterstones was beautiful though, spread across 7 floors, most of which had little bookish knickknacks like a set from Where the Crawdads Sing, the swinging bench from the Bridgerton show (which I unfortunately didn’t take a picture on) and a massive LEGO Harry Potter statue. Highlight of my day.

We then got lost, obviously, and somehow ended up in Trafalgar Square. We went full tourist. Walked to Covent Garden, there was some street performer who got some poor man to climb under his legs with a chain. Twice. It was very odd, and he took too long to get it over with, so we left before he finished his act. Leicester Square we saw another street performer, couldn’t tell you what he was doing I couldn’t see over the people. But we did see some very very very big posters for Thor: Love and Thunder. I think the remnants of the premiere were still floating around.

We got the tube from Leicester Square back to Euston, in traditional Londoner style, and Georgia and I decided that our future would be spend in that city sharing a shitty little one bed we can barely afford with two jobs, but it’d be worth it for the vibes. And with a pasta salad from the M&S Food Hall, we were back on the train on the way home. Exhausted.

When I say we went full tourist, I really mean we took photos of practically everything. A lot of which are on my Instagram if you want to follow, @endofapaige or click the link in the header of this website! I don’t post much over there, I’m more active on Twitter (the same username) but if you want me in a less grammatically correct and far less thinking version, that’s where you’ll find me. Now I’ll let you go and watch Dear Evan Hansen while you and I both hope I post something at least before I end up at University with no time to spare again.