REVIEW: Dear Evan Hansen at Mayflower Theatre

This week ‘Waving Through The Window’ of Mayflower Theatre is the multi-award winning smash musical, ‘Dear Evan Hansen’. This is a profoundly contemporary musical that made its way into musical theatre royalty extremely quickly. I’ve been so excited for this tour as this is one of my personal all time favourites. I (like many others) fell head over heels for this soundtrack long before the musical even made its way to the West-End. You may have heard or even seen ’Dear Evan Hansen’ get a bad rap because of the 2021 film adaption starring ‘Ben Platt’ reprising his role of ‘Evan’, which ultimately and originally helped make the show what it is today. Fans of the show will tell you that the film is not an accurate representation of how this musical should be consumed, but I fear that it has put many people off. I knew going into tonight that this touring version of the show has changed a few bits from the West-End production (that I know almost as well as the back of my hand); so I was really hoping that this could be the one that brought some well deserved respect back to this wonderful musical. And you know what, I think it may have done just that.

I think the word ‘goosebumps’ best describes this musical. From the story, and definitely to the score - there are moments that will send chills down your spine and even make you wince at times. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Music & Lyrics), are geniuses. Props to director, Adam Penford, for adding the perfect movement to match along with Steven Levenson’s story. If you’re unaware of the story of ‘DEH’ (an easy abbreviation), it follows Evan - a boy with social anxiety who lies about a friendship with a boy from his class, leading to him having to tackle all sorts of different themes. These include grief, friendship, morals, and of course mental health. This is a big reason in why this musical has received the praise it has in the past - because it makes you feel - and yet you don’t always know what or why. Some of the themes may make you uncomfortable in the way they’re expressed - but again, I think that’s all part of it. If you can imagine it, and relate to that image, then it’s done its job. A modern musical masterpiece.

The role of ‘Evan Hansen’ is certainly one that I think most men in theatre dream of playing. From the likes of Ben Platt, to Sam Tutty and Andrew Barth Feldman - I think we can easily say that this tours ‘Evan’, Ryan Kopel, has earned his seat at that very same table. He was sensational. I mean for one, WHAT A VOICE. ‘Evan’ has multiple solo ballad songs and Ryan smashed them all. ‘Words Fail’ was heartbreaking from both an acting and singing standpoint. Amazing! Starting alongside him as Evan’s love interest, ‘Zoe Murphy’, was Lauren Conroy. Lauren was another stand out performer tonight. Her voice again was immaculate and ‘Requiem’ was another tear jerker for sure. Just when you thought these two were good on their own, when they came together, they were even better. ‘Only Us’ was gorgeous, and the shift of their relationship through the entirety of the musical was brilliant. The pain you could feel from both of them. Speechless. There was no surprise that Alice Fearn’s vocals as ‘Heidi Hansen’ also blew the audience away (no battle cry this time though!). Tom Dickerson as ‘Jared Kleinman’ got lots of laughs from the audience and I think a special shoutout needs to go to Will Forgrave who was stepping in as the role of ‘Connor Murphy’ tonight. If you didn’t know better, you’d think this was his role through and through. The whole cast was brilliant and for the tour it was a nice extra having an ensemble of people on stage, adding to the movement and signified chaos.

When it comes to the set and lighting, this is also something that I fell in love with in the West-End production. There would be floating monitors everywhere with sliding screens and then a generally pulled back and simple set design. This was something that has changed for the touring show. There were no longer the hanging monitors, and the band also wasn’t on a risen stage at the back of the stage. There were definitely similarities, like the sliding screens and for ‘You Will Be Found’ we did see the floating monitors appear for the first time. I actually really liked the mirror effect to mirror everything that was on the giant LED screen at the back of the stage. This is one of the times when digital effects (if they’re refined), really work well. I always love how the set looks at the very end of the show. After what you’ve seen and been through with the characters its just a very wholesome way to finish. There was one particular lighting effect in ‘For Forever’ and ‘Words Fail’ which I thought was beautiful. When ‘Evan’ sings about the sun burning bright and stepping into it, the effect of the LED sun shining through was perfect. I thought the lighting at the end of ‘You Will Be Found’ was also spot on. The only thing I think was really missing were the floating monitors and in the pre-show/interval not having any atmosphere with phone noises and moving tweets etc on the floating monitors - the blank stage with #DEHUKTOUR was a little bit lacklustre.

When it comes to music I don’t think there’s much to be said. The score is so strong, one of the strongest modern musical scores to date - if not the strongest. The lyrics are beautiful, and the accompaniment is perfect. The live band led by Michael Bradley, were faultless. I will never get over how much I love the electric guitar in this musical - the licks in ‘Sincerely Me’ are dreamy. I also don’t think you can get much more powerful than the isolated strings at the end of ‘You Will Be Found’ and the ‘Finale’. Just chilling. All of this topped with the most beautiful and powerful vocals, sprinkled with pitch-perfect harmonies. It’s musical perfection. Like I said earlier, it was a shame that the band weren’t on the stage with the cast for the tour, but it is understandable as to why with the show constantly moving places.

Now I may be biased, but this is a show you must see at least once. The tour was great! Casting was spot on, and the music holds up incredibly well. The story is still very current and it does theme with subjects that are maybe a bit taboo and not spoken about enough. Ryan Kopel and Lauren Conroy are a must see and I urge you to go and grab some tickets so you don’t miss their performances! If you’ve watched the movie and thought this musical wasn’t for you, give it a go on stage. And alternatively if you saw it in London and are yet to see the tour - what are you doing? If you have never seen or heard ‘DEH’, pop your headphones on, turn it up to ten and give it a listen - I promise you won’t be disappointed.

‘Dear Evan Hansen’ isn’t at Mayflower Theatre ‘For Forever’, as you only have until Saturday 25th January to grab your tickets. If you can’t get round to seeing ‘DEH’ in Southampton, do not fret as you can certainly catch them on the rest of their UK tour. ‘Anybody Have a Map?’. That was the last pun I promise! I wish all of the cast, crew, and company the very best of luck going forward with the rest of their tour - this is the musical that reminds us all that we are not alone and that whatever you are going through,

You WILL be found.