In the summer of 2019, I drove almost three hours each way on a Wednesday to see Dear Evan Hansen (DEH) on tour in Chicago. I’ve been a dedicated DEH fan since the musical originally came out and it quickly moved into my rotation of top 5 musical albums I listened to on a weekly basis. With that being said, I was hesitant to watch the film. This includes spoilers, so BE WARNED.
The live musical has this guttural pain in the music and take all your emotions and smash them, as places the listener/watcher/consumer in the place of pain and sorrow of high school. As someone who was decidedly not cool in high school, it hits a soft spot. In the live show, we see a silhouette of Connor’s suicide, which after the debacle of the suicide episode in the TV show Thirteen Reasons Why, we really shouldn’t do. For as much as I loved the live show, the movie took my hesitations and handled them beautifully. Connor’s death is handled with the right language and most importantly there is no visual representation of suicide.
Evan is a much more complex character in the movie, as opposed to just being a loner as he is in the musical. There is a real focus on mental health, stigma around mental health, talking about mental health with your parent/child, and Alana comes to be a key supporting character in this dialogue. Alana also struggles with mental health and says so through two beautiful songs, which adds a lot of much needed depth to her character. This is compared to the musical in which she is a bit of a wet blanket.
Overall, I’m obsessed, and I cried more than I want to admit during the film. As a lover of theater and specifically DEH, I am very impressed with the whole team who put this together. If you like the music, the musical, or love watching Ben Platt sing his little heart out, go pick this up from the library or rent it ASAP.
