But as the lie about Evan’s friendship with Connor grows more elaborate, Zoe transforms from skeptical to affectionate. Before his newfound fame, he was an apologetic tongue-tied mess in her presence. Raised by a single mom (Julianne Moore) who works irregular hours as a nurse, Evan is not accustomed to elaborate home-cooked meals and patient paternal interest.īut the real attraction is Zoe (Kaitlyn Dever), Connor’s sister, with whom Evan has long been infatuated.
No suicide note is left, but Evan’s letter is still in his possession, leaving the impression that this friendless boy did in fact share a secret bond with another outcast.Ĭonnor’s mother (Amy Adams) is so moved by this discovery that she and Connor’s stepfather (Danny Pino) welcome Evan into their affluent home. The letter, offering gentle words of encouragement, winds up in the hands of Connor Murphy (Colton Ryan), a loner with a volatile temper, who is seen by his peers as the student most likely to become a school shooter.Ĭonnor doesn’t bring an automatic weapon to the cafeteria, but he does take his own life.
The plot hinges on the fate of a note that Evan has been encouraged by his therapist to write to himself to improve his self-esteem. Platt’s Tony-winning portrayal - one of the more memorable Broadway breakouts in recent memory - conveyed Evan’s fragility with such expressive sympathy that it was possible to follow the character down a morally dubious rabbit hole and not be filled with regret in the morning. But the overhauled ending, which sheds more light on the title character’s motivation without exculpating him, suggests the difficulty of what’s being dramatically attempted.īen Platt, reprising his star-making performance, plays Evan Hansen, a high schooler crippled by social anxiety who gets caught up in a lie, which turns a dweeb into a hero after the story goes viral. Some of the smaller character tweaks are designed to bring the work into alignment with shifting cultural sentiments. Steven Levenson has made both minor and major changes to his Tony-winning book. Maturity turns out to be not such a bad thing for a show that has done some soul-searching since it was last seen onstage. “Dear Evan Hansen” has a few, but for the most part Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s Tony-winning score gives voice to the whiplash fears and longings of children and parents caught in the funhouse of the social media age.
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Movie musicals are hard, and this one is especially challenging, but not because of the splashy numbers. The film cries out for pruning but the story survives the move into a more realistic realm. But the translation to the screen is smoother than expected.ĭirector Stephen Chbosky ( “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”) has a sensitivity to adolescent angst and carefully navigates a dramatic journey that is unusually complicated for a musical. This musical, which had its Broadway premiere in 2016, works better in the theater. Sorry, haters, the film isn’t a train wreck. “Dear Evan Hansen” has already generated so many fierce opinions that it’s almost startling to discover onscreen the same disarming musical that captivated Broadway audiences and teenage fans everywhere.