Reviewed by Gareth Hides
***** 5 stars “A triumphal revival!”
“A triumphal revival!” The brand-new production of Broadway and West End smash, Dear Evan Hansen, has opened at the Nottingham Playhouse ahead of an extensive nationwide tour. The show only closed in London in October 2022, where it won critical acclaim, including six Olivier awards. Now the musical has been revived, produced jointly by the Nottingham Playhouse and ATG Productions. With songs by powerhouse duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land and The Greatest Showman), the original Broadway cast album won the 2018 Grammy for Best Musical Theatre Album. This new production collaborated with Tiktok to hold open auditions for the tour (via submitting a Tiktok video), which garnered 2000 submissions and successfully resulted in the casting of Sonny Monaghan as alternate Evan.
The musical tells the story of teenage ‘nerd’ Evan Hansen (Ryan Kopel) who leads an anonymous high school existence and has recently broken his arm. The lonely Evan endures a distant and complex relationship with his busy and often absent mother (Alice Fearn) who encourages him at the start of the new school year to make new friends by getting peers to sign his cast. The troubled Connor Murphy (Killian Thomas Lefevre) encounters Evan in the school computer lab one day, signs his cast, and intercepts a letter Evan has written to himself beginning “Dear Evan Hansen.” Murphy supposes this to be a cruel joke and storms off. When it is revealed that Connor has taken his own life, and his parents find Evan’s letter believing it to be a suicide note, Evan begins to bend the truth and soon his small lie has snowballed, threatening to consume him and his new life.
The show enjoys a brilliant cast, a strong ensemble, and a score that dazzles! It was hard to find anything that lets this production down. Ryan Kopel’s awkward and fragile portrayal of Evan is excellent and captivating. He is supported by the brilliant Alice Fearn (his mother, Heidi Hansen). Her performances of “Good For You” and “So Big/So Small” were particularly powerful. Tom Dickerson was hilarious as Jared Kleinman. Lauren Conroy brought a generous helping of sarcasm and charm to the role of Zoe Murphy. Morgan Large’s set design was simple but incredibly effective, with sliding glass panels shifting to change scenes and opening to reveal characters engaging digitally with one another, embodying the hit song “Waving Through a Window.” Also of note was Ravi Deepres’ video design: very different to the West End version but bringing life and freshness to the show, particularly during the beautiful “You Will be Found” at the end of Act 1. Following the Tiktok theme, during the song the actors are surrounded by videos (notably including one in BSL which was great to see) announcing the viral impact of Hansen’s memorial speech at the high school assembly. There was a short clip of local BBC news outlet East Midlands Today reporting on the video of the speech. Presumably, this will be replicated on the tour relative to each local town/city.
This phenomenal version of what has quickly become a modern classic is sure to delight audiences at every stop on this UK tour. When similar productions can sometimes lose quality in order to make them conducive to touring, Nottingham Playhouse and ATG have delivered a masterpiece that stands on the shoulders of its beloved West End forerunner. A must see for all lovers of musical theatre!
Star Rating: Five stars
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