TOW #17 – Dear Evan Hansen Musical

                On December 4^th, the musical Dear Evan Hansen finally moved from a small theater in D.C. to Broadway. The musical follows the story of a boy, Evan Hansen, who suffers from severe social-anxiety. To help him deal with his anxiety, his therapist suggests that he writes hopeful letters to himself. While printing one of the letters in the school library, Connor Murphy, picks it up and noticing his sister’s name in the letter takes it. Three days later Connor commits suicide and it’s revealed that Evan’s letter was in his pocket. This then causes Connor’s parents to believe and then confront Evan about a secret friendship between him and Connor. Not wanting to cause them any further grief, Evan fabricated an intricate story of how him and Connor were secret friends who emailed frequently. Evan eventually launches The Connor Project to prevent people from forgetting about Connor and hopefully other people who committed suicide. The rest of the show then continues with Connor’s sudden rise in popularity and struggle to keep the lie going. Dear Evan Hansen portrays through a very long fictional anecdote that it’s important to stay truthful to yourself.

Throughout the musical, Evan finds it difficult to separate himself from the fabricated version that he’s created. Through The Connor Project Evan gets funding an apple orchid that he and Connor supposedly spent time in.  He begins to become so close with the Murphy family that he suddenly forgets about his single mother and the life he lived with her. This huge shift leads to more conflict in Evan’s life because now people are starting to notice small inconsistencies within the emails. This forces Evan to admit that he fabricated the whole thing because he was scared he was going to lose the family he had found with them.  The show then skips to a year later where Evan writes himself one last letter, reflecting on the impact he had on his community and his hope to inspire others to do the same.

                Dear Evan Hansen teaches its universal audience that you should always be true to yourself because in the end you just end up alienating yourself.