Dear Baltimore City,
Today is going to be a good day and here’s why:
#YouWillBeFound
The Tony Award-winning musical Dear Evan Hansen has arrived in Charm City and not a moment too soon. This limited-run engagement is the perfect beacon of hope in a long-standing darkness that has been sweeping through the world for quite some time now. While live theatre has returned in-person, and everyone is adjusting to ‘new normal’ Dear Evan Hansen brings with it much needed hope, much needed reassurance, and a great dose of honesty and love for people of all types. This show is for everyone; anyone who has ever felt unseen, unnoticed, as if they were fading away, as if no one might notice if they disappeared— this is your show. Directed by Michael Greif, with Musical Supervision & Additional Orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire, and Choreography by Danny Mefford, this is the show that will let the sunlight into even the darkest of places inside your heart and soul; this is the show that promises hope and delivers hands down. #YouWillBeFound
While the scenic design (David Korins) doesn’t seem like much, particularly as its loaded with projections (designed by Peter Nigrini) and though the modern trend of “let’s project everything” over using real backdrops and backgrounds seems to be dominating performance spaces these days, the way this show is conceptualized by Korins and Nigrini is actually perfect. There are small mobile set pieces, self-contained, isolated— Evan’s bedroom, Connor’s bedroom— even the lighting is isolating and mostly dark. Lighting Designer Japhy Weideman keeps this show in the cloistered gloom of feeling invisible, feeling unseen. There are moments when the titular character is speaking with one of the two supporting youngsters and the moment the conversation ends (usually by Evan slamming closed his laptop) the tightly-focused spotlight that was previously on the other character, snaps out, plunging them into darkness. Weideman has one stellar moment of lighting— so bright and blue that it’s practically blinding, beautifully representing how sometimes even the light of hope can be too much— and it contrasts so perfectly with the darkness that overrides most of the production elements, it’s stunning. The projections that Peter Nigrini brings together during “You Will Be Found”, the Act I finale number, are a breathtaking moment that truly drops the gravity of the song onto the audience full-circle.
Dear Evan Hansen is more of a narrative with musical numbers than a more traditional ‘musical’ where there are big splashy dance numbers. However, that is not to discredit Danny Mefford’s work as the show’s choreographer. There is a great and energetic number featuring Evan, Connor, and Jared—“Sincerely, Me”— which gets these three performers moving with enthusiasm and the feeling of having fun. There are also a great many stoically blocked choreographic movements, this is particularly true of “Good For You”, which is the raging-anger-ballad number featuring Heidi, Alana, and Jared. Mefford’s work is subtle and suitable for this production, giving you just a taste of movement so that you can remember you are in a musical. It is well-matched with the overall energy and experience of the show.
With a show of just eight performers (though there is a host of pre-recorded voices and video images used throughout the production as a great deal of what happens in the show’s storyline circles around social media and its ubiquitous influence in our daily lives), Director Michael Greif extricates powerful, raw emotions from each of the performers. Everyone has a story and the moments that you watch these things unfold— each in their own time and their own way— is stunning. This an “ugly-cry” show; bring tissues. Creating such powerful emotions, tying them into these moving, gripping songs, Greif makes this production of Dear Evan Hansen stand out and be heard, really giving the audience an unforgettable experience.
Overly peppy, overly perky, perhaps even ostentatious and obnoxious, are the words that immediately come to mind for the Alana Beck (Ciara Alyse Harris) character. But we can all relate a little when it comes to this ‘over-tryer.’ Harris delivers this overly enthusiastic archetype of your typical ‘over-achieving’ and regrettably ‘not-popular’ high school girl with such zest that you find yourself captivated, and also laughing (librettist Steven Levenson has given that character some particularly witty and humorous lines), whenever she takes the stage. Not to be written off as the quirky sidekick, Harris’ Alana has a powerful voice which can be heard standing out and also harmonizing during numbers like “Disappear”, “You Will Be Found”, and “Good For You”, with the latter of those three numbers really giving the opportunity for Harris’ vocal prowess to be on full display at maximum level.
With a more deadpan sense of humor and delivery the Jared Kleinman (Alessandro Costantini) character has a lot of zippy one-liners that add humor to this production. One of the more harrowing realizations about Costantini’s character is that Jared behaves the way he does because he too feels unseen. Costantini finds the fine line between turning Jared into a caricature and making him realistic. With a strong voice, he adds great harmonies to “Disappear”, “You Will Be Found”, “Good For You”, and “Sincerely, Me.” That number has the three young men of the show working their way through the everyday difficulties of being a person in high school. Costantini has a stunning moment with the titular character in the middle of the second act that really puts their relationship into perspective as well, proving that Costantini is a versatile performer.
Though the Connor (Nikhil Saboo) character isn’t written into the libretto with as much stage time as the others, Nikhil Saboo commands the audiences’ attention from the moment we’re introduced to him at the Murphy’s breakfast table. Awkward, shy, aloof, and introverted, Saboo doesn’t give off the more manic and anger-led personality of Connor that was present in previous iterations of the tour. This is a unique and beautiful choice because it deeply humanizes the character so that when the inevitable events of the production unfold, there are emotional explosions straight from the get-go. Saboo has a brilliant voice, heard throughout in a few different ensemble numbers, but it’s the striking moment that he shares with the Evan Hansen character towards the end of the performance that really sends the chills up the spine. When Connor confronts Evan about what really happened in the tree, how Evan really broke his arm, the performance that Saboo delivers, though brief of words, is striking beyond compare.
The disfunction of the Murphy family is well represented in Cynthia Murphy (Claire Rankin) and Larry Murphy (John Hemphill), the stereotypical ‘too-rich-and-detached’ mother and father figure. John Hemphill, as Connor’s father, gives a stunning performance, reserved and hardened and it isn’t until “You Will Be Found” that you first experience the fissure in his character’s composure; it’s heart-stopping. Vocally impressive, Hemphill holds his own with the youngsters of the performance, particularly when singing his duet with Evan, “To Break in a Glove.” While the number is lyrically about the proper technique of breaking in a baseball glove, there is so much subtext occurring in that song and Hemphill delivers it superbly. His polar opposite, the grief-stricken-heart-on-sleeve mother Cynthia, is delivered divinely by Claire Rankin. While Rankin’s character receives no solo/duet of her own, she is one third of the hauntingly tragic and beautiful number “Requiem”, which features the father, mother, and sister of Connor Murphy.
Playing the aforementioned sister Zoe, Stephanie La Rochelle gives the audience a lot to take in, a lot to absorb, and a lot to feel. Her immediate reaction to the circumstances surrounding Connor is not what one might expect; it because a jarring roller coaster of experiences trying to process the events of this show through the Zoe character’s eyes. La Rochelle does a tremendous job at successfully conveying these feelings, letting the audience understand that her experience in this situation is just as valid even though it’s different or ‘not normal.’ Quirky and cute during interactions with Evan, La Rochelle brings a lightness to the character, one of buoyancy that separates this character from everyone else who is having a more ‘traditional’ response to the events at hand. With a sweet, sublime voice, La Rochelle can be heard in various trio and ensemble numbers but the place where she vocally shines is during her duet with Evan, “Only Us.”
In what is arguably the most powerful role in the performance, second only to Evan Hansen itself, is Heidi Hansen (Jessica E. Sherman), Evan’s mom. Introduced to the audience as this “does the best she can” type mom, single and raising a struggling son, working and attending classes and there ‘when she can be’, there is such a sharp juxtaposition of that woman and the woman that Sherman presents to the audience later in the performance. Every time she takes the stage— particularly during the scene at the Murphy home late in the second act— you feel everything she’s experiencing and trying to convey and you feel it hard. When she goes off the rails at Evan during “Good For You” it’s the perfect introduction to this power ballad of rage. And when everything comes crashing and burning down, her solo “So Big/So Small” has the audience in the second-biggest ugly-cry of the evening. With astonishing vocals and an immense capacity for expressing raw emotions in their truest form, Jessica E. Sherman is knockout sensation in the role of Evan Hansen’s mother.
Dear Stephen Christopher Anthony,
You have found your way to being Evan Hansen and it’s emotionally eviscerating, tragically beautiful, and one of the most awe-inspiring performances to be on The Hippodrome stage in a long, long time.
As the titular character, the weight of the world is readily fixed on Stephen Christopher Anthony’s shoulders. He is versatile. Giving the audience this very jittery and nervous character filled with awkward laughter who starts speaking at a mile a minute whenever he gets anxious, which is often, and then juxtaposing that against this terrified young man who sees himself slipping away, becoming less and less visible every day. The little moments that he has with his mother on stage all throughout the performance are far too relatable for so many— absorbing the disappointment, saying it’s okay, slapping on the makeshift happy face, and trying to carry on. Anthony delivers moment after moment of deeply bruising emotional expressions which linger and last throughout the entire performance. When he first delves into the solo “For Forever” you hear so much more than just music and lyrics. He has a captivating voice, an impressive vocal range featuring some high-tenor sounds that border on falsetto, and a stage presence that makes him seen, felt, and heard. “Words Fail” is another moment of sheer unadulterated tragic beauty. It takes the entire show for hope to grow out of the Evan Hansen character’s voice and when it does, you won’t be able to help but cry. Anthony is masterful in the role, striking the perfect balance between emotions and moments of humor, darkness and light.
No one should ever be forgotten. Everyone deserves to be seen. This show is so full of heart and hope and important messages; please, please get tickets if you can. #YouWillBeFound
Running Time: Approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes with one intermission
Dear Evan Hansen plays through March 20, 2022 at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre in the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center— 12 N. Eutaw Street in the Bromo Seltzer Arts District of Baltimore, MD. For tickets call the box office at (410) 752-7444 or purchase them purchase them online.
