It turns out to be false, or an advertising or a marketing thing. Stephen Chbosky's adaptation of Dear Evan Hansen, based on the Broadway show of the same name, features a beautiful soundtrack.The 2021 movie cut several songs from the Broadway show and added a few new ones, but overall, the musical's tone is not affected by these changes. That is something as Stacey said that is organic and then we cant control. Evan was the beginning of our story. SM: I have to tell you that I literally went on Instagram to post about a month ago, and I was getting 21 likes here there basically from people who know me really well, and then one day, Laura Dreyfuss whos in our show liked one of my pictures, and I understood everything. If you have the good fortune to become successful, you do become something more, but the essence of it is sitting in that theater. What do you think of things like that? Platt is certainly not the first adult to play a teenager onscreen, nor is he the first to look his age while . Who would find that most difficult? Evan was who we eventually created. Do you not put stuff online? I think that we do like to say that the story could have happened in ancient Greece. Talk about the other characters, the mothers, both parents. It is an awful, awful thing he does. Now theyre gone. 24. I hope it goes Is it coming to San Francisco? The teens are doing revenge porn like Evan. Its the hot ticket on Broadway right now. It was at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C..It opened on Broadway in December 2016 at the Music Box Theatre.It won six awards at the 71st Tony Awards.Two of them were the Best Musical and . Then you Snapchat though, that was interesting of course I noticed that, of course its Snapchat. SM: Terrible, terrible, but no, were in a tiny theater really, and we very much want people to come and see us. I dont know, if you dont live in Silicon Valley, but I, like, oh my God, her. SL: No. Hes told to write these daily affirmations, Dear Evan Hansen, today is going to be a great day, and here is why. That is the beginning of our story, is him writing one of these letters, and its the first day of school. We actually went out to our fans, and we told them exactly how to take a picture of themselves, and send their faces in to us. For more information visit saltlakecity.broadway.com. SL: Yes. Book writer Steven Levenson on the power of moral tension---In some ways, "You Will Be Found" is just a moving song. The novelization of Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul's six-time Tony Award-winning musical Dear Evan Hansen is compelling and deeply emotional. That's the big, like, that's number one: be yourself. SL: Exactly. He lacks friends. Start: Today is going to be an amazing d Dear Evan Hansen: Ive seen so much stuff that is very earnest about the show in the way that the stuff about Connors arent. I just did an interview with Alison Bechdel. Dear Evan Hansen (2021) centers on Evan Hansen (Ben Platt), a high school student with social anxiety disorder whose letter to himself, one that was not meant to be seen by others, lands into the wrong hands of fellow classmate, Connor Murphy (Colton Ryan), who, as a result, commits suicide. Dear Evan Hansen, the smash-hit, Tony winning 2015 musical, was, depending on your outlook, a poignant depiction of the mental health perils of high school, or an unrelentingly . Its the experience, sitting there in that theater in that one place with that one performance. Scene 1: We start on a black screen. Evan, in an effort to assuage their terrible grief, finds himself inadvertently claiming that he was his friend. Final Scene and Finale by Dear Evan Hansen OBC - Karaoke Lyrics on Smule. Its a musical about a high school student with social anxiety disorder and social media problems. Do see it, and see that beneath the faade, were all searching for the same things. So, I dont even know why Im bringing it up because its not going to happen because itsbut, like, all you have to do is just be yourself!! As the performance began, Evan was alone. Not anymore. Jared pretends to be the guy whos got it all figured out, but all of these characters are lost and alone in different ways. This is Evan's mom. Universal. I think thats what makes it special. But also. On that stage, and you also used it in your own marketing, you had Twitter, Facebook, what else? Its difficult to do because Theres always like an Uber joke or a Twitter joke, but thats it. Now Meta and Twitter want your money, too. Put your phone away. Reader support helps us keep our explainers free for all. SL: Yes, and he looks around as I think many of us do at social media, and sees the world of people who are fluent and who seem to be able to navigate this world of communication that he finds baffling. SL: It feels like there must be a middle ground, because I do feel like ultimately what is going to separate theater from everything else is not the content. But they want to continue the relationship. SM: Theyre an important part of the fabric of the whole thing. And especially with the pain. Then he uses it, the social media, to amplify that awfulness. We dont really live in that world anymore. I was looking at the social media on the show. Its certainly done that for me. SM: She is also lonely. Dear Evan Hansen is a novel published in 2018. On this episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher, Kara is joined by the producer and book writer of the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen. Stacey Mindich and Steven Levenson talk about how the show reflects on how social media has changed the nature of community, and why it is still important to get people into a space where they can unplug and see live theater. He begins to type. They have a son, Connor, who has been trouble for a very long time. I was so happy to be in that room telling the story about people rising above the lies and finding unity together. At the behest of his therapist, Evan, an anxiety-ridden 17-year-old high schooler, writes a pop-psychology pep talk in the form of a . Because today, all you have to do is be yourself. Some have argued, for example, that the film's message is toxic. It was so fascinating because it was so old and so relevant at the same time, so you felt the age of it because it felt old, like what youre talking about. I dont have time, but I will catch you later. I think Steven in less words than more actually captures that in Heidi. One of our founding members Tom Stevenson gives his rendition of this modern monologue taken from the hit musical Dear Evan Hansen. Dear Evan Hansen poster. Whats important now when youre doing that as youre moving to Broadway? Then your other extra characters are also very interesting, like the girl who SL: Alana, who is our voice of social media in a lot of ways. Heres a clip from the show. Again, it just gives credit to Stevens real knack for credible, authentic characters, because I think that is so true of so many men. SM: Im still new to social media, so I dont think I can do that. Well, you do the I-wish-you-were-dead-but-not-really thing. SM: It really is the intimacy of it. They dont ever have to say to the mother, Hi, its Danny. I do think you should get some of it a little bit online, because I think certain parts of it are really resonant in this age, and really talk about things in a really fair way. There is haptic touch. They may have started finding us because Ben Platt was about to come out in the second Pitch Perfect movie, or because Pasek and Paul had a following of millennials who were very adept at social media. Cynthia Murphy, who is the other mom, Connor Murphys mom, is equally as relatable, and I think it takes us part of her journey to really come to understand her and her fortitude, because she goes through the grief, the absolute horror, the last thing that any mother or father ever, ever, ever wants to go through, and yet shes so admirable because she keeps finding ways to lift herself up and to keep life going. SL: Yes, it improves his life, and what becomes impossible for him to stop is how much it improves other peoples lives. SL: There is something about Hamilton being a prime example of, there is something so old-fashioned about it, and yet something that is drawing people to it that I think has to do with seeing actors right there in front of you, seeing them sweat, seeing them spit, feeling like you were having this visceral experience in this room, and theres something quite special and intimate about that. I said yes. DEAR EVAN HANSEN, the winner of six 2017 Tony Awards including Best Musical and the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. SL: Its incredible that that has been happening and happened around the show. It was a smart way to talk about hard things. SL: I think storytelling is going to continue to evolve into different forms and formats. To get to the point, do you feel like when I say retro, Im talking about the ideas? By Nils Skudra. Guide written by. It is a conversation starter. . New York, NY, Ages 12-17: Camp Broadway Ensemble @ Carnegie Hall We have parents who come with each other on their theater date night, and they come back and they bring their kids. It was mind-blowing to see Rent at that time. SM: It does start with a 17-year-old boy alone in his bedroom scrolling through social media. Theres always an outsider, and theres often a story with a moral tale that has a lie, and then the truth comes out, and the catharsis of that, and the redemption and the forgiveness is what makes audiences feel very good. I first met Stevens colleagues, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, and fell in love with their music, and really took them out to lunch one day, came with a whole bunch of ideas from my older-generation head, and within five minutes at the lunch table realized that they would never want to do a musical version of Edith Whartons something -something, but I didnt want to leave without working with them. This is fake news, either of you. Im going to keep pushing this because you got to see something in the new VR. The musical opened on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre in December 2016, after the show's world premiere at the Arena Stage in . They put new pictures, theres all these things. Social media proved its relevance outside of establishing the modern setting as the speech goes viral all over the internet, an important plot point expressed beautifully across the digital . Your director Michael did Rent. I remember when Rent came out. SM: Thats angry old men shaking their fists at the internet. One of the most compelling musical films that relates to neurodiversity and social anxiety is Dear Evan Hansen, a 2021 adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical about an isolated high school senior who becomes the motivational force behind a campaign for mental health awareness following the suicide of a fellow student.. SM: The father is an interesting nut to crack, because he at first doesnt emote about his pain. Its also a lot about the impact of the internet on teens and everyone. SL: Larry and Cynthia and Zoe, who is their daughter and Connors sister, are all really And Evan Hansen probably more who really SL: Yes exactly. Today in the red chairs are Stacey Mindich and Steven Levenson, the producer and book writer of Dear Evan Hansen. Its a musical about a high school student with social anxiety disorder struggling to connect with people around him, including his crush, Zoe, and her social outcast brother Connor. You know what I mean? You can find more episodes of Recode Decode anywhere you listen to a podcast. Its a beautiful song that Benj and Justin have written. They might after hearing this. SM: Were struggling and learning. Were going to talk about, the musical, that and more, but first lets about a little bit of your background, each of you. Because she wants to use it for that, she wants to use it for advantage. Stacey and Steven, thanks for coming by. Dear Evan Hansen is a 2021 American coming-of-age musical film directed by Stephen Chbosky from a screenplay by Steven Levenson, based on the stage musical of the same name by Levenson, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul. Dear Evan Hansen takes on challenging subjectsdeath, grief, class, mental illness, social media, social anxietywith unapologetic trust in the power of contemporary pop music to tell complex stories onstage. Yeah, you can. The plot of Dear Evan Hansen begins with a letter, unsurprisingly given the title. Its an interesting question, because throughout the preview process and throughout the out of town production in off Broadway, there were always a certain number of people whove thought he didnt suffer enough for what he did. Thats what was strong about this, was it? jennyjenrose. Evan Hansen, through Val Emmich's ( The Reminders) skillful interpretation, is a complex, well-developed character whose struggles with depression and anxiety read painfully true. In the beginning of the ad campaign, those faces were actually stock faces that we bought. Were all paying for that. The lies start piling up, especially when Evan has to explain his absence to his single mother Heidi (Julianne Moore). A lot of musicals recently, theyre not kind. What happens to theater going forward then?