Dear Evan Hansen, you should've stopped at the show
Walden Sullivan, Staff Writer
“Dear Evan Hansen”, directed by Stephen Chbosky, was released only in theaters Sept. 24. Although the film, for the most part, is good, there are some major problems in the execution.
“Dear Evan Hansen” is one of the theater world’s most acclaimed recent musicals. It’s about an anxious teenager named Evan Hansen (Ben Platt) who's learning to find himself. Conflict ensues when a writing exercise from his therapist falls into the hands of fellow student, Connor Murphy (Colton Ryan) who's struggling with depression and takes his own life near the beginning of the movie.
The film has several fundamental issues, one of which is the casting. The casting director said “Ben Platt or nothing” for this movie, which caused major controversy in the musical theater world. Platt is a 28-year-old playing a senior in high school. Even though he was the original Evan on Broadway, there have been several younger and equally talented actors to take the role after him. One of the latest replacements, Andrew Barth Feldman, is 19. He would’ve been a much more appropriate choice. One of the main reasons Platt even got cast in the first place is because his dad (Marc Platt) produced it.
The film, and Platt in particular, got bad reviews. But, when you get past that Ben Platt looked like a 30-year-old with a bad perm, he delivered a great performance. His vocals sound pretty much perfect with minimal noticeable autotune, and his acting is good even though sometimes his imitations of people with depression/anxiety feel insensitive.
Another issue is the serious lack of diversity. Not just in the movie, but in the musical. In the musical, there is only one person of color, Alana (Amandla Stenberg). The problem is that
she doesn't have any solo numbers in the musical. In the movie, they make some effort to improve the character, by adding a song for her, even though it’s by far the weakest number in the movie. While her song adds some significance to the character, overall it feels like a Katy Perry song with bad autotune.
In addition to casting problems, many parts of the film make Connor’s death feel very made fun of. For example, The song “Sincerely Me” follows a very tragic scene involving Connor taking his own life. In this song, they have Connor singing and dancing through the hallways. They even made him hit the woah, and at that moment, I considered whether this or the “Cats” movie is worse.
This adaptation pretty much stayed true to the original musical, with the exception of the four cut songs: “Anybody Have A Map”, “Disappear”, “To Break In A Glove”, and “Good For You”. Personally, I agree with the cut of Anybody Have A Map and To Break In A Glove. This is only because I feel like neither is relevant to the story. Also, “To Break In A Glove” is just a bad song. But I am not thrilled with the other two cuts. “Disappear” is the only time we hear Connor sing, which helped his character to be likable. Also, “Good For You” is by far my favorite song in the show because it contained several layers of complex harmony and it’s the only point where Evan is being held accountable for his bad actions.
The plot has also become very controversial over time. The basic storyline to it is that Evan gets famous for lying about a dead kid (Connor). Since the musical came out, more and more people have found this to be a problem. Both the musical and movie are built for you to feel sympathy for Evan when really he is more of a villain.
Overall, the film adaptation of “Dear Evan Hansen” struggled with basic concepts but in the end, it is a decent movie. It contains solid performances and great music, but just not the right execution.
