High school musical
THE CHARMING DEAR EVAN HANSEN MAKES A SMOOTH TRANSITION TO SCREEN
Cast: Ben Platt, Kaitlyn Dever, Amandla Stenberg Director: Stephen Chbosky Duration: 2 h 17 m Available: In theatres beginning Sept. 24
“Some day all this is going to feel like a very long time ago.”
That’s Heidi (Julianne Moore) speaking to her son Evan in the film adaptation of Dear Evan Hansen, which follows the beats and most of the songs of the Broadway original, and even includes Ben Platt in the starring role he originated in 2015. It’s a bittersweet line, perhaps especially during a pandemic, but also any time at all.
The fact that Platt is now 27 and still playing a high schooler is not the showstopper (in the bad sense of the word) it might be. Stockard Channing as a 33-yearold senior in Grease forever broke that ceiling. And if you go to a musical for realism, you’ll be left wondering why the heck everyone is singing all the time.
Dear Evan Hansen, adapted by its playwright Steven Levenson and directed by Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), tells a sombre, emotional tale about a lonely high school student whose heartfelt letter to himself is mistaken for a note from fellow student Connor (Colton Ryan), who then kills himself. Confronted by a grieving mother (Amy Adams) who is just glad that Colton had a friend, Evan plays along until he can no longer extricate himself from the lie. This puts him in potential trouble with a well-meaning fellow student played by Amandla Stenberg, and with Connor’s sister Zoe (Kaitlyn Dever), to whom the socially awkward and anxious Evan is attracted..
The adult cast members aren’t known for their singing prowess, but they manage well enough, and the “kids” — Dever is 24, Stenberg 22 — carry the show, with Stenberg co-writing and belting out a new number for the screen.
Even Platt’s uncomfortable-looking performance is just what the movie demands.
If you like a good musical, want to revisit the stage show or never got the chance to see it, Dear Evan Hansen is just the ticket. ★★★1/2