A must-see musical for today
Don’t miss out on seeing the award-winning show Dear Evan Hansen, currently moving West End audiences
MUST-SEE MUSICAL Dear Evan Hansen has been a huge hit stateside and is continuing its success in London until 22 October – winning three Olivier awards, including best new musical, best actor and best original score (written by the talented songwriters behind The Greatest Showman and La La Land). If you want to see a contemporary classic musical, that speaks to everyone and has its own unique voice, this is the show to book before it disappears.
In a story for our times, the show explores the struggle to make meaningful connections in a hyper-connected world where the online universe is so often not what it seems – a carefully curated fantasy rather than reality. The musical’s themes will resonate with anybody who has faced social anxiety or felt isolated – on or offline; as well as anybody struggling with a parent-child disconnect. The touching storyline is a must for mothers, exploring the trials and tribulations of raising a child in a modern world.
The titular character Evan Hansen is a high-school student who longs to fit in. With the encouragement of his therapist, he writes letters to himself pointing out all his attributes and the positives in his life. When one of these letters mistakenly falls into the hands of a couple grieving for their son, Evan is suddenly presented with an opportunity to fit in and belong – but it’s based on a fabrication he must maintain.
Poignant and real in a way that stands out from other West End shows, universal in its appeal and with a stellar soundtrack sung by the Olivier award-winning cast, Dear Evan Hansen both captures the zeitgeist and has quickly become a timeless classic of musical theatre. To make sure you don’t miss out, book your seats now, before it closes in London.
‘Dear Evan Hansen’ is at the Noel Coward Theatre in London’s West End until 22 October.
To book tickets, visit dearevanhansen.com
ATLANTA IS PART of a growing trend in the Golden Age of TV™ for shows to start off as one thing then evolve into something wildly more experimental. With Atlanta, what began as the venerable Donald Glover’s amusing conversation on how Black men are exploited in his hometown for their rap talents has turned into an imaginative thesis on race and modern America, worthy of academic interrogation.
It is deep, elegant, soulful and sharp. Some of the more abstract episodes of
Atlanta sting hard. As a TV experience it is now much more likely to prompt tears than laughter. There is an existential edge to
Atlanta and with this admirably ambitious third season – which attempts to tie up a lot of loose ends in Black modern American history – it becomes Glover’s masterpiece.
The show still centres loosely on the travails of our three Southern musketeers: mid-tier hip-hop trooper Paperboi (Brian Tyree Henry), his beta cousin/ manager Earn (Glover) and their stoner pal Darius (the always amazing Lakeith Stanfield). Then there’s Earn’s ex-girlfriend, Van (Zazie Beetz, the secret weapon in
Atlanta’s vast armoury), whose relationship with Earn is never clearly defined.
In season three, Paperboi’s European tour gives Glover ample opportunity to examine how Black America parlays on to a world stage. Not much of it is pretty, but all of it is uniquely absorbing, and wrapped in some masterful storytelling. There are London, Paris and Amsterdam episodes, the latter a particular tour de force, where a cameo by the emerging trans actor Ava Grey steals the show even from Liam Neeson in a bar called The Cancel Club.
Atlanta often comes perilously close to the bone, just as it should. But to call it ‘brave’ television is to undermine something of Glover’s imaginative vision. This show is in a category of its own. It may just be the best thing on TV right now.
From 29 June, Disney+