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I said yes. They put new pictures, theres all these things. I think shes a very important character for some reason, being a mom to SM: Very, very, because she is the one that he comes home to in the end and discovers his, I hope spoiler alerts are okay, but discovers he has something that he didnt realize before. He begins to type. with monologues . Or even knowing phone numbers, but thats another thing. SM: And yet the final scene of our show set in an apple orchard that was planted in Connors honor, and not exactly in a straight-line way, but yet as Evan says at the end of the show, He was memorialized, and there is this moment to step out into the sun. View Dear Evan Hansen opening monologue.docx from AA 1Dear Evan Hansen, Today's going to be an amazing day and here's why: because because today, all you have to do is just be yourself. 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. It actually took me a couple of years of watching the show every night to really understand her plight. It should go everywhere, because I think its real. 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 think thats what makes it special. But once she gets on the blog, she blossoms. Spoilers for the show and a trigger warning for discussion of ableism and suicide after the jump. Do see it, and see that beneath the faade, were all searching for the same things. Sometimes, lessons were learned, and youre like, Oh.. It turns out, this wa Ages 12-17: Camp Broadway Ensemble @ Carnegie Hall. "My name. Jared is often the voice of the audience, pointing out what were thinking, so he serves a really interesting and useful purpose. 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. Evan Hansen, an awkward, lonely high school senior, struggles with Social Anxiety Disorder. EVAN: (don't forget to TALK FAST) Dear Evan Hansen, Today is going to be an amazing day and here's why Because, Because today um all you have to do Snowballs, and then social media is the key snowball, or as it amplifies and creates the situation that improves his life, and also makes the horrible situation worse. You can read some of the highlights from the interview at that link, or listen to it in the audio player below. Then it was so relevant to today at the same time. We shouldnt. Then you Snapchat though, that was interesting of course I noticed that, of course its Snapchat. Likewise, the character whose death triggers the events of the musical, Connor Murphy, can be viewed both as a redeemable character or a villain. SL: We always wanted to thread that needle. We didnt have Uber. 2 sentence. You see how this kind of thing can actually happen. So many shows and movies and everything else, a lot of literature about that, finding connection, or you try to make people feel better about the idea that you can be connected in this interconnected world, where I think nobody has felt lonelier than ever before. It was that and Angels in America were very big deals. Social media now lets you have People put up that video. But yet he goes along with it, he goes along with the lie. SM: But for us, what serves our show so well is the intimacy of those 984 plus 16 standing room possibilities. What do you think of what he did, because hes a fictional character but hes not? The 13 most cringeworthy moments in 'Dear Evan Hansen' from the lack of chemistry between Evan and Zoe to the odd portrayal of mental health. Phone numbers were never meant to protect or identify us, but we use them to do that all the time. SL: Its really a credit to our director, Michael Grief, and our designers Dave Korins, and Peter Nigrini was our video designer. Well, you do the I-wish-you-were-dead-but-not-really thing. You got involved with this, and what were you thinking, Steven? My son had one with a bad video, and it went up. He is the son of Heidi and Mark Hansen. SM: Im still new to social media, so I dont think I can do that. Riding the wave . SL: And loneliness, and so we immediately thought in a dramatic sense, Who would be the person who is unable to connect? . But would you have plans to do that, to have a digital version of it after? SL: It feels like what all those fake news things are hitting on is a true emotion that people are feeling. Can you talk about each of the characters? It turns out to be false, or an advertising or a marketing thing. A letter that was never meant to be seen, a lie that was never . This is fake news, either of you. How long does it ? Anyone familiar with Broadway in the last five years will have heard of "Dear Evan Hansen," the pop-musical sensation that swept the Tony Awards in 2017. SM: Hes not fictional to me anymore, because not only have I lived with him for so long, but I stand in the back of the theater. I have mixed feelings about filming shows, because you lose something. I wouldnt want a device on my head or my eyes to take me away from that. Thats right, and when she gets it, boy, its interesting. It is a conversation starter. What begins as a little white lie becomes a way of comforting this family. Now its all about Trump. Today is going to be a good day, and here's why; because today, no matter what else you are you. Everybody is super happy. Dear Evan Hansen, Today's going to be an amazing day and here's why: because because today, all you have to do is just be yourself. It is a duet sung by Connor's father and Evan, titled "To Break in A Glove." Though it is literally talking about the correct way to break in a baseball glove, it can also be talking about . I was a journalist first. I think whats interesting about the fake news is clearly, facts dont work to dispel it. I asked them what they wanted to do, and Benj Pasek told me a story that was just the germ of what happened in Dear Evan Hansen, but it was something that happened in his high school life where a senior, they were all in the senior class, and a senior passed away from drugs. Benj was astounded that basically his whole class identified with it, wrote their college essays about it. I can only tell you the funny story that we all just do things too quickly, and we make silly mistakes all the time. SM: Were struggling and learning. Thats something that I do think is new to social media. When I first heard the song Anybody Have a Map? which was our third or fourth opening number to the show. Then we brought in the great director, Michael Grief, whos done Rent and Next to Normal. He also brought in his own interpretations. I think people are hungering to feel a part of a community, and to be sitting in an audience with other people. Ive met Alana a hundred times. Maybe they didnt have the tragic events, but were all a little bit like that. Ben Platt in "Dear Evan Hansen." "Dear Evan Hansen" has been criticized because Ben Platt is a 27-year-old playing a student. Whereas if you adapt a musical into a film, or adapt it into a TV series or a VR, then it becomes that. Book writer Steven Levenson on the power of moral tension---In some ways, "You Will Be Found" is just a moving song. Hashtag youre not alone. What did you use that for?, SM: I had to explain to one of my sons how to actually call someones home, because theyre so used to calling someone directly. That was me in high school. Maybe they didnt tell the lie. . Ive gone to theater in New York my whole life. 3. SL: Yes, and Cynthia is still, I think, struggling and fighting and searching for a way to get through to him, whereas Larry has by the time the show started just written him off, and so has Zoe. He is, within his opening monologue, portrayed beautifully and poignantly as somebody who is literally on the outside looking in as you can imagine on social media, but also in life. Do you imagine a future where that doesnt have to be what we do, like tape it and make it? producer and book writer of the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen.. It is the need to leave the show, and call. How long have you been developing it, Stacey? SL: But I will say thats the substitute of our musical. Keep going until he sees the sun." 3. will2btenor 6 yr. ago. He has just done incredible work, and its so exhaustive and so detailed. Its the hot ticket on Broadway right now. SM: I will say, though, that there has been a wonderful conversation going on these eight years about this, because Steven and Benj and Justin are from one generation. We know that because we hear from them. Evan is in high school and suffers from anxiety. Well, I had to explain the telephone to one of my kids recently, like a payphone because they saw a payphone. Theyre our community, because this show actually started out with a little bit of an ensemble that got cut after our workshop, but Will is the comic relief. Its certainly done that for me. SM: But its a great symbol of the need for community because she uses knowingly, unknowingly, the experience of Connors death and Evans decision to create the Connor Project, to create a community and a role and a life for herself. Everyones happy on Instagram, and everything is All food is delicious. Were here today on Recode Decode in New York City, and were talking to Stacy Mindich and Steven Levenson, the producer and book writer of Dear Evan Hansen, which is a show I saw. You could see as experienced, everyones got to have the heightened sense of experience all the time. SL: Never send an email when youre angry has been the best lesson. Benj and Justin and I were just talking recently about how when we were in high school, we assumed that everybody was having more fun than we were, but now if youre a high school student, you have proof every day that everybody is happier than you are. He captured something that maybe it even did, maybe it does in smaller ways less musically accentuated, but it is something that is very believable in America right now. He'll just hold on. I think theater is going forward in the kinds of stories we can tell. Its just assaultive. Youre also not trying to do lesson learning. Chloe? "Dear Evan Hansen" is a high school musical, but one in which the loneliness and pain of teen life is front and center, and the sense of isolation intensified in today's social media world. Whats it like to create theater in this age, in this age of digital? Shes always trying to help people. Its the experience.. SM: The father is an interesting nut to crack, because he at first doesnt emote about his pain. So feeling like I was telling you earlier that Dave is working on a VR version of Othello. Im thrilled Othellos going to get to people, so Im not adverse to that idea. I remember going on social media that night, the night of the election, people saying, Get in touch with me if you need somebody to talk to. It was actually genuine. Gain full access to show guides, character breakdowns, auditions, monologues and more! What do you think of things like that? We felt like we actually hadnt seen a lot of theater doing that. Dear Evan Hansen is a novel published in 2018. Something we talked about really early on was this was like six years ago, so Facebook and Twitter were really coming into their own, and it felt like whenever there was a natural disaster or a celebrity passed away, there would be the strange public ritual of people going on social media and somehow identifying with the tragedy. But they want to continue the relationship. He has social anxiety, which shapes his personality throughout the musical. I had Jeffrey Sellers and Richard Hamilton on, and Ive been fascinated with theater my whole life. . 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. It's easy to see why they cut it down for length and time and also to make it vague enough that Connor could've written it just as easily as Evan. The ensemble cast also includes Kaitlyn Dever, Amandla Stenberg, Nik Dodani . SM: Think about this, Steven, if they do a revival of this show in 25 years, they could do it in a retro way with no projections. Do you want to take a little plug, Steven? The eponymous Evan has been tasked by his therapist with writing pep talk letters to himself to help him visualize success: "Dear Evan Hansen, Today is going to be a great day." SL: Yes. Dear Evan Hansen is a musical.The music and lyrics were written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Steven Levenson wrote a book based on the musical). Its a show about life and how we live it. I think for all of us on that dark day that we came to rehearsal, being in the theater where we all have the license to be the people that we are, the little strange quirky Evan-like people that we all are SM: Its a good place for people. SL: Yeah, it begins with the boy in his room with his computer, and before the orchard, it ends with him finally face to face with his mother, no screens between them, really having to tell each other the truth. I dont believe Michael Grief is on social media at all, and I only joined the world of social media, and Im now slightly addicted not in posting but in SM: I love Instagram, but I only joined it because of this show, because I literally had them telling me every day, You wont understand your own children and the way they live and the way theyre liked if you dont participate in some way. This conversation has been going on, and my notes on the show sometimes have questioned this backdrop. No, I get it, but you have to feel the panic of social media. Your director Michael did Rent. I remember when Rent came out. When youre trying to get to what Evan does, it is an awful thing he does. As the performance began, Evan was alone. Yeah, absolutely. SM: We dont have a current plan to do that. And intellig but, just be yourself!! We have a contact list from our website of multiple thousands and thousands and thousands of people that most shows dont have. Im sorry, theres just no other way to put it. Its also a lot about the impact of the internet on teens and everyone. I think that is the beauty of Stevens writing. The next thing I want you to talk about is where theater is going. We found that we gathered fans very, very quickly, and they stayed with us, and so one of our approaches in, not really selling tickets, but in keeping our own community alive was really to talk directly to the fans, to always give them something first, because we believe that they are part of the reason why we were able to go from Arena to Second Stage, and Second Stage to Broadway. Dear Evan Hansen, Today is going to be an amazing day and here's why: because, uh, because today all you have to do is just be yourself. It feels like the forms are changing but the ideas underneath them are not. SL: He is Evans family friend in quotes, which according to Jared means theyre not really friends. Evan Hansen. I hope youre okay. Suddenly, sharply, nothing. You did a super effective job at depicting how something takes off virally, and you used the set design where the information is just cascading and flooding down the picture of how it feels like your phone is. My very last question which I ask everybody, and maybe here well do it a little differently. We have an ad campaign. Good to know. She has a very bitter sense of humor. It feels very much like a phone going up. Because how you market the shows has changed, the way you sell tickets has changed. If youre not that private, thats why you have that many and stuff like that. It's a testament to the songwriting prowess of La La Land duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul that Dear Evan Hansen has gotten anywhere. SM: That was never meant to be literal, because we hope the show will live for many years, and these things may become dinosaurs. 23. Laura Baronet.