About the work
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul's musical „Dear Evan Hansen" was premiered on Broadway in 2016 with book by Steven Levenson. The work won six Tony Awards in 2017, including Best Musical. The musical engages with mental health, social media and authenticity in a manner that struck a nerve with the millennial generation.
Plot
Suburban America, present. The 17-year-old Evan Hansen — anxious, friendless, in therapy — is given by his therapist the assignment to write himself letters of self-encouragement. One such letter falls into the hands of Connor Murphy, a deeply troubled fellow student. Days later Connor commits suicide. His parents, desperately seeking traces of their son's life, find Evan's letter and assume Connor and Evan were close friends. Out of compassion — and to support the parents in their grief — Evan plays along: he invents an entire imaginary friendship, including emails. Connor's parents take Evan in like a son. Evan begins a relationship with Connor's sister Zoe. With Connor's friend Jared and the school activist Alana, Evan launches the „Connor Project", which goes viral. The lie grows ever bigger. When Evan finally confesses, all relationships collapse. Connor's parents grieve their real son; Evan begins his own healing.
Cultural significance
Dear Evan Hansen is among the most successful musicals of the 2010s. „Waving Through a Window", „You Will Be Found" and „For Forever" became viral hits on social media. The work has been criticised for its simplification of mental-health crises (the lying protagonist as hero). The 2021 film with Ben Platt was poorly received. The work nonetheless established teenage social-media trauma as legitimate Broadway material.