“Good for You” is all I can say to the cast and crew of the musical-made movie, “Dear Evan Hansen”. They successfully took a masterpiece of a Broadway musical and turned it into a truly beautiful, emotionally captivating, and all together perfect movie. 

Dear Evan Hansen, is a beautifully touching story in itself. Telling the story of a high school senior, Evan Hansen who struggles with crippling anxiety and depression. Evan has difficulty talking to anyone, let alone his long-time crush on Zoe Murphy. This all changes drastically when Zoe’s older brother Connor Murphy sadly takes his own life. In the sorrow and confusion that comes with losing a child, combined with Connor signing Evan’s cast and his suicide note being adressed to Evan himelf, Connor’s parents mistakenly take Evan for his secret bestfriend. Evan has a difficult time telling them the truth of the day before Connor took his own life, and so he agrees to their story and takes on the fabricated story that he is Connor’s only friend. This beautiful piece teaches the importance and harshness of friendship, family, social media, and mental illness. It reminds the audience that they are never truly alone. 

Even if you’re not a fan of theatre, it is undeniable that they did a wonderful job of remaking the musical into a movie. By capturing the quintessential aspect of the musical – the emotional connection, without being in the same room is quite honestly incredible. Plus, they perfectly integrated the breathtaking music that is the backbone of the musical. Major props to the entire production, you may have just become my new favorite movie.

Although, it is a majorly contested point that Ben Platt should not have been playing a high school senior at 27 years old, for me personally it did not affect the movie whatsoever. Platt can obviously still play the role of a teenager, and he strives to bring life, emotion, and his angelic voice to the role of Evan Hansen. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

For the most part, the actors in this piece are magnificent and do an excellent job at portraying their individual characters. Although, both Danny Pino and Amandla Stenberg deserve all of the praise because their performances as Larry Murphy and Alana Beck are truly astounding. The only person I would say fell short is Amy Adams, who has trouble meeting the emotional aspects of her role as Cynthia Murphy. Overall, the actors did a spectacular job of taking on such a complex set of characters in the groundbreaking movie/musical Dear Evan Hansen. 

The entire production is extremely beautiful. The brand new song “The Anonymous Ones”, is definitely a must-listen and definitely lives up to the rest of the music’s standards. The filmmaking is also quite captivating – especially with the lighthearted nature of “Sincerely Me” and “For Forever” – a bone chilling rendition that does a wonderful job of capturing all of the characters individual reaction to the series of events. 

In all, I truly recommend this musical to everyone who has ears and wants to experience an amazing stride in recreating the performance aspect of musicals and reformatting it into a movie-theatre experience. Go out, buy your tickets now, and most definitely bring tissues!