It starts with a lie, but this musical will teach you to be a better human

Actor Beau Woodbridge, days from playing the lead role in the Australian premiere of the hit Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen, is considering his sweaty palms.

“I told the costume department straight-up,” he says, still perspiring from the first full-length run of the show at a Sydney Theatre Company rehearsal room. “I will definitely sweat through the show.”

This is partly because Woodbridge, 22 and the son of tennis legend Todd Woodbridge, will be on stage for the show’s entire two-and-half-hour length. But also because portraying Evan Hansen, a teenager gripped by social anxiety, requires a well of unguarded sensitivity.

“It’s very emotionally active,” he says. “There are a lot of quick physical transitions, stage re-sets and changes in scene tone but, overall, this role requires a lot of emotion.”

Beau Woodbridge and Georgia Laga’aia in rehearsals at STC for Dear Evan Hansen.

He smiles widely.

“So the sweat is fine because that’s one of Evan’s things anyway,” he says, wringing his hands theatrically on his trousers. “It actually weirdly helps having sweaty hands because it’s Evan’s nervous hands, always moving around, always fidgeting.”

Produced by the STC and Michael Cassel Group, Dear Evan Hansen tells the story of a 17-year-old who becomes a social media sensation when he tells a terrible lie.

Deftly capturing the agonies of youth and the challenges of parenthood, its story begins after Evan’s doctor advises him to write encouraging letters to himself (“Dear Evan Hansen, today is going to be a good day…”) each day.

One of these letters is taken by a bullying and depressed schoolmate, Connor, who kills himself shortly afterwards.

Connor’s parents, finding the letter in their son’s pocket, mistakenly assume it was written to Evan. He goes along with the idea, creating a fabricated friendship with their son, forming a bond with Connor’s parents and sister Zoe, who falls in love with Evan.

Georgia Laga’aia, director Dean Bryant and Beau Woodbridge in Dear Evan Hansen rehearsal.Credit: Prudence Upton

But, after giving a memorial tribute speech which goes viral on social media, his blossoming popularity means he becomes a hero for other lonely souls. Wracked by anguish, Evan can no longer retract his original lie. As the deceit unfolds, his relationship with his single-parent mother, Heidi, is strained further.

Dean Bryant, who directs the Australian season, says it’s an uplifting show, despite its sometimes dark subject.

“It’s a show about humans, how they really are in the world, how they really behave,” he says. “It’s a bit of a morality tale, a bit of a coming-of-age story, a bit of a how-hard-is-it-to-be-a-parent story.

“It’s also fascinating about mental health, which it takes really seriously, and, inside all of that as well, it’s funny. But it also talks so much about how important it is for everyone to be seen. To feel like they matter to anyone, and how difficult it can be when your family’s screaming at you that you matter.

“We are all sometimes locked into ourselves, and anxiety does that to you. It makes you feel like no one cares, like it’s just me going through this. The show so clearly talks about how important it is to show the ugly parts, show the scary parts of you. You’re more likely than not to receive love in return.

Ben Platt (left) and Julianne Moore play mother and son in the film adaptation of Dear Evan Hansen.

“That’s what Evan learns. He makes so much happen because he doesn’t want to see people suffer. All the events happen because of his sheer horror at what people are suffering and him going, ‘I can stop that, I can fix it’.

“Ultimately, he realises, not only can he not fix it, we need to experience it. He realises, you actually need to look at what I am inside if I’m ever going to function and have a real relationship with my mother, with my friends.”

With music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, and a book by Steven Levenson, Dear Evan Hansen has won an Olivier Award for best new musical for its West End production, a Grammy Award for the cast album and six Tony Awards for its Broadway production, which opened in 2016 and ran for 1678 performances.

At productions around the world, superfans wear striped blue polo shirts to performances in honour of Evan. Props from the original Broadway season, including the hand plaster cast worn by US actor Ben Platt as Evan, have been donated to the Smithsonian Institution. A poorly reviewed film adaptation of the same name was made in 2021.

Woodbridge first saw Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway when he was 14.

“Our production is entirely its own,” he says. “But, what I took away from that, from an audience perspective, it’s a musical where you can see yourself in any one of the eight company members on stage. It’s a really inviting show for an audience because it’s about connection.

“I saw that Broadway production with my mum and I remember how special that was because of the focus on Evan and his mum. It’s a show about connection and I think you come away from it going, ‘I’m just going to check in on people I love, my friends and family, and see how they’re doing.’”

Bryant says Woodbridge’s preparation for the role has been vast.

“To play Evan, you’re asking for vulnerability at an Olympic level,” he says. “Beau has worked incredibly hard to be this character.”

Verity Hunt-Ballard, who plays Evan’s mother Heidi Hansen, says her role is a raw insight into what being a parent can entail.

“I keep discovering things,” she says. “I’ve never seen the show before and I don’t think I realised the depth of where Heidi Hansen goes. It’s very confronting in the best possible way.

“Even though it’s quite a specific thing that has happened in the story, I think for all parents generally, it will be, ‘There’s something that I’ve grappled with’ or, ‘That’s something that I’ve experienced’, or a version of it. It does that so beautifully and carefully and engagingly.”

Beau Woodbridge first saw Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway when was 14 years old. Credit: Prudence Upton

Hunt-Ballard, who is known for playing the lead role in the original Australian cast of Mary Poppins, also feels the show’s true-to-life drama-musical style will draw in newcomers.

“It’s for people who don’t go to musicals as much as it’s for people who do,” she says. “It’s also super naked in staging terms. The set is beautiful and also very sparse, no bells and whistles.”

Through its story of a teenager’s search for acceptance, Dear Evan Hansen explores every human’s fundamental need for love.

“There’s something really beautiful in the story about grace and forgiveness and allowing people to make mistakes,” Bryant says. “To deal with them but not be tarred by them forever.

“We’ve always had a desire as tribes to punish people but, right now in our online culture, there are no costs for doing so. It’s like fun. People can be pretty anonymous, they can say horrible things that they would never say face-to-face, and it whips up into a frenzy.

“There’s something beautiful about the fact that, when they step away from the public thing, all the cleaning up should be with the people involved in a scenario, not the public, who somehow feel they have some right to know. I like exploring that.”

Beau Woodbridge and Verity Hunt-Ballard are starring in Sydney Theatre Company’s musical Dear Evan Hansen.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

For all its examination of the divisive effect of social media on individuals, Dear Evan Hansen does not have exact answers.

“I don’t know that you go to the theatre to learn how to be a better human,” says Bryant. “But you definitely go to observe what other humans are like.

“When they’re done well, musicals are especially cathartic because the music just burrows straight into your emotions while words are working on your intellect. That’s their secret power.”

One secret power within Dear Evan Hansen may be its use of humour to tell its story.

“Something can be intelligent and moving and sad and dark and still be entertaining and engaging,” Bryant says. “This musical happens to just be very funny. Despite its subject, it is strangely comic. At least half of the music numbers are driving rock-vibe songs.

“I think the variety that the writers have put into it is part of the secret to it being so beloved on top of everything else.”

Hunt-Ballard is particularly thrilled by the music and songs of Dear Evan Hansen being led by music supervisor Laura Tipoki, who was music director for the Australian and New Zealand productions of Hamilton, and music director Zara Stanton, known for Bloom, The Boomkak Panto and A Chorus Line.

“I don’t think I’ve ever worked with a female music supervisor and music director partnership before ever,” she says. “That is truly exciting.”

Bryant believes Dear Evan Hansen explores myriad aspects of humanity but focuses, in the end, on one thing.

“Parenting, but especially mothering,” he says. “The conundrum of how do you raise a child? That’s so difficult. I’m very moved by parent-child stories because they’re so fundamental to everyone.

“This piece does such a good job at exploring how difficult that is. How you can put everything into it and you still cannot protect the kids from themselves, and the world.”

At the musical’s end, its final scenes exemplify the relationship at the heart of the story.

“After all the drama, after throwing the audience around in a washing machine of sorts, its last two scenes are a mother and son on a couch together,” he says. “I always forget its quiet, peaceful end. It becomes a meditative place sending audiences out and into the evening afterwards.”

Dear Evan Hansen is at Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney, from October 12 to December 1 and Arts Centre Melbourne from December 14 to February 2.

The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from books editor Jason Steger. Get it delivered every Friday.