SM: Theyre an important part of the fabric of the whole thing. Dear Evan Hansen. Right now, I was just invited to a showing in San Francisco where we will be wearing VR headsets during the show, and its going to be SM: Thats the Encounter Within Broadway. Its difficult to do because Theres always like an Uber joke or a Twitter joke, but thats it. For more information visit saltlakecity.broadway.com. In 2020, the Oscars stage saw a "swirling cyclone" of Swarovski Crystals thanks to Jason Sherwood, production designer for the 92nd Academy Awards. It didn't make it into the show, it's the note that Evan was originally gonna write to himself. Dear Evan Hansen soundtrack from 2016, composed by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul. Stacey, why dont you go through the story so people get a sense of what happens. Ive met Alana a hundred times. What happens to theater going forward then? Sorry to tell you, but theyre coming. He is in a total of 11 musical numbers. New York, NY, Linda Ray If you like this, be sure to subscribe to Recode Decode on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, TuneIn or Stitcher. Weve gone through quite a few in the years, and it really is basically the two mothers in the morning dealing with their respective families not so well, and then feeling at a loss. It was like the most thrilling moment of my social media life that somebody I thought was cool and young liked my picture, so it works. On this episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher, Kara is joined by the producer and book writer of the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen. Stacey Mindich and Steven Levenson talk about how the show reflects on how social media has changed the nature of community, and why it is still important to get people into a space where they can unplug and see live theater. But also confident; that's super important. Dear Evan Hansen is a novel published in 2018. Its not scalable. Its like somebody without skin. At the behest of his therapist, Evan, an anxiety-ridden 17-year-old high schooler, writes a pop-psychology pep talk in the form of a . Do you know what I mean, like thats what we got. That's the big, like, that's number one: be yourself. Sep 23, 2019 - Explore Abby Gallegos's board "Monologues" on Pinterest. We were just talking about that idea. Dear Evan Hansen explores the meaning of family, particularly found family, as the teenage characters find new sources of familial support and acceptance. Hashtag youre not alone. All right, Ill follow you. Maybe that does feel retro, but its something that people are missing. I guess it shows the way people are interacting with culture today. SL: No. Now theyre gone. They put new pictures, theres all these things. People want to feel something. SL: Even though the show isnt explicitly this, it feels like its from Evans point of view, I think, in a lot of ways. Where do you see theater going? That process has taken us a long time. SL: We always wanted to thread that needle. Reader support helps us keep our explainers free for all. 23. I will email my husband, Chinese for dinner? His name is Eric, but a different Eric will email me back, and say, Sure, Chinese works for me. We just do things in a haze. Its certainly done that for me. "My name. Steven, youve hit the meme exactly at the right moment, which is Did you think about that before? Then also how connection isnt connecting. Seeking 2 Actor Team for Spring You could see as experienced, everyones got to have the heightened sense of experience all the time. That problem, its the plot point. Then it was so relevant to today at the same time. Because today, all you have to do is be yourself. Today in the red chairs are Stacey Mindich and Steven Levenson, the producer and book writer of Dear Evan Hansen. Its a musical about a high school student with social anxiety disorder struggling to connect with people around him, including his crush, Zoe, and her social outcast brother Connor. SL: It does feel like there is something, especially with younger people wanting something unique and something you can touch. We have a contact list from our website of multiple thousands and thousands and thousands of people that most shows dont have. They find their son through him, and then this story snowballs from there. Easy to talk to. We have an ad campaign. They werent sweaty until you started worrying that they were sweaty, which made them sweaty, so you put them under the hand dryer in the bathroom. his left arm, facing the screen, alone. As a producer whos had some successes and a lot of what I call glorious failures SM: My last musical that I lead produced was The Bridges of Madison County.. I think that is the beauty of Stevens writing. We can overcome vaccine hesitancy. Its so funny when youre looking up things, like, What is that, or what is that? I was at a party the other night, and someones like, What do you think happened in his first night? If only we had a device that we can search and find things out, but then I remember dinner parties where you just didnt know. Weve also provided a lightly edited complete transcript of their conversation. Letter #6: Evan Hansen. "It takes a little patience, takes a little time. Im only mentioning VR because its different than film or television. Now its all about Trump. It feels like people want Is theater retro? I think thats what makes it special. SM: I have to tell you that I literally went on Instagram to post about a month ago, and I was getting 21 likes here there basically from people who know me really well, and then one day, Laura Dreyfuss whos in our show liked one of my pictures, and I understood everything. Then he uses it, the social media, to amplify that awfulness. You had the memories of when you saw it, when you didnt feel acquainted, but you couldnt revive those feelings. But would you have plans to do that, to have a digital version of it after? Ive had people say, Im Heidi, or, My nephew is Evan, My nextdoor neighbor And so he is just one of those absolutely, utterly relatable authentic characters. SL: Sorry, I dont think its retro. I was expecting that. As part of BTPM (Buffalo Toronto Public Media), their beat is primarily Buffalo theater, but . FLIP HTML5 is a Interactive html5 digital publishing platform that makes it easy to create interactive digital publications, including magazines, catalogs, newspapers, books, and more online. New York, NY, Ages 12-17: Camp Broadway Ensemble @ Carnegie Hall Watching the big lie of Dear Evan Hansen spiral out of control is a tense . I started producing about 12 years ago, and had a real passion to find young authors, and pair them with some of the veteran directors of our industry. They were trying to find reasons why he killed himself. Well, something, and thats your weapon. Why dont we start with you, Stacey? I do feel like people are hungering for something that is ephemeral and something thats just here and now, because everything else is permanent and online. 21 terms. Its also a lot about the impact of the internet on teens and everyone. I saw the early versions of it. Its quite extraordinary. It was written by Val Emmich, Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul. Directed by Stephen Chbosky, this powerful film . Its just assaultive. Research Playwrights, Librettists, Composers and Lyricists. It is an awful, awful thing he does. Is that true? SL: Exactly, and then what we wanted to avoid was ever commenting on the technology, but rather allowing it to be part of the fabric of the story, exactly, because we dont comment on the fact that were on our phones all the time as were on our phones all the time, but its become our way of being in the world. Ive gone to theater in New York my whole life. SL: Yes, and he looks around as I think many of us do at social media, and sees the world of people who are fluent and who seem to be able to navigate this world of communication that he finds baffling. A battle over freedom of expression at a Concord, N.H., elementary school. Because today, all you have to do is be yourself. Dear Evan Hansen. Tickets are $69.50-$229.50. Yeah, but also, it is the agony of social media, and now you can see it. producer and book writer of the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen.. You dont actively participate in the world, but thats how you comment. I think its going to be that experience could exist, but it wont be the same. Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing and changing us. View in iTunes. Broadway - August 3, 2017. This is in the song "Sincerely, Me". It is. - The third letter in "Sincerely, Me". It gets the people on an analog. SM: The extraordinary thing that happened with this show right from our very first production at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., was that people organically found us. She is a child that has grown up out of the spotlight because her brother took up so much of the oxygen. This has been a bad year. SL: He is Evans family friend in quotes, which according to Jared means theyre not really friends. I had someone who is a millennial who was saying, Oh look, Im not as happy as my friends. Im like, Theyre not happy. Yeah, absolutely. Dear Evan Hansen tells the story of a high school student suffering from extreme social anxiety whose desperate desire for acceptance leads him into a web of lies following the tragic death of a . Scene 1: We start on a black screen. Thats the part of the story thats interesting to us. How about do you feel about this, Steven? I said Zoe. And youd be like, Oh, see I thought you said Chloe because Im just Im very busy withuh, other stuff right now. But you didnt even end up saying anything to her anyway because you were scared your hands were sweatywhich, they werent, really. New York, NY, Accessibility Statement Terms Privacy |StageAgent 2020. Then we brought in the great director, Michael Grief, whos done Rent and Next to Normal. He also brought in his own interpretations. Just look at the HPV shot. SL: Its incredible that that has been happening and happened around the show. But the idea that we need to get Theres no more offline communities, and were not connected offline anymore. Some of them are very funny, but a lot of them are very earnest and horrible in some way, and thats what you do. I feel like its hard. Its a beautiful song that Benj and Justin have written. This show is really depicting the way we live in America now, the way we are at our breakfast tables with our families. Well, you do the I-wish-you-were-dead-but-not-really thing. He is somebody in a world of connections who is completely disconnected and desperate to connect, and also terrifying to connect too. Stacey, why dont you start talking about that idea of how you create an analog experience of just one place and mostly New York City or wherever to reach audiences, especially young ones? She has a very bitter sense of humor. SL: Yes, it improves his life, and what becomes impossible for him to stop is how much it improves other peoples lives. Doesnt this acquaint? Well, its also become a war zone too, I mean, at the same time like a hellscape, like sometimes this was a SL: Yes. 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. Terms in this set (21) Dear Evan Hansen, Today is going to be a amazing day and here's why. We havent really made a big deal about it right now, but our key art shows Evans torso with his arm in the cast. But then they were still sweatyand just, uh, very warm as well. Because she wants to use it for that, she wants to use it for advantage. People bring whatever they have themselves or they know about to him, but hes lonely and isolated. SL: Yeah, Ben Platt who plays Evan Hansen, who weve been discussing. 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. They look happy as ever. But also. Do you not do that? 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. Theyre like, Whats that? Im like, Oh, okay, let me just break it down for you. It was fascinating. Yes, he did a horrible thing, but it has become so apparent for me in knowing the script by heart now that SM: But its all been deeply pleasurable. It was really just meant to surrealistically portray the way we are all brushed. We werent going to do a very big thing about it right at this moment, but we did that. SL: And loneliness, and so we immediately thought in a dramatic sense, Who would be the person who is unable to connect? By Nils Skudra. Put your phone away. The Oscar-nominated actress will return to a musical role for the first time since 2011's The . You used to pay for social media with your eyeballs. That meant that we would have to find some way to communicate the ubiquity of technology as it is in our lives into this story. Its just made me more aware of when Im using technology as a crutch or as a way of avoiding interactions. And interesting. I hope youre okay. I was so happy to be in that room telling the story about people rising above the lies and finding unity together. 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. Financial contributions from our readers are a critical part of supporting our resource-intensive work and help us keep our journalism free for all. The story alone is so icky, so offensive, so profoundly manipulative and fraudulent, that it really never should have gotten a single Tony (or six), much less a film adaptation. Its got to be something else. I used to tell my kids to take it off the dinner table, but sometimes I have to have it at the dinner table. 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). Whereas if you adapt a musical into a film, or adapt it into a TV series or a VR, then it becomes that. SM: Waving Through a Window is the telephone song from Bye Bye Birdie, without a doubt. So, I dont even know why Im bringing it up because its not going to happen because itsbut, like, all you have to do is just be yourself!! How did this become a phenomenon? SL: Thats a really good question. SM: It did, but for me, immediately, when you tell me that there is a boy who is in trouble, me being who I am at this part of my life, I immediately said, Well then, there has to be a mom. It within moments became a multi-generational piece. You see it outside the theater, I have stood at a matinee and seen the people leaving get back online to buy more tickets. We are all looking and seeing how much fun everything else is thats happening. Right. We shouldnt. He begins to type. Stream songs including "Waving Through A Window (From the "Dear Evan Hansen" Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)", "For Forever (From The "Dear Evan Hansen" Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)" and more. It means, Do your homework, brush your teeth. Why do people, especially our age, feel the need to broadcast their sadness and their mourning? A letter that was never meant to be seen, a lie that was never . It could have happened 100 years in the future. Jared pretends to be the guy whos got it all figured out, but all of these characters are lost and alone in different ways. Final Scene and Finale by Dear Evan Hansen OBC - Karaoke Lyrics on Smule. Or something like a Snapchat, of course the filters would be tasteless, like, Hey, lets make everyones face funny.. Thank you so much for making it. I was like, Aww.. I think thats what Evan taps into is, even though what he says isnt true, theres something that feels true about it. SL: Evan, if you track his journey, if you look at the granular level, the first time that the parents come to Evan and say, This letter, we found this letter with our son, the first thing he says is he didnt write it. Why its so hard to get answers on long Covid. Youll have it in your eyes. 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. The thing I feel about the relationship between the show and whats happening in the world is, I remember we had rehearsal the day after the election, and showing up to rehearsal, everyone was so depressed. He has a single mom who is trying her best, but not perhaps succeeding. Its quite enormous in terms of how it gets known. Like, she would introduce herself and then youd be like, Sorry, I didnt hear you. SL: Thats the thing. 5 terms. Thats all there is. In the beginning of the ad campaign, those faces were actually stock faces that we bought. Were on Apple Podcast, Google Play Music, TuneIn, Stitcher, SoundCloud and more, or just visit recode.net/podcasts for more. The school said, Well, we dont want to be punitive. I said, No, we want to be punitive. DEAR EVAN HANSEN is "the most vital and important musical of a generation" (Daily Mail, Baz Bamigboye) with "a raw, relevant and exhilarating score" (BBC Radio London, Jonathan Phang) from the songwriters of The Greatest Showman and La La Land.. A timely and timeless new musical about struggling to connect in a hyperconnected world, DEAR EVAN HANSEN is the winner of 3 Olivier Awards . DEAR EVAN HANSEN Stripe Collection Polo . Why do you think this resonated? We didnt have Uber. Chloe? 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. SM: Every show is different. It feels very much like a phone going up. SL: Never send an email when youre angry has been the best lesson. We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and All monologues are property and copyright of their owners. They did obviously make a CD, and theyre selling. Its also a very traditional show, if you think about it. SM: I think the power of live theater is very potent, especially with a tale like this. We had bands of teenagers come in the beginning who loved Ben Platt, our star, from the Pitch Perfect movies, but they want to come back with their parents, and talk to their parents afterward. What do you hope to accomplish, each of you? On Broadway. Weve talked a lot about the show itself, but lets talk about doing theater now. They purposely didnt. In fact, he didnt, but they presumed that Evan was his only friend. I think she is an incredible depiction of contemporary motherhood, whether youre a single mom or not, busy, under pressure, trying hard, absolutely love your child, but in the daily rush of things doesnt always get everything right. Evan Hansen, through Val Emmich's ( The Reminders) skillful interpretation, is a complex, well-developed character whose struggles with depression and anxiety read painfully true. I do think you should get some of it a little bit online, because I think certain parts of it are really resonant in this age, and really talk about things in a really fair way. My very last question which I ask everybody, and maybe here well do it a little differently. Do you not put stuff online? Your director Michael did Rent. I remember when Rent came out. Evan, in an effort to assuage their terrible grief, finds himself inadvertently claiming that he was his friend. SL: I was struck immediately by this whole concept of the voyeurism and exhibitionism of grief, which was really what I think Benj was so interested in. When I was talking to Jeffrey Seller, and he said that he thought that online had so much to do, the conversation thats just continued on and on and on about this show. SM: Again, thats good to hear. There is haptic touch. Michael Grief and I are from another. It was fascinating to have all that going on at once. This time, this time he won't let go. If you would like to give a public performance of this monologue, please obtain authorization from the appropriate licensor. Thats what I really appreciate is it wasnt an attack. Absolutely. Essentially, this other boy, Connor Murphy, ends up through a strange series of circumstances taking the letter from Evan, and later offstage, Connor ends up killing himself, and the only thing that his parents find on his person is this letter to Dear Evan Hansen. SM: To me, that feels more like an event than the theater that I grew up on, and it may very well be a very generational thing. SM: The song literally says you are not alone.. They may have started finding us because Ben Platt was about to come out in the second Pitch Perfect movie, or because Pasek and Paul had a following of millennials who were very adept at social media. SM: We dont have a current plan to do that. Music sales now go through individual songs, although, I think, probably cast like theater sale whole much better. But once she gets on the blog, she blossoms. So no hiding. Like its central character, Dear Evan Hansen: The Novel is a bit of a lovable misfit: a rare instance of a hit Broadway musical being adapted for the page. Someone whos not a parent might look at him and say, He hasnt paid enough, but as a parent, I look at him and think especially because of the Words Fail, he has been absolutely tortured. Obviously, your star is well known from Pitch Perfect.. SL: Larry and Cynthia and Zoe, who is their daughter and Connors sister, are all really And Evan Hansen probably more who really SL: Yes exactly. Everybody wants to go. It feels like somewhere, thats the solution to the fake news is to reach people in their core. You see why this happened to him, and this probably will never happen to him again because he learned the lesson. He plays off of Evan. Approachable. SL: Exactly. Its an interesting question, because throughout the preview process and throughout the out of town production in off Broadway, there were always a certain number of people whove thought he didnt suffer enough for what he did. EVAN. jennyjenrose. Dear Evan Hansen:It turns out, this wa. Maybe they didnt have the tragic events, but were all a little bit like that. That is something as Stacey said that is organic and then we cant control. Social media now lets you have People put up that video. She just goes about it perhaps the wrong way. You can find more episodes of Recode Decode anywhere you listen to a podcast. Dear Evan Hansen takes on challenging subjectsdeath, grief, class, mental illness, social media, social anxietywith unapologetic trust in the power of contemporary pop music to tell complex stories onstage. You know what I mean? Then also, the hashtag, my favorite expression is hashtagavism, that we get these hashtags. She is surrounded by friends, but really, she doesnt have many. The national tour of Dear Evan Hansen plays Tuesdays through Thursdays at 7:30 PM, Fridays at 8 PM, Saturdays at 2 PM and 8 PM, and Sundays at 1 PM and 6:30 PM through March 5 at the Eccles Theatre (131 South Main Street, Salt Lake City). SM: Were struggling and learning. Right, and theyre all telling each other stories that arent true, which I think is fascinating. Is that your name? Available on Cinemax, Prime Video, iTunes, HBO Max, Hulu. I was a journalist first. It will be its own thing. I dont know, if you dont live in Silicon Valley, but I, like, oh my God, her. Filled with a murderer's row of talented musical actors all chewing into meaty roles while singing their hearts out, Dear Evan Hansen is an ode to sincerity . Each of you take one and talk about what they mean and what youre trying to do. You got involved with this, and what were you thinking, Steven? Its super hard for them to do anything good online. Audition season's in full swing, so I thought I'd share a clip from my self-tape for the Dear Evan Hansen national tour! That song is about isolation and about being on the outside looking in, which a lot of musicals are about really, but this one had a really big element of what social media does to us, and that was a very big plot point in the play. Everyone seemed to have a SL: Yes, exactly, everybody wanted to star in the tragedy of the day. - The second letter in "Sincerely, Me". But also confident; thats super important. Yes, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Ben Platt finally teamed up for the inevitable back-to-back Best Musical mash-up of Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen. Because today all you have to do is be yourself. He wanted to write something about his generation. SNAP boosts kept millions out of poverty during Covid. I think shes a really funny, dark person. It was that and Angels in America were very big deals. Some have argued, for example, that the film's message is toxic. Not all of them hit. It's also come under fire for an irresponsible portrayal of mental health . What do you think of things like that? 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. Okay. SM: Heidi Hansen, yeah, Evan's mom. Thats to me, I think, the difficulty they had is they didnt like him. The only thing I knew about Dear Evan Hansen before this point was that the main character had a broken arm. Easy to talk to. That is an event. I just saw it in San Francisco. This is Evan's mom. SM: But for us, what serves our show so well is the intimacy of those 984 plus 16 standing room possibilities. Dear Evan Hansen. "Even if you've always been that barely-in-the-background kind of guy, you still matter." - Val Emmich, 'Dear Evan Hansen'. Google Pay. Talk about the other characters, the mothers, both parents. Over the last several years, people have grown a little tired of that I think, and theres a real hunger for art thats sincere and that is heart-filled. Other sets by this creator. Monologues are presented on StageAgent for educational purposes only. SM: If you dont, somebody might throw it at you, but you have to. We dont really live in that world anymore. Dear Evan Hansen, Today's going to be an amazing day and here's why: because because today, . People have said to me, theyre sure he has Aspergers or something else. CAST: Ben Platt (Evan Hansen), Laura Dreyfuss (Zoe Murphy), Michael Lee Brown (u/s Connor Murphy), Will Roland (Jared Kleinman), Kristolyn Lloyd (Alana Beck), Michael Park (Larry Murphy), Jennifer Laura Thompson (Cynthia Murphy) NOTES: Act 1 ends after Sincerely, Me. This election, fake news everywhere kind of thing, and now the president just uses it as a catch phrase. Good to know. Its the experience.. Treacly and manipulative, "Dear Evan Hansen . People are going back to handmade in some ways, and people are really hungering for SL: Exactly. SL: Exactly. Today is going to be a amazing day and here's why. You have to up the game. I talked about mistakes. Shes a true survivor. Also, dont worry if your hands are going to get sweaty for no reason and you cant make it stop no matter what you do because no, theyre not going to get sweaty. We happen to have the same director also, but Rent paved the way for skipping some in between, and Next to Normal paved the way for Fun Home. Fun Home, I remember the season of Fun Home was just starting, and I was watching it so closely because I knew if they could tell that story, then there was so much hope that we could tell our story.
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