Dear Evan Hansen

[Jerroddragon]

So I liked the music more than some other recent musicals ive seen

While Evan in no way is trying to be evil...this musical is about a villain.

Its like Wicked...but about a person doing bad for real, lol

While some of his actions lead to good, he helps the family love the son/brother again and helps raise money for a good cause its all from lies. Also I know everyone does it but can we start this falling in love with someone without knowing them, its not healthy

I think you could hit similar notes about mental health and do something more interesting with an idea about someone taking their life and everyone pretending to care but show how it affects his real friends and go into the effects of death on friends, how many will try to profit/gain clout from your death and just have better decisions on it.

Liked the music, acting was fine, but think the messages are wrapped in a weird plot that try's to make lying a good thing as long as you mean well. Reminds me of the BS trust message of Raya last year, just because you want to be the good guy doesn't mean you are

 

[HalfGlass]

So I liked the music more than some other recent musicals ive seen

While Evan in no way is trying to be evil...this musical is about a villain.

Its like Wicked...but about a person doing bad for real, lol

While some of his actions lead to good, he helps the family love the son/brother again and helps raise money for a good cause its all from lies. Also I know everyone does it but can we start this falling in love with someone without knowing them, its not healthy

I think you could hit similar notes about mental health and do something more interesting with an idea about someone taking their life and everyone pretending to care but show how it affects his real friends and go into the effects of death on friends, how many will try to profit/gain clout from your death and just have better decisions on it.

Liked the music, acting was fine, but think the messages are wrapped in a weird plot that try's to make lying a good thing as long as you mean well. Reminds me of the BS trust message of Raya last year, just because you want to be the good guy doesn't mean you are

Spoiler

While I agree the message can be a little hard to swallow - I always look at it from the lens of “what if someone actually did what Evan did in real life”. How would that be perceived? Sure you could argue the family would never forgive him or his classmates would make fun of him or avoid him again out of disgust. And you know what…Evan would have most likely killed himself from the animosity and his past transgressions being too much to bear. His previous tendencies and where he is mentally when everything gets revealed sort of shows that. Even Zoe’s parents say they were afraid he would kill himself if they revealed what he did.

So my point is - if you went with that ending, how audiences feel? You would leave feeling heartbroken, upset at what he did, but feeling terrible that an 18 year old took his life because he has severe depression and anxiety.

I don’t think there’s a way to tell this story that isn’t going to upset a lot of people. I just liked that it didn’t have to show the ugliness in everyone. That forgiveness is a thing in the most harrowing of circumstances.

And in regards to the instant love stuff - it bothers me way less in a movie about high schoolers. They don’t actually end up happily ever after anyway, and I think the lack of maturity and experience in that age group can lead people to profess things that they don’t actually understand yet. I think it’s way more egregious in movies with fully grown adults.

 

[Nick]

Spoiler

While I agree the message can be a little hard to swallow - I always look at it from the lens of “what if someone actually did what Evan did in real life”. How would that be perceived? Sure you could argue the family would never forgive him or his classmates would make fun of him or avoid him again out of disgust. And you know what…Evan would have most likely killed himself from the animosity and his past transgressions being too much to bear. His previous tendencies and where he is mentally when everything gets revealed sort of shows that. Even Zoe’s parents say they were afraid he would kill himself if they revealed what he did.

So my point is - if you went with that ending, how audiences feel? You would leave feeling heartbroken, upset at what he did, but feeling terrible that an 18 year old took his life because he has severe depression and anxiety.

I don’t think there’s a way to tell this story that isn’t going to upset a lot of people. I just liked that it didn’t have to show the ugliness in everyone. That forgiveness is a thing in the most harrowing of circumstances.

And in regards to the instant love stuff - it bothers me way less in a movie about high schoolers. They don’t actually end up happily ever after anyway, and I think the lack of maturity and experience in that age group can lead people to profess things that they don’t actually understand yet. I think it’s way more egregious in movies with fully grown adults.

I just think it really fumbles the ball when handling the messaging of the film. You can't just throw mental health around lightly. If you're going to delve into that topic, you need to handle it with respect and I just don't really think they do that here.

 

[HalfGlass]

I just think it really fumbles the ball when handling the messaging of the film. You can't just throw mental health around lightly. If you're going to delve into that topic, you need to handle it with respect and I just don't really think they do that here.

To each their own I guess. As someone who has struggled with anxiety and depression my entire life - I felt it handled it very well. But that’s just me.