Dear Evan Hansen Touring - Chicago thoughts

The tour has been getting rave reviews in each venue, so I'm assuming it's not a cast issue. And, as is now pretty evident, Ben Platt, as remarkable as he was, did not carry the Broadway run. So I'm left to assume that it was the size of the theater and the location of your tickets which led to your disappointment. It's understandable, especially if you were sitting close to the stage when you saw it in NY.

kishane said: "Well, I posted because I felt I was the only one that felt that it wasn't as emotional or as good as I remember being on my second rewatch. I know others have loved the tour but the people in my section definitely had more muted reactions. My tickets in NY were standing room tickets which in the MusicBox is closer as it is a smaller theatre than the what is the Nederlander theater. Ah well, I'll just chalk it up to a difference in opinion. The tour has been a success as all tickets have pretty much sold out, but I've enjoyed Tootsie more and that's never something I thought I would say since I've been hyping this musical since it was announced it was stopping in Chicago."

We just caught the closing night in Boston for the DEH tour. I was initially concerned, because like Kishane, the Opera House in Boston is huge and this is show to be more intimate like the Music Box. Needless to say the place was packed and while we were in Row 0, the bed looked teeny tiny on that big stage.

The regular Evan wasn't one, the one that does the matinees did the closing night which was odd to me. His name was Stephen Christopher Anthony. He was in great voice but there were things that just wasn't right about his character (like using his broken arm for pretty much everything in the first act) The remainder of the cast was very strong with the exception of Conner. This Conner's presence never seemed strong.

it was a good production and we're glad we saw it but we are also incredibly fortunate to have witnessed the original production. While I have many issues with the moral intentions of the show and the lies throughout, Ben Platt brought to the character a vulnerability. It was like he was just spitting these lies out of the air and had no control of them. He was wrong but you felt empathy for him regardless of how awful it was. No one else has been able to capture that pathos.

Conner, on the other hand, was like a shlub. Didn't carry the weight of the original character with me and really seemed like an after thought.

I really loved the mother, although from our seats she didn't look that much older than Evan, though she killed her numbers.

I must also admit that throughout the show, Evan, Stephen Christopher Anthony, is a dead ringer for Michael Urie who I love. All his acting choices were similar. He had great timing but didn't make the emotional connection most people felt to Platt.

inception said: "Saw this last night here in Vancouver. Stephen Christopher Anthony, who in the last post in this thread from last August was then the understudy, is now the main Evan on the tour. And wow! Is he ever f'ing terrible. His entire characterization is just a bunch of tics. It felt like it was a SNL spoof or something.

Some of the cast, especially all the parents were good. But the Evan, Connor, and Jared all looked like they were 35 years old.

It was sold out on a Saturday night, & was the 1st time most people here would have seen the show, so they ate it up. But I feel fortunate to have seen this with a better cast."

Wow. I thought he was incredible. In fact I found the entire cast to be outstanding Friday night.

Act two was a respectable Tuesday performance. Well sung and understated. It didn’t quite reach me in the balcony.


There’s something to be said for a performer who can give a convincing nervous breakdown on stage. It’s why YouTube clips of Patti Lupone, Jennifer Holiday and Elaine Stritch get celebrated. Platt had that at the start. The sense that he could fall apart any moment. It’s unhealthy and unsustainable. But Words Fail is less interesting when it’s well sung. A lament rather than a panic attack. I’d like to watch Anthony Norman from a main floor seat on a Saturday night. This evening I didn’t get the full effect.