Alice Fearn’s Heidi Hansen in Dear Evan Hansen, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Marc Brenner
THE wait is almost over to Dear Evan Hansen, the Olivier, Tony and Grammy award winner for best musical, to arrive at the letter Y for York.
Tomorrow is going to be a good day, and here’s why, because composers Pasek & Paul and book writer Steven Levenson’s show opens at the Grand Opera House that night for the last English stretch of a debut UK tour that will end in Edinburgh the following week.
In a story built around suicide and mental health issues, Ryan Kopel’s Evan Hansen is a friendless, bullied, 17-year-old American high school senior struggling with a social anxiety disorder and depression, who wants to fit in and befriend Zoe Murphy. Especially with his mother Heidi always being too busy with her work to see him and his father long absent.
Evan’s therapist asks him to write “Today is going to be a good day, and here’s why” letters to himself as a therapeutic exercise to explore his feelings and boost his positivity when courage and words desert him in the presence of others.
When Zoe’s brother Connor dies, Evan entangles himself in a web of lies, but in doing so, he gains everything he wanted: the chance to belong, but at what cost to others, especially Connor’s parents and Zoe, as his false words comfort them.
“It gets you talking,” says Alice Fearn, who plays Evan’s mum, in the wake of such landmark roles as Elphaba in Wicked and Captain Beverley Bass in Come From Away. “You think, ‘of course I wouldn’t lie about that’, but then you think there might be an element of enlightenment why he does. On the one hand, it’s selfish, but on the other, it’s selfless. You come away understanding Evan’s choices; you think of it as a ‘situation error’.”
At the heart of Evan’s deceitful actions is a desire to “belong”. “We all want to belong, to be popular, and for people to like us, which we obviously want as humans,” says Alice. “But also, young people are connecting with who the young characters represent, how they’re all different. That’s what they’re seeing: how they interact with other at school. They feel seen – and when I did Wicked, I found that as well.
“Sometimes people go to the theatre for a complete escape, but what I think people are enjoying now in Dear Evan Hansen is recognising Evan’s dilemma and particularly that personality trait and the decision he makes. People don’t want to feel alone when they’re finding things hard to deal with – those things that happen to all of us – and now it’s happening on stage.”
Another significant factor in Dear Evan Hansen is the rising influence of social media. “It has such an impact. Now the whole world will find out about something in minutes, not just friends or at school. Now, because things are blown up in huge way on social media, Evan feels the gravity of what’s happening so much more.
“That’s something that mums and dads connect with, how young people say ‘that’s what I’m having to deal with’.”
Alice’s character, the ever-harassed Heidi, faces her own dilemma. “The most important thing, when I read the script for the first time, was realising what she is in Evan’s story. She’s trying to make the most of a difficult situation in her life , making sure they have a comfortable life financially, better than she had in her childhood, thinking ‘how can I improve that for my child?’,” she says.
“But also, as a single parent, that commitment to work is taking time away from being with Evan. So, what you have to do when playing Heidi is show how hard working she is, but how distant she becomes because of that workload – where if you’re not there 24/7, there will be a distance between you. I’ve had single mums come up to me after the show to say ‘that’s my story’.”
Alice has not penned her equivalent of Dear Evan Hansen letters “but though I’m not a journal keeper, as you hit your 40s [Bath-born Alice is 41], a big chunk of your life has gone by, and you think, ‘maybe I should appreciate what is happening to me today’,” she says.
“Whereas in your 20s you never feel you’re going to get old, now, if I’m having a downer day, I try to say, ‘aren’t you lucky to be in this show; call your mum and dad; go out to lunch with friends’. It’s like a version of ‘today is going to be a good day, and here’s why’.
“Now, in those moments, you find yourself thinking, ‘wow, I’m lucky to be here today’, and I do that more than I did when I was younger. The tiniest thing can make it a good day, rather than a terrible one.”
Alice has treasured her experiences in Dear Evan Hansen. “What I shall keep is what people get from this show. We’ve had a standing ovation after each show because people are so moved by it,” she says.
“The other thing has been working with Ryan Kopel, one of the brightest young talents I’ve ever worked with. We laugh, we cry, we have fun, we test things out. It’s very enjoyable to play opposite him. That’s something I’m incredibly grateful for: I now have a ‘stage son’ for life.”
Dear Evan Hansen, Grand Opera House, York, June 24 to 28, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Friday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgticket.com/york.