Dear Evan Hansen Comes to Lynchburg

Curtain Call’s March Cabaret will feature music from recent hit musicals including the 2017 Tony-Award Winning Best Musical, Dear Evan Hansen. Dear Evan Hansen follows the story of Evan Hansen, a teen struggling to fit in with today’s society. When his opportunity to connect arises he enters into a big lie, which spirals out of control.

Mike Faist, Tony-nominee, Grammy winner, and current Connor Murphy in Dear Evan Hansen, shared some insight with me on his work in Dear Evan Hansen.

When I asked him what message he wants the audience to receive while watching the production he said, “I think that there is no specific message that we want people to leave with, but instead hopefully more things to reflect on and questions to ask.” Mike shared society’s need to latch onto tragedies and make them their own. When Connor Murphy dies everyone wants to become a part of his story, when in fact no one cared about Connor prior to his death. It’s an interesting phenomenon and something performers of the musical need to consider. Why are you as a character connected to Connor?

For Mike to create Connor he found a website, LiveThroughThis.org, about suicide survivors and their stories. He specifically connected to “a young woman who said, ”She felt too much.” I kind of like to think that’s how Connor was. A young man who felt too much and had no idea how to express that.” Mike’s performance as Connor is fantastic and must have been extremely difficult to create. He shared, “Connor is whoever he is talking to wants him to be.” He is only truly Connor in the first few scenes before his death. As he comes back throughout the show he’s an image of the character’s thoughts. One of the most powerful moments in the show is when Connor tells Evan if you don’t want me inside your mind anymore, you can let me go.

His advice for college student pursuing performance as a career is, “If you are pursuing this as a career, the only thing you have to continually tell yourself is you have to want it more than your afraid of it. And if you are scared shitless of it, that means you should do it.”

If Mike’s insight doesn’t want to make you buy tickets to Dear Evan Hansen right away, I’m sure Curtain Call’s performance will. Check out Curtain Call performers personal insights about the show’s pieces below.