Dear Evan Hansen at Music Box Theatre
Dear Evan Hansen is the emotionally moving story of a lonely teen dealing with the chaos and frustration of high school. In this story, audience members will follow Evan Hansen as he tries to cope with loneliness and the all-too-easy temptation for instant gratification no matter who it hurts or what it can do to an unsuspecting community. Attractions Magazine says that Dear Evan Hansen “…hits every emotion in the book” and with the rave reviews that follows every performance of this Broadway musical, it’s hard to disagree. Your ticket to see this poignantly contemporary tale will bring you face-to-face with the realities of viral content, teen depression and anxiety, and how quickly friendships and families can break apart from small misunderstandings. If you are ready for an emotional and timeless story, then Dear Evan Hansen is the musical for you.
Dear Evan Hansen Tickets:
Ever since its December 4, 2016 opening night, Dear Evan Hansen has brought audience members to tears and coming back for more. The highly regarded production has earned Tony and Grammy awards and nominations and has even been featured at the Smithsonian for being a true contemporary story. As of September 15, the play has had 1,160 performances with many showings selling out within hours.
You could even see the brand new cast for this incredible story if you book your tickets to see this latest run at the New York City Music Box Theatre. Don’t delay, click that Buy Tickets button today.
An Important Role in a Tragedy He Didn’t Earn
The story of Dear Evan Hansen follows Evan, a teen suffering from social anxiety. His therapist recommends an activity where he writes letters to himself to give himself daily affirmations to help keep things in a positive perspective. Meanwhile, Evan’s mother thinks that he needs to make new friends in his senior year and suggests asking his classmates to sign the cast on his arm. Evan takes the advice his therapist and mother give him hoping that something will change and give him the peace of mind and sense of self that he needs for happiness. Meanwhile, the wealthy Murphy family, a traditional family of four, are dealing with their family falling apart despite their wealth. Cynthia and Larry’s son Connor gets high before school and Zoe seems to have trouble connecting with her drug-addicted brother. Both mothers, Heidi and Cynthia, wonder how they can connect to their sons and help them with their problems.
But trouble finds the two boys when they meet up at school while Evan tries to get friends to sign his cast. Evan bumps into Connor who mistakes Evan’s awkwardness as insulting and physically attacks him. Connor’s sister, Zoe, apologizes for his brother’s behavior before leaving Evan to wonder if his destiny is to be an outsider for the rest of his life. Evan writes his first letter to himself about his frustrations and feelings of loneliness wondering if anyone would care if he wasn’t there and focuses his hope on his crush on Zoe since she is the only person he believes brings him happiness. He prints the letter from a school computer and before he can retrieve the letter, he meets up with Connor again who offers to sign his cast. But Connor finds Evan’s letter and reads it and becomes furious with Evan believing he wants to make fun of him. Connor storms out taking the letter with him.
This puts Evan in a fit of anxiety as he wonders what will happen next, so he calls his friend for help. To find out what happens next, you will have to order your tickets to see this play.
A Tale of Two Evans
Even with the musical, Dear Evan Hansen being less than 3 years old, it’s still exciting to think that audience members will get to enjoy the story through fresh young eyes with Andrew Barth Feldman replacing Ben Platt in the role of Evan. Both actors have taken on this important role and audience members had many positive things to say. But does Feldman have what it takes to take on the role Platt made famous?
Let’s find out!
When it comes to Platt’s performance, Variety had this to say: “(Platt) gives a carefully choreographed physical performance that makes his emotional discomfort painfully clear. His shoulders slump, his chest caves into his backbone, his whole body is wracked with physical and vocal tics.” Platt is an actor who nailed the physical performance of an awkward teen suffering from bouts of depression and low self-esteem. Audience members were quick to identify with Evan and feel what it must be like to experience the kinds of social anxiety that requires pills and therapy sessions to manage. But when the time came to host a second run of the famous musical, Platt may have been considered too old to resonate with the audience despite his obvious talent.
So Director Michael Grief took a chance and recruited Feldman to be the chief replacement for this role. At only 16 years of age, the call brings something powerful to the role. As Feldman puts it, “I don’t have to dig back and say, ‘How did I feel about this when I was a teenager? How can I pull from that?’ Being right there and not having anything to cloud that is helpful.” More importantly, Feldman is growing up in the same age and time that Evan Hansen does, which makes it even easier to portray a teen struggling with an age of viral marketing and the effects an online presence can have. Platt may have experience on his side, but to dig into the core of Evan Hansen’s character, audience members and critics are counting on Feldman bringing his first-hand experience to the challenging new role.
We believe Evan Hansen will knock the role out the park and you can see his part in this updated cast by ordering your tickets to see the show.
Why You Should Visit The Music Box Theatre
First opening in 1921, The Music Box Theatre, was a famous playhouse that hosted a new musical production every year until its first play in 1925. The theatre was first conceived of towards the end of 1919, when theatrical producer Sam H. Harris made a proposition to his friend, songwriter Irving Berlin, that if he devised a musical revue, Harris would find a worthy theatre to host it. Berlin devised The Music Box Revue in 1920 and, keeping his promise, Harris had The Music Box Theatre built to house the show. The theatre was always a labor of love between two friends, who had a love of musical productions and theatre, so they were eager to see the theatre grow from its origins to welcome such film stars as Humphrey Bogart to the stage for the 1925 production of the play, Cradle Snatchers. The theatre’s success and warm reception led to The Music Box Theatre welcoming famous plays to their stage including Chicago, Once in a Lifetime, and shows by Cole Porter and Ira Gershwin.
During its lifetime, The Shuberts family began acquiring shares to the venue from Harris in the 20s, until Harris’ death in 1941, when his wife sold half his shares to the Shuberts and half to his friend, Berlin. From there, Berlin and Shubert were equal partners to the venue until recently in 2007 when Berlin sold his shares to Shubert making him the sole owner of the venue.
It’s remarkable to think that such a venue, that has had so many film stars and incredible premieres is humble enough to be one of the smallest Broadway venues with a present max capacity of only 1025 total including 16 standing room spaces. But fans of Broadway musicals, theatrical productions, and stage magic, will enjoy their time at any show at The Music Box Theatre.