What can you do if you are looking for recognition but you don’t get it? Write encouraging letters to yourself, for example. That’s where the story begins.
New York – When grandfather clocks start to sing, some people in Germany roll their eyes. Musicals do not always have the best reputation in this country, they are often considered shallow entertainment.
In the United States, where they hold a much higher status as an art form, it often takes years and many millions of dollars to develop a material for the stage on Broadway in New York. With “Dear Evan Hansen”, a Broadway mega-hit is now coming to German cinemas, albeit staged as a feature film with vocal interludes.
The focus is on Evan Hansen, a lonely teenager who is advised in therapy to write letters to himself to encourage him. One of them falls into the hands of the depressed school bully Connor. When the latter takes his own life shortly afterwards, his family discovers a letter from Evan Hansen, but believe that it came from their son and that the two were friends. Evan goes along with the increasingly complex lie, getting closer to Connor’s sister – and as a friend of the deceased, learns the recognition at school that he had previously been denied.
This works surprisingly well due to the entertaining pop songs and clever stage design in the musical theater. In the film, however, the songs by director Stephen Chbosky (the author behind the teenage film “Maybe Better Tomorrow”) are often staged in an uninspired way and hardly allow for large dance scenes. Stars like Amy Adams and Julianne Moore sing passably, but are otherwise rarely used along with their strengths.
The movie’s biggest weakness is the age of lead actor Ben Platt. He is now 28 years old in real life and is therefore difficult to market as an eleventh grader. But the role made him a celebrated theater star around the Broadway start in 2016, and his father, the successful producer Marc Platt, has now also played for this film musical after “La La Land” and an “Aladdin” version with Will Smith Collected money.
After all, in the film version, too, the young Platt manages to stir feelings in the vulnerable moments. And finally, Audrey Hepburn was already 31 years old when she portrayed the 19-year-old Holly Golightly in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, according to the script.
Dear Evan Hansen, USA 2021, by Stephen Chbosky, with Ben Platt, Julianne Moore, Amy Adams. 137 minutes, FSK: Ages 12 and up. dpa
