Dear Evan Hansen, You Are a Creep

June 6, 2017 7:26 AM

At Slate, Jason Zinoman does a deep dive into the title character in Broadway's Dear Evan Hansen, "not just a kind of hero but one whose story will stay with a generation of young theatergoers forever is testament to the power of skillfully crafted art to reframe, manipulate, and even obscure moral concerns."

Vanity Fair: Pasek and Paul: the Duo Behind Dear Evan Hansen, Broadway’s Tragic Coming-of-Age Musical

From 'Hamilton' To 'Dear Evan Hansen,' Meet The Man Behind The Music

EW: Dear Evan Hansen: Ben Platt on creating his breakout title character

Dear Evan Hansen: "Waving Through a Window"

Ben Platt & Cast of DEAR EVAN HANSEN Perform 'You Will Be Found'

How 'Dear Evan Hansen' Helped Me Feel 'Found'

posted by roomthreeseventeen (15 comments total)

I think when you see how popular characters who do things like this are when presented as complex and relatable people is more what it is like for those who struggle with abusive people in their lives. We dehumanize "abusers" such that we think we will see them as automatically other and wonder why some fools keep getting sucked in, but the same people who think that way often applaud characters in film who do things like this or ultimately start rooting for the abuser to be redeemed, get the girl, given second (or 50th) chances. My mom is STILL rooting for Rumple to redeem himself and wind up with Belle as an official "good guy", I was done with that story a long time ago even though I understand my mothers sentiments. After all her father was a bit of a monster.

The guy I first dated who was very abusive had a similar (but much worse) underdog backstory... truly the amount of abuse he went through and lack of support (he was basically kicked out by family at 16 because he and stepdad didn't get along... lived in his car for two years). He really genuinely needed loving family and support. I did then... and still do now... wish people more skilled at self defense than a 16 year old girl had been willing to help him but I'm not sure I regret trying even though he did wind up being manipulative and damaging and controlling. I mostly regret that so few reach out to those in need more than that those in desperation become desperate and abusive as they scramble to get social needs met.
posted by xarnop at 8:21 AM on June 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

testament to the power of skillfully crafted art to reframe, manipulate, and even obscure

So, it's a #slatepitch?
posted by leotrotsky at 8:23 AM on June 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

Was Evan himself abused? Because I don't understand the "oh, we need to sympathize with him because of how he was treated" explanation if he's just a manipulative, sociopathic dick brought up by decent people.
posted by zombieflanders at 8:28 AM on June 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

Was Evan himself abused?

Not as presented, no.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:45 AM on June 6, 2017

Spoilers below:

I mean, he was not just a regular outcast - he was depressed to the point of suicide. There is definitely a question of agency in his actions, but surely all of us can relate to the idea that sometimes we are caught up in something and, though we know it's wrong, can't escape.

His cruelty is not acceptable, but I think it's pretty easily understandable given his mental health.
posted by papayaninja at 8:52 AM on June 6, 2017 [2 favorites]

Yeah - they establish pretty much in the first five minutes that he suffers from some pretty intense social anxiety, suicidal depression and very realistic self-hate, which is what drives his wanting to please everyone when an opportunity finally presents itself for him to do it. Which ends up being a massive mistake from a poor snap judgement that snowballs. It's a complicated show because yeah the lie he backs himself into is a creepy one, so reading a description of it definitely provoked an "ew". But it does a good job of taking it way deeper than that, so if "ew" is seriously all someone got out of it then I'd think they outright weren't paying attention to anything (or they're making a concerted effort to feel that way and have a Hot Contrarian Slate Take on a popular Broadway show that is trying to deal with this stuff with compassion for all involved). The show deals a lot with his internal torment and his wanting to do the right thing so he's definitely not a "sociopathic dick".

I don't know, I'm defensive about it because I personally found myself relating to a lot of it, to backing yourself into a huge irreversible error despite trying to do what's right and trying to please everyone, so I found it all to be really cathartic.
posted by windbox at 9:33 AM on June 6, 2017 [3 favorites]

I related to a lot of it too, and also found it cathartic. My problem wasn't with the portrayal of his actions, which were cruel but understandable, but with the relative lack of repercussions. I thought that was a real cop-out.
posted by Mavri at 10:59 AM on June 6, 2017 [2 favorites]

(Spoilers, which I think it's safe to say this thread will have in droves)

The other factor in "how he was treated" is Evan's father leaving. The line "A truck that will take mommy away" is absolutely devastating. The whole baseball glove song, which to my ear has never quite fit in, is trying to contextualize Evan's actions as the result of a kid desperate for a father figure.

And that's kind of unsatisfying, because "my dad left" isn't at all a real excuse for his actions. Evan even acknowledges that: "That's not a worthy explanation / I know there is none / Nothing can make sense of all these things I've done." That's a bit of a cop-out to be sure, but it's clear that Evan's brokenness is presented as a result of his problems with his parents.

I'm honestly not sure what the comeuppance should be if there was going to be one. I agree I found the ending unsatisfying. I can certainly conceive of an alternate universe version of Dear Evan Hansen where Evan isn't alive at the end of the musical, but beyond that, I don't know what additional consequences for his actions would make sense without turning the whole thing into a "don't tell lies" morality play.
posted by zachlipton at 12:08 PM on June 6, 2017 [1 favorite]

I haven't seen Evan Hansen, so I couldn't judge how much he is actually portrayed as an anti-hero or how conscious the play is of its own problems. Musicals are so rich with flawed-but-intriguing, "problematic" characters that it's practically a trope. Part of me is still to this day swept away with the love story of "The Phantom of the Opera" even though I know now it is definitively an abusive relationship.
posted by shalom at 12:08 PM on June 6, 2017

I guess I'm left wondering what repercussions should be expected? I don't think he did anything illegal (though perhaps he did), and what Zoe says at the end is true: her family was falling apart and Evan's lie brought them together. Zoe doesn't speak to him for a year, her parents presumably don't speak to him, he lives at home and works retail... His life didn't crumble, but besides a better sense of self and outlook, he isn't exactly a success story. I'm sure that year held plenty of yelling and arguing and stress, but explicitly for Zoe and implicitly for the others, his actions were not only understandable but also understood. That level of empathy isn't particularly realistic, but perhaps Zoe and the Murphys are better people than I.
posted by papayaninja at 12:28 PM on June 6, 2017 [2 favorites]

I guess I understand the desire for people to Face Consequences For Their Terrible Actions in fiction to some extent, and I used to be all about everyone facing some kind of narrative punishment for their bad behavior, but as I've gotten older that's stopped being appealing to me in fiction, especially fiction about young people.

I don't know if this makes sense, but the quickness with which we condemn people who aren't real for making mistakes of any kind is something I see mirrored in how we want real, ordinary people to be punished for being Bad Actors. I'm glad for things that have an "unrealistic" sense of empathy. I think those stories are good for both the people who create them and the people who get to see them, whether or not they're morally correct by whatever measure. (I agree that an ending in which a suicidal teen character is dead is not a great idea.)
posted by colorblock sock at 8:23 PM on June 6, 2017 [2 favorites]

Is this the place where we can all admit that the music for 75% of Dear Evan Hansen is basically a reworked Ben Folds album? I spent the first 20 seconds of "Sincerely, Me" trying to remember which Ben Folds song it was until the speaking break kicked in.
posted by Anonymous at 10:28 PM on June 6, 2017

(that said, there are some pretty adorable animatics made to it)
posted by Anonymous at 10:33 PM on June 6, 2017

Chewing on this some more, I think the view that Evan deserves more comeuppance is hard to reconcile with one of the show's most signifncant scenes: the one between Evan and ghost Connor. It has one of the most devastating costume choices I've ever seen: Evan and Connor have shed their separated identities and are dressed alike. On one level, I suspect this is meant just to show that Connor is just entirely part of Evan's imagination at this point, but I don't see it quite that way; I see it as a stark symbol of Evan becoming Connor more than he's himself. Evan takes Connor's place in his family, but Connor is increasingly taking Evan's place in his own mind. Ghost Connor even taunts him with this after revealing Evan's arm really got broken: "You can get rid of me whenever you want. You can get rid of all of it...But then all that you're going to be left with is you."

And when you look at that, the idea that there ought to be more repercussions is hard to swallow. It's a self-hating suicidal teenager who has filled his head with the imagined personality of another suicidal teenager to avoid himself. How can you want more comeuppance for someone who has already tortured themselves like that? While the broad concept of the fabrications may be comparable to a journalist who faked stories, what's going on inside Evan's head is pretty different, and I think the comparison falls apart.

Is it weird and seemingly wrong that the guy who hurt so many other people with his lies is the one rewarded with the convenient moment of personal discovery that makes him able to live with himself, while everyone else has to deal with the destruction? Sure. It bugged me too. But when you accept that Evan is in deep pain himself, and has been since the first note of the show, it's really hard to argue that point, as the Slate article tries to, without essentially saying that he doesn't deserve to feel at least ok about himself now.

Jared, on the other hand, is seemingly just an asshole, and unless I'm misrembering things, he kind of disappears for the last half hour of the show or so, and deserves some comeuppance. There.
posted by zachlipton at 2:10 AM on June 7, 2017 [4 favorites]

I haven't seen it, just listened to the cast recording, but Evan did bother me, and he wasn't the only one. Connor's father started out unsympathetic in the first song, then completely creeped me out in the baseball glove song. I heard the glove as a metaphor for his son, and the song sounded to me like here's how to break in a kid, to make the kid be the shape and size you want. He blew it with Connor, and now is trying again with Evan.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 7:54 AM on June 7, 2017