If someone was going to ask me for the definition of a mixed bag show I might respond with the coming of age musical Dear Evan Hansen. The songs are so catchy and it means well that I enjoy watching it but let’s just say the plot is strange. Anyway, I really appreciate when a company can take a mixed bag show like this and elevate it to something more than the sum of its parts and that’s what Centerpoint Legacy has done with their Dear Evan Hansen. It is one of the best staging of this musical I’ve seen and that includes the Broadway touring company.

One of my favorite parts of Centerpoint Legacy is how they repeatedly use projections to help add to the storytelling not replace it. There is no better example of this than in Dear Evan Hansen. This is a show that has a tradition of a social media presence on stage (sometimes behind, surrounding them on pillars, I’ve seen many different ways.) Here director Bre Welch incorporates that social media but makes the projections appear to be on triangles- as if it is on shattered glass. This is a brilliant way of adding context to the cracked world of the story and these inspirational moments are based on lies and half-truths. It helps us as an audience to deal with the problematic nature of the story in a way I’ve never seen before, which is a again a brilliant choice (projection/video design Alex Young is so talented!) I also love the lighting work by Jordan Fowler with bright colors framing the shattered glass or the stage to help add dramatic impact to what is happening on stage. It adds so much to the story, which again isn’t the strongest by itself.

This cast is wonderful with Josh Call playing Evan and Anna Kocherhans as Zoe. I appreciate both of them felt like teenagers. Sometimes when seeing this show it feels like we are watching 30 year-olds pretend to be teenagers but these two felt like believable teens. I also really liked Ryan Munsey’s take on Connor. He’s usually played as a big athletic bully type but Munsey has more of an emo rebellious read on the character which is interesting. This version of Connor feels more similar to Evan which is good because we need it to believable that people would think they could have been great friends.

Some of my favorite moments of this production are songs like “You Will Be Found,” “Words Fail” and “Requiem” which on the surface are inspirational ballads but because of the shattered glass dynamic it adds a layer to the soaring melodies. “Waiving Through a Window” is a terrific start of the show but again because I was so immersed in the production design it quickly was eclipsed by the other numbers, which is saying something because I love that song.

My only real critique is these songs are deceptively difficult and the young performers should work on supporting their notes as much as possible. There are times when I felt they could have pushed through the ending of sentences a little more and thereby really driving home the hopeful message. Otherwise I loved this production of Dear Evan Hansen. It truly elevates the material in special ways and especially if you have teens it is a cracking night of theatre. It is playing at Centerpoint through October 15th and tickets can be purchased here.

Dear Evan Hansen has music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul with a book by Steven Levenson. It first premiered on Broadway in 2016 and it won 6 Tony Awards including Best Musical.

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