Dear Evan Hansen (2021) on Netflix
Evan Hansen, who has social anxiety, writes letters to himself on his therapist's advice. When a classmate dies by suicide, the classmate's parents read one letter as their son's note to Evan.
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- Netflix2.3/5
- IMDb6.1/1021,313 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes29%
Trailer
Plot summary
Evan Hansen is a seventeen-year-old with social anxiety and depression. His therapist, Dr. Sherman, wants him to write letters to himself about why the coming day will be good. His mother, Heidi, suggests he ask people at school to sign the cast he wears after falling out of a tree, as a way to make friends. At school Evan writes one of the letters, asking himself whether anyone would notice his absence. His classmate Connor Murphy adds his name to the cast and comes across the letter.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Dear Evan Hansen (2021)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Ben Platt answered accusations of nepotism over his casting in the film, his father, producer Marc Platt, was one of its producers, by saying he created the role and workshopped it for three years and that unless he did the movie, it probably wouldn't get made.
- The singing in the film was recorded almost entirely live on set rather than in a studio, specifically so that Ben Platt's vocals would sound as real and authentic as possible when he sings on screen.
- Two scenes featuring Evan Hansen became Internet memes as soon as the film arrived on digital release, driven by the backlash against Ben Platt's casting: a close-up of Evan crying during "Words Fail" and Evan running away from Zoe Murphy in a school hallway.
- To pass as the gawky, fresh-faced 17-year-old Evan Hansen, Ben Platt lost weight and grew his hair out, a change he confirmed himself.
- Songs from the stage musical were dropped so the film could tell the story from Evan's perspective, and Amandla Stenberg wrote an original track, "The Anonymous Ones", with the songwriters Pasek and Paul.
- Stephen Chbosky said the film's main goal was to capture and immortalize Ben Platt's performance, calling Platt's understanding of the character so complete that he could not imagine anybody else playing it.
