Review: DEAR EVAN HANSEN at Théâtre de La Madeleine

The French premiere of Dear Evan Hansen at the Théâtre de la Madeleine on 10 October 2025 marks an accomplished and thoughtful introduction of the Tony Award–winning musical to Parisian audiences, with Olivier Solivérès’s production treating Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, and Steven Levenson’s modern classic with fidelity and feeling, translating its poignant portrait of adolescent isolation and the distortions of online life into a French idiom with striking emotional clarity. Since its Broadway debut in 2016, Dear Evan Hansen has become one of its generation’s defining musicals: its story of a socially anxious teenager whose fabricated friendship with a deceased classmate spirals into viral fame striking a nerve in an age obsessed with digital validation, earning six Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Score, and running for nearly six years at the Music Box Theatre, though its less successful 2021 screen adaptation only reaffirmed the stage version’s integrity as a delicate balancing act between empathy and unease, probing with rare precision how loneliness can be amplified by networks promising connection. 

Olivier Solivérès, known for The Dead Poet's Society at the Théâtre Antoine, which garnered six Molière nominations, approaches the material with restraint and discernment, grounding the drama in recognizable human behavior rather than theatrical flourish, while the French adaptation by singer-songwriter Hoshi, Frédéric Strouck, and David Sauvage—marked by Hoshi’s own artistry exploring solitude, visibility, and self-doubt—preserves the directness of the original score while infusing it with a lyrical, distinctly French melancholy. Antoine Le Provost (a star rising into the firmament of French musical theater, who previously had standout roles as Tulsa in Gypsy at the Philharmonie de Paris and as Groupidupianix in C’est du délire at Parc Astérix) delivers a very moving and nuanced performance as Evan Hansen, portraying a fragile yet lucid young man whose small deceptions stem from an aching need to belong, singing with precision and emotional control in standout numbers like "Waving Through a Window" and "You Will Be Found," while Fanny Chelim brings understated warmth to Zoe Murphy, Antoine Galey invests Connor Murphy with a fierce, troubled presence, and Armonie Coiffard and Michel Lerousseau, as the grieving parents, lend moral gravity without pathos, supported by an energetic and coherent ensemble of Kevin Barnachea, Lou Nagy, and Sandrine Seubille. 

Visually, the production achieves an elegant synthesis of intimacy and technology, with Dimitri Vassiliu’s lighting and Sébastien Mizermont’s scenography evoking the enclosed spaces of teenage solitude while subtly integrating the world of social media, complemented by Jules Moreau’s sound design and Marine Lehuédé’s understated costumes that prioritize authenticity over spectacle. Under Léa Rulh’s musical direction, leading a four-piece onstage band, the score retains its rhythmic vitality and emotional drive, with Alex Lacamoire’s familiar orchestrations rendered clearly and French lyrics sitting naturally within the musical phrasing, reflecting a careful and respectful adaptation. 

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