Review: The Muny's Emotionally Charged DEAR EVAN HANSEN Packs an Emotional Wallop

Taking a big risk will sometimes yield big rewards. 

The Muny opened their production of the smash hit Tony Award Winning musical Dear Evan Hansen this week. Dear Evan Hansen and its memorably infectious score by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul took Broadway by storm in 2016. The Broadway company, led by an unforgettable performance by Ben Platt, told the story of an anxiety ridden teen whose lies spiral into a social media storm. 

Platt and Rachel Bay Jones went on to win Tony awards for Best Actor and Featured Actress in a Musical. The show was nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning six. In addition to the two acting awards, it was named Best Musical and won for Best Book of a Musical. Alex Lacamoire (In the Heights, Hamilton) won his third Tony for orchestrations, and Pasek and Paul won for their catchy pop-rock score.  

Dear Evan Hansen canonized Pasek and Paul as one of the decade's most prolific song writing teams. They had already been Tony nominated for their score for A Christmas Story: The Musical. Following Dear Evan Hansen, they went on to score the films La La Land and The Greatest Showman, winning an Oscar for Best Song (City of Stars in La La Land) and a Golden Globe for Best Song (This is Me in The Greatest Showman.) 

As originally staged Dear Evan Hansen had a small cast of 17 with eight principal characters. The production relied on the heartfelt story of a high school senior with anxiety disorder, his hardworking absentee mother, and a family grieving the loss of a child who died by suicide. The story is filled with pathos and poignancy. It is an intimate and emotional ride that doesn’t rely heavily on traditional musical theater conventions. 

Therein lies the risk. Transferring this gripping musical drama to the enormous Muny stage.  

Muny Artistic Director and Executive Producer Mike Isaacson made the brave choice to add the modern-day classic Dear Evan Hansen to the 107th Season. He entrusted Muny regular Rob Ruggiero as director. Together, Isaacson and Ruggiero resisted the urge to overwhelm the material with big Muny moments. They boldly rely on the book to tell the tender story, allow it to resonate with the audience, and send people back to their cars clutching tear-soaked tissues. 

Ruggiero’s raw heartfelt storytelling grips the Muny audience, reels them in, and leaves them with a one-of-a-kind Muny memory. He smartly stages the majority of the production on the downstage apron allowing his accomplished cast to command with their presence. It's not that this production is without grand Muny moments, but Ruggiero’s restraint and visionary selectivity elevates and amplifies the narrative.  

There were certainly no risks taken in the casting of this talented troupe of actors. The announcement of the eight actors filling the principal roles was gasp-inducing. Ruggiero, The Muny’s Michael Baxter, and The Telsey Office’s Rashad Naylor tapped Michael Fabisch, leader of the Dear Evan Hansen second national tour, as Evan, St. Louis Theater Circle Award winner Jackie Burns as Evan’s Mom Heidi, and Muny favorites Rob McClure and Maggie Lakis as the grieving Cynthia and Larry Murphy.  

Michael Fabisch is transformative as the angst-ridden teenager. His nervous Evan is uncomfortably introverted. He avoids the lure over overplaying the character to compensate for the size of the venue and relies on the Muny’s top-notch technology to carry his role to the back of the house. His voice is lush and his emotive vocals drip with Evan’s unease. "Waving Through a Window," "For Forever," "You Will Be Found," and "Words Fail" illustrate what an expressive actor can do with music. His work with Burns, McClure, Lakis, and Afra Sophia Tully (Zoe Murphy) is both softly devastating and moving.  

His touching scenes with Jackie Burns (Heidi Hansen) are loving, gut wrenching, and emotional perfection. Burns is riveting as the confounded mom who struggles to help her afflicted son. Her conflicted portrayal simmers with underlying single parent guilt. She’s torn that she cannot be there for her son while trying to balance the demands of work and school. Her Heidi is both heartbroken and heartbreaking. She and Fabisch exhibit real teen-parent anguish in heated exchanges that feel all too real. 

Rob McClure and Maggie Lakis are devastating as the Murphys. Both are a revelation in dramatic roles as parents who grieve in much different ways. McClure’s Larry is shut off emotionally, deflecting any real pain. He lets his guard down momentarily when he teaches Evan how to break in a baseball glove. He’s searching for the father-son connection he never had with his son. It is unlikely there was any father in the audience with a dry eye. 

Lakis’ Cynthia mourns outwardly. She grasps for any shred of connection to her lost son. Her aching portrayal drips with hopelessness, despair, urgency, and frustration. She carries the emotional weight of the Murphy family, and her truthful portrayal elicits deep sympathy. Both she and McClure, who are offstage spouses, are extraordinary in dramatic roles.  

Afra Sophia Tully (Zoe) has magnetic chemistry with Fabisch. Zoe is not only Evan’s high school crush, but she is the sister of deceased teen who becomes the center of Evan’s lies. Tully, in a fully realized performance, is raw in grief-filled angry exchanges with her parents as she tries to reconcile her ambiguous grief. Her friendship with Evan becomes cathartic as she softens and succumbs to her affection for him. Their duets “If I could Tell Her” and “Only Us” are lovely moments of adolescent infatuation.  

Joshua Bess (Connor Murphy), Savy Jackson (Alana Beck), and Bryan Munar (Jared Kleinman) are memorable as Evan’s teen peers. Bess gives the emotionally volatile Conner the necessary edge. He’s remarkable as Evan’s internal psyche and conscious. He, Fabisch, and Munar makes “Sincerely Me” a welcome bit of comic relief. Jackson is polished as the opportunist teenager who finds a platform to become a social media influencer and supporter of a cause.  

 When Ruggiero chooses to broaden his scope of storytelling and use the entire Muny stage, he does so with emphatic flair. Evan awkwardly navigating the crowded halls of his high school, the viral social media explosion, and the sprawling orchard create striking visuals. His carefully selected moments, and his technical team's innovative stagecraft, create imaginative storytelling.  

Video designer Kevan Loney’s technology forward projections create the social media explosion with LCD screens that traversed the entire expanse of The Muny’s stage. The moment Evan’s video goes viral and overwhelms the troubled teen was a Muny moment that will never be forgotten. Loney’s imagery, enhanced by John Shivers and David Patridge’s sound design, was dynamic, brilliant, and all-consuming. His projections were a character unto themself with next-generation storytelling and a sky that truly went on for forever. 

The Muny production of Dear Evan Hansen is a departure from the huge overblown musical extravaganzas that normally populate The Muny stage. It's a much smaller show but it is profoundly emotional. It creates intimacy that was once thought impossible in this large venue and opens other opportunities for the stories that the Muny can tell. 

Like his emotionally charged direction of Fiddler on the Roof last season, Rob Ruggiero’s Muny version of Dear Evan Hansen packs an emotional wallop. Michael Fabisch, Jackie Burns, Maggie Lakis, Rob McClure, Afra Sophia Tully, and the rest of this cast grabs the audience, holds them close, and leaves them with a deeply touching and poignantly warm theatrical experience. 

The Muny’s risk – it paid off. 

Dear Evan Hansen continues at The Muny through August 3, 2025. Click the link below to purchase tickets or visit The Muny Box Office in Forest Park.  

PHOTO CREDIT: Phillip Hamer 

St. Louis Awards - Live Stats

Best Musical - Top 3

1. THE SECOND HURRICANE (Stray Dog Theatre)

9.7% of votes

2. THE PROM (Gateway Center for Performing Arts)

7.4% of votes

3. 9 TO 5 THE MUSICAL (Alton Little Theater)

7.3% of votes

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