There was a barely a dry eye in the house on Tuesday night, as smash hit musical Dear Evan Hansen made its North East debut, with audience members in floods of tears during various points in the two and a half hour show.
One of the biggest shows of the last decade, Dear Evan Hansel is a production that can’t fail to warm and break your heart in equal measure, as it deals with the very real issues of mental health struggles and teenage suicide. Unlike other big hits of the current era like Wicked, Frozen and Mary Poppins, the musical isn’t set in some magical world, but a high school in America, where its lead character unintentionally gets caught up in the death of another student, having penned a letter to himself on the request of his therapist.
Even if you haven’t seen Dear Evan Hansen before, or know little about it, chances are you will have heard its most famous song, You Will Be Found at some point. And it was that very track that provoked a huge emotional reaction from many people in the crowd at Sunderland Empire on opening night on Tuesday.
Incredibly moving from start to finish, the song brings the musical’s first act to a heartwrenching crescendo, with a sentiment and lyrics that, not only carry a hugely relatable message, but can really hit home for anyone who’s been through struggles themselves, watched a loved one suffer or, tragically, lost a friend or relative to suicide.
And you just had to look around the auditorium in Sunderland to see just how much of an impact one single song can have as, audible cries could be heard during the song and, when the lights went up to signal the start of the interval, many people there were wiping away tears.
Speaking to ChronicleLive before curtain up, Dear Evan Hansen lead Ryan Kopel explained that he too can’t help but get caught up in the emotions of the track every single night, saying: “”I look out into the audience every night during You Will Be Found, which is always a huge moment, and I see people crying or putting their heads on the shoulder of the person they’re with or parents cuddling their kids and it’s hard not to end up in floods of tears!”
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