DEAR EVAN HANSEN: Ohhh, You In Trouble, Gurl......

Scripted by Tony-winning book writer Steven Levenson, directed by Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), and featuring a slimmed down song list by Tony winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Dear Evan Hansen is a dense musical about a white lie that spins out of control, the role of technology in the perpetuation of false narratives, the power of forgiveness, and the struggle so many people have with mental health. Evan (Ben Platt, reprising his Tony-winning performance) is an anxiety-ridden high school kid whose therapist encourages him to write motivational letters to himself every day. One of them, detailing his secret crush on school chum Zoe Murphy (Kaityln Dever, in the film's most believable turn), is intercepted by her loner brother Connor (Colton Ryan, a little too sweet), who subsequently kills himself.

Desperately searching for answers and thinking it's a suicide note addressed to their son's secret friend Evan, Connor's parents (Amy Adams and a distracted Danny Pino) welcome this unexpected guest into their lives, and Evan doesn't stop them, going to great lengths to prove their "friendship," while courting their daughter and figuring out how to come out of his shell. Of course, this fib balloons into a viral sensation about hope and perseverance when social outcast Alana (Amandla Stenberg, operating in a different, probably better, film) decides to start a suicide prevention foundation in Connor's name.

Onstage, it's a tearjerker: a wrenching grief story for the grownups, and a generally frank examination of psychological issues that aren't really addressed in mainstream media to its plethora of young fans. It strains credulity, sure, but that artifice of the proscenium (and the radio-ready pop score) carries it. We know it's not real, but we go with it anyway, and it provides a nice little catharsis amid the moral gray area as we buy the cast album on the way out.

Film is a different story – it's "real" real. Evan's actions, which we sort of shrug off after seeing it on Broadway because they're presented with hints of ambiguity, are truly grotesque in celluloid. He's a Machiavellian villain in a story where he's written to be the hero.

This push-and-pull between hero and villain would have been a more thoughtful reexamination of the show for the screen if the creative team wanted to put in the work, but instead they've given us a generally straightforward adaptation, which, to paraphrase one of the songs, is so drab, so banal, and desperately in need of editing (even with four songs cut, it clocks in at a staggering two hours and 17 minutes, which is almost longer than the stage version).

Through excising songs like "Anybody Have a Map?," "Good for You," and "To Break in a Glove," Levenson neuters the roles of the adults down to almost nothing, a shame when you have fine actors like Adams and Julianne Moore, who plays the barely-there role of Evan's working mom, doing their best to find characters with extremely little. Moore, in particular, does well with the ostensible eleven o'clock number, "So Big, So Small," but the pathos is blunted by the lack of screen time – it doesn't earn it on screen the way it does on stage. From opening the film with "Waving Through a Window" to the new (unnecessary) number for Alana ("The Anonymous Ones," co-penned and sung by Stenberg) this has been refashioned entirely as a teen story, devoid of really anything that gave it dramatic heft.

There are aspects of Chbosky's cinematic expansion that work extremely well in a grim way – "Sincerely Me," where Evan and his friend Jared (Nik Dodani, doing his best Will Roland impression) create the fake emails from Connor, becomes a colorful spectacle at an arcade, while Zoe almost crashes her car with frustration during "Requiem." These moments excellently accentuate the piquant nature of the script, while the rest of it is created with a doe-eyed sincerity that goes against the darker hues. A new denouement, which is supposed to not let Evan off the hook so easily but involves him once again using Connor for his own means, is particularly repellant.

As for Platt, he's too old and his hair's a mess, but the film is actually a pretty good representation of what he did on Broadway, capturing the from-the-gut performance and impressive vocals that launched his career into the stratosphere. What it lacks, no fault of his own, is subtext. It's clear he understand what he's doing, but Chbosky never allows us to understand Evan's motivation. Without grounding his actions, Evan is just a monster, which is clearly not what they want us to walk away thinking.

This could be a metaphor for the film of Dear Evan Hansen itself. Words fail, indeed.

Other reviewers are kinder. Sort of....

[quote]Dear Evan Hansen Review: Ben Platt Shines In Emotionally Exhausting Film Adaptation

"Meh...." gushes Deadline!

His hair and face make me laugh at him. He is too old for this part now.

Poor Ben Platt. He really does look strange in this.

I loved DEH onstage, and he was terrific in it. I hate that people will take the film version's failure as evidence that no one wants to see new musicals.

If it werent for his father, nobody would know who the hell he is....same with Beanie Feldstein and Jonah Hill.

Pic from the TIFF red carpet tonight.

I am so sad for all of them, especially Julianne. That is such a meaningful role and should have been treated better in a better movie.

Danny Pino! Or is that Daddy Pino? WOOF!

They all look so sad in that photo @ r9.

Who thinks Ben Platt looks 16?.....He looks 35. A shame. The movie could have showcased an unknown.

[quote] Moore, in particular, does well with the ostensible eleven o'clock number

I'm glad Google could tell me what that is.

[quote]The film’s stars are good singers, particularly Amandla Stenberg, who has a commanding voice that stands out because she sounds natural and is the only one not pretending she’s performing at the Music Box theater in New York.

Ouch... Brutal, for Platt.

Ben will never get his EGOT now.

Sad, really.

how many years before the nationwide search for casting the lead in Dear Evan Hansen LIVE on FOX...just in time for the holidays!

[quote] Moore, in particular, does well with the ostensible eleven o'clock number

[quote] I'm glad Google could tell me what that is.

Don't blame the article. The title of the song is in the rest of the sentence you cut out.

Poor Amy Adams shat out another turd!

[quote] I am so sad for all of them, especially Julianne.

Me too. Her life is so arduous.

R18 I rarely go to musicals so I had never heard of an "eleven o'clock number" before.

But I do go the occasional opera and from now Ill be able to announce that Beethoven gives us an excellent "eleven o'clock number".

My apologies. I thought you meant the name of the song.

Now the reviewers are just being mean:

[quote] Undoubtedly one of the worst movie-musicals ever made. Overwrought and emotionless at the same time, insensitive towards trauma and mental illness, and out of touch with reality. Jail to everyone.

[quote] And while there is some good acting here — Julianne Moore, Amandla Stenberg, and Kaitlyn Dever, in particular — the rest of the cast feels like they’re in a competition of who can ugly cry the most.

R21 Fidelio is Beethoven’s only opera so I’m not sure how often you’ll be able to use your 11 o ‘clock line... I don’t think that opera is even in that many repertoires

Poor Julianne- yet another flop

Same for Amy Adams

[quote]The trailer was released without much fanfare.

Do DL threads with 385 posts not count as fanfare??

Next up: a musical of Robin Williams' film, "World's Greatest Dad", but isn't that already "Dear Evan Hansen"?

YAAAAS this pleases gaga

R6 Plus ugly. He looks like Julia Sweeney as Pat.

If they had done this with cute actual teenaged actors, it might have been a modest success.

Maybe.

[quote] “I think the reaction is largely from people who don’t understand the context of the piece — the fact that I created the role and workshopped it for three years,” Platt said.

[quote]“Were I not to do the movie, it probably wouldn’t get made,” he continued. “And so, I think, my defensive response is to want to go onto Twitter and be like, ‘F you, guys. You don’t even know that this wouldn’t exist without me.’ Of course, that’s not true entirely and not my place to say. All I have to do is let the work speak for itself.”

Wow what an asshole.

I've had sufficient about movies with spiralling white lies about friendship.

R35 = Bens dad looks and sounds like an old queen too.

Anybody who had to look up 11 o'clock number should just get the hell off of DL.

Next thing you know they'll have to look up coup de theatre.

I have never heard the term '11 o'clock number' either.

I'm disappointed this seems to be a miss, I really want to see the stage version but haven't had the opportunity and I thought this was going to be a decent substitute - sounds like I'd be better holding out for the stage version so the film doesn't put me off entirely.

Twitter is on fire

Can shittywood stop trying to make the fug imp happen yet?

From what I can tell from the preview, Ben Platt looks like a 17 year-old.

A 17 year-old burn victim post-surgery.

Oh. I thought this was about a gay boy.

I don't go to musicals or operas so I had never heard about "the 11 o'clock number" before either. No need to be so hoity-toity, you Follies fat fart, just be generous with your knowledge, please.

"If they had done this with cute actual teenaged actors, it might have been a modest success. Maybe."

Excuse my ignorance but why is Twitter so gleefully celebrating the bad reviews?

Gawd, look at the picture in the OP. Julianne Moore has the worst profile ever--flat face and no chin.

Largely schadenfreude due to the producer casting his own son in the role which he very obviously aged out of, as well as Ben Platt’s arrogant and defiant public statements about his casting.

Why was OP’s reviewer surprised that they shoehorned in a new song, everyone knows that’s the only way to get a best song nomination from a transfer Broadway to film movie?

Dear Evan Hansen is Hollywood’s newest entry on the road to reviving the musical genre. The Broadway musical by musicians and lyricist Benj Pasek and Justin Paul is coming to the big screen via Universal to see if it can capitalize on general audience approval.

So how does the film, which opened the Toronto Film Festival on Thursday night, stack up against the stage adaptation? Well, it stands closer to Rob Marshall’s Into the Woods (an adaptation of a Broadway play), meaning it’s terrible. Dear Evan Hansen could have been enjoyable, but there are too many glaring problems that can’t be ignored for the sake of entertainment.

The Broadway musical is popular among theatergoers, as many found it relatable to people who consider themselves outcasts with little to no support. The show won several Tony Awards for the actors and the production. Still, it is an irreparably problematic piece of work that manipulates the audience by forcing them to feel sympathy for a pathological liar whose own mental illness is exploited. To top it all off, Evan is forgiven by everyone around him and sees no real consequences for his actions just because they can understand where he’s coming from?! This story is complete madness from beginning to end, but at least the actors can sing.

Dear Evan Hansen is an exercise in restraint. You either want to scream at the screen or shrink down in your chair from suffering secondhand embarrassment from these characters and their actions. The story is convinced it’s making a bold statement about mental illness, finding community and class structures, but it feels inauthentic and shallow. Connor is being exploited from beyond the grave and doesn’t choose about being on the receiving end. This film won’t inspire empathy or sympathy but disdain and indifference.

"forcing them to feel sympathy for a pathological liar whose own mental illness is exploited. To top it all off, Evan is forgiven by everyone around him and sees no real consequences for his actions just because they can understand where he’s coming from?! "

Exactly the reason I loathed it on Broadway.

I never miss a Danny Pino musical.

Did Connor kill himself because he’s gay? Does his father get to say “I love my dead gay son?”

Connor was raped by Evan’s father, who had a second family that lived in a funeral home where the mother hallucinates that her dead son is now a teenager who has to got to hell to get his girlfriend back.

R57 Liar, that’s the award winning musical Next to Fun Home!

So the kid kill himself after reading Evan's letter to himself?

Ben Platt is so ugly but I just want to eat him up still.

R56 Connor was revealed to be bisexual in the novel adaptation of the play, but that wasn't why he killed himself.

R60 Shut up Noah and go back to scrolling on GrindR.

[quote]“And so, I think, my defensive response is to want to go onto Twitter and be like, ‘F you, guys. You don’t even know that this wouldn’t exist without me.’ Of course, that’s not true entirely and not my place to say. All I have to do is let the work speak for itself.”

I need to remember this clever technique to *not* say something embarrassing.

All you have to do is tell an interviewer what you want to say that is arrogant and obnoxious--word by word--get that published and then say you'd never actually say those words.

Got it.

I can’t figure how to link it as I’m on my phone but there are red carpet photos of the lovely Julianne Moore at the Toronto Film Festival on the Daily Fail today and she looks like she’s gone the full Nicole Kidman with her face. Hopefully it will settle. Ugh.

I'm sure Platt's words will motivate everyone to want to see the film.

The quintessential eleven o'clock number:

[quote] Does his father get to say “I love my dead gay son?"

No, his father gets to SING it. At 11:00.

Today it would be the 9:50 song.

I usually like nerdy Jewish but Platt is a hard pass.

That would be Rose's Turn, r66.

I love how they plopped that wig on his head and shaved his arms and thought, yeah, looks like 15 to me!

One reviewer said Platt didn’t know how to make his performance smaller, and that it looks bizarre alongside the other performances.

They should have aged the characters up a bit.

R70 Both have music by Jule Styne.

[quote]when social outcast Alana (Amandla Stenberg, operating in a different, probably better, film)

I love that line.

Ben Platt cannot act, end of story. He may have a very good voice, but he has zero acting talent. When I saw him in DEH onstage I was open-mouthed at how awful his performance was. I've since seen him on film and he's just as terrible.

R75 Oh I'm sure you'd be much better

He's certainly not a cute kid in those videos of Mame and SOM. You could probably find just as equally talented children who are much more appealing in their presence. If he were an adult you would ask who did he sleep with to get that job? Then you'd realize with that mug he wouldn't even have a job.

[quote] [R75] Oh I'm sure you'd be much better

What kind of stupid response is that? I'm not an actor. But then I've no ambition to be one nor am I being paid to be one.

[quote]I love how they plopped that wig on his head and shaved his arms and thought, yeah, looks like 15 to me!

It's worse, it's his own hair and his own decision to grow it out for the movie.

They rushed to do this film before Platt gets even older and now the property is severely damaged.

I wonder if this will damage the show. Or if the Hansenites will just retcon it.

[quote]The Broadway musical is popular among theatergoers, as many found it relatable to people who consider themselves outcasts with little to no support.

Is that what the average theatergoer is like, now? No wonder shows suck so much.

Vulture review - also brutal.

[quote]What’s disturbing about Dear Evan Hansen is not just that the 27-year-old Platt is unbelievable as someone ten years younger. It’s that all the film’s efforts to transform him into a plausible teenager have the reverse effect of making the character of Evan Hansen appear to be somewhere in his mid-40s. When he gets up onstage for the second act’s big musical number, I wasn’t sure if he was going to memorialize his dead classmate or speak on the importance of 401(k) matching.

Is that fat chick from the Monica Lewinsky thing in this also?

Fun fact, this film is written and directed by the screenwriter of the Rent film.

Thirsty as fuck an Oscar: they jettisoned four songs from the show and added two new ones for the movie.

Indiewire piling on.

[quote]Platt’s hunched-over, sad-eyed physicality is constantly and overtly pronounced. It unnecessarily draws more attention to the fact that a 27-year-old is playing a teenager. Platt’s larger-than-life affectations may have worked well for the stage so the audience can see Evan’s intense social anxiety, but on screen, Platt’s darting eyes are far too creepy to portray the shy, kind teenager the audience wants to root for.

"FOR an Oscar."

You know one of the songs will be nominated because Amandla Stenberg is a co-writer and the Wokescars love that shit.

[quote]*This article originally claimed that Ben Platt’s Dear Evan Hansen haircut was a wig. It is, astoundingly, his own hair.

Oh, snap!

That’s his hair? Wow. It really looks like a ridiculous wig (like the one Martin Short wears on Only Murders in the Building).

Strangely, it's not very unusual for a 27 year old (or older) to play a teenager, it happens on TV shows a lot. Some actors in 13 Reasons Why were in their late 20s and 30s playing teens, but they were believable. This guy just has an old face, even on stage he did.

Stockard Channing owns this thread.

Vanity Fair:

[quote]The real trouble of Platt’s performance, though, is that he doesn’t dial down for the camera. He maintains nearly all of his stage work’s highly articulated tics—Evan’s hunched gait and wiggling hands, his stammered speech patterns—which played fine from many yards back in a theater, but are too mannered on film. He sticks out among his more screen-seasoned cast mates, as if his Broadway performance was simply video captured and, through CGI magic, bizarrely aged up and digitally inserted into everyone else’s littler, humbler movie.

Little White Lies - hmm, I'm sensing a theme to these reviews

[quote]The depths of failure here are difficult to overstate, beginning with bringing Platt back to the role he originated on stage despite his age. A choice whose wrongness should have been obvious on sight alone – or a screen test at the very least – but only gets worse given the style of performance. Costumed like a geeky middle-schooler from the ’80s in a manner only a Broadway audience could find convincing, Platt attempts to appear teenaged and awkward in outright theatrical style, hunching his back, clutching his limbs, walking and running with stiltedness turned to eleven. It might be a less bizarre approach if everyone else in the film were so heightened, but instead Chbosky has roped in the likes of Amy Adams, Julianne Moore, Kaitlyn Dever and Amandla Stenberg to ground it all in indie-realism, like a musical version of his 2012 teen drama The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

So many of the reviews I've read have talked about how bad the story is, and are basically shocked they didn't reframe it to be more critical of Evan. But I guess that would mean daddy's lil boy would've had to change his performance, and can't be having that.

I'm loving how upset he looks in the red carpet photos

[quote]Strangely, it's not very unusual for a 27 year old (or older) to play a teenager, it happens on TV shows a lot. Some actors in 13 Reasons Why were in their late 20s and 30s playing teens, but they were believable.

Also, IIRC, most of the kids on "Fame" back in the '80s were in their 20s.

I saw the show from the middle of the 2nd row on Broadway and was shocked by how broad and ridiculous his gestures and facial expressions were. He was indicating like crazy and doing a really poor impression of what he thought someone with massive OCD would be like. It was a laughable performance. I can't imagine how ridiculous he must look on camera.

I never saw DEH on Broadway, so don't know much about it other than I was shocked to hear the title character isn't gay.

R83 He looks like a jewish woman made up to look like a mentally slow 55 year old man with the most hideous cheap wig. All that is a missing is a bike helmet. How did they not see this?

Are you suggesting that Joyce Carol Oates should have played the title role?

I liked it better when it was titled "The Sorrows of Young Werther."

Do you think Noah is texting him right now saying that they need to talk?

I love the stage show. I saw two different leads on the national tour (one year apart) and they were both far superior to Ben Platt from both a singing and acting perspective. When I saw Ben perform on the Tonys, I couldn't believe how weird it was watching him perform. In a musical, you don't act like you're singing; you are just presenting dialogue and advancing the story and HAPPEN to be singing. Ben was doing all sort of facial tics that were centered on presenting the singing. He looked like Joe Cocker, for the love of God.

[quote]I liked it better when it was titled "The Sorrows of Young Werther."

Is he sad because of a bad batch of caramels?

Oh, this thread is destined to become a classic.

What does BP mean when he says “workshopped the role”? I’m not a theatre aficionado so excuse my ignorance.

Workshops are basically trial run mini productions of plays or musicals as part of the development phase to see what might be working or not before going on to the much more costly full production phase.

Will this beat CATS for Broadway to movie bombs?

Thank you, R 108. Who views the workshops? Are there actual audiences?

Yes, though due to their nature the audiences tend to be made up of theatre obsessives who, once the show has a proper opening, will endlessly bang on about how they saw it in workshop and how it was much better then...

Ben Platt is the new Lea Michele. "Wouldn't get made without me" indeed.

One review mentioned that his career is in the stratosphere. Really?? Did people actually buy that whiny, plaintive, navel-gazing CD of his? I did notice he has a new one. Yuck.

Did his new CD go Platt-inum?

Hilarious how Fangurls everywhere defy the carping about Platt's age by invoking GREASE!. Um, (1) that was basically a frothy, retro comedy, and (2) EVERYBODY was "too old."

[quote] hate that people will take the film version's failure as evidence that no one wants to see new musicals.

I don’t think musicals as a genre are going to bear the brunt of this, everyone seems pretty clear that this specific musical is the problem.

From Twitter:

Joe Biden just said everyone who doesn’t get vaccinated is required to see Dear Evan Hansen in theatres.

Also Twitter

R109 I don't pay much attention to Andrew Lloyd Webber that I get the impression he's being been 'workshopping' musicals for the last 15 years but none of them have had a full production.

[quote] [R75] Oh I'm sure you'd be much better

Wow, there's a brilliant retort.

I hope Ben Platt never does another musical. Let him give concerts to half-empty arenas.

Show us where he hurt you.

Here's a clip of the cast getting a standing ovation after the film premiered at TIFF. They had to be hopeful that the reviews would be as good as this audience reception.

Dear God. It looks like "Strangers With Candy: The Musical".

Daddy! You were supposed to buy me good press! Did AO Scott get the Edible Arrangement you said your secretary sent?

So, guess he wasn’t waving, but drowning.

It seems the lead is only be played by gay men which is one of the reasons you think the character is gay.

R112 Yes, and timed with the film release for maximum promo. He's lucky his daddy is the producer, as shit like that gets non-related producers pretty angry.

R126 There've been a couple who aren't gay (Sam Tutty, Andrew Barth Feldman), or at least who aren't out.

😂😂😂

Good news for my general disdain for Ben Platt

[quote]I saw the show from the middle of the 2nd row on Broadway and was shocked by how broad and ridiculous his gestures and facial expressions were. He was indicating like crazy and doing a really poor impression of what he thought someone with massive OCD would be like. It was a laughable performance. I can't imagine how ridiculous he must look on camera.

I saw the musical when it came to Toronto where it bombed hard - maybe there's a theme here.

Couldn't believe that's what the rhapsodizing was about, people tweeting they were sobbing throughout the show, canonizing Ben Platt, etc.. The TO lead was an OK nothing special singer so I looked up bootlegs to see how Platt did.

I was stunned by the stammering, the nonstop sniveling, all the exaggerated body ticks. He was constantly 'wiping' his nose in is sleeve like a kinder-gardener! Talk about overkill. If they didn't tone it substantially down for the movie, he and the director deserve all the panning they're getting.

Looking just a tad old

A film festival standing ovation means nothing especially when it's any kind of gala premiere with stars in attendance. All of the local naboobs who paid big bucks to be there adore handing out standing o's to celebs.

If a film at a big gala DOESN'T get any kind of ovation, is when you need to be VERY concerned.

^ Nice veneers! He must have wealthy parents.

These are some of the most delicious bad reviews I've read since Cats came out

Keep in mind that the audiences at TIFF this year are at 60% or so capacity because of COVID rules.

Ben Platt… you have been found…wanting.

The Jar Jar comment has got to hurt.

Unpopular opinion, but from the posted photos I think he could pass as a high school student. I predict younger audiences will love the film and be more forgiving of its flaws.

R140 You have cataracts, right?

Actual teenagers are fairly astute at recognizing non-teens. And they are fairly brutal about calling them out.

he he he, this is all just delicious.

There's not enough young theater nerds out there to make this movie a hit..

Will this bomb harder than The Goldfinch?

THR's review is fairly positive, at least compared to some of the others:

Meanwhile, In the Heights is at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. It will end the year as the best reviewed musical of the year(past several years) and all of you had the nerve to trash it.

Any word on Tick Tick Boom? It's written by the same guy who wrote Rent.

R147 Stritchie.......We all saw the film......it is utter shit with no storyline.

R146’s pic : BEn looks like the guy from Gremlins. Wasn’t the guy in Gremlins supposed to be in high school?

Both the actors playing against Kelly LeBrock in Weird Science were actually 16 while filming which made it even better then and probably illegal today.

R149 Ben wishes.

Zach Galligan was 20 when he made Gremlins.

R152 Zach Gilligan was fuckable when he made Gremlins. Ben is.....not.

Zach Galligan was adorable and fuckable when he was young.

Poor old Ben has never been either of those things.

[quote] Meanwhile, In the Heights is at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. It will end the year as the best reviewed musical of the year(past several years) and all of you had the nerve to trash it.

In the Heights was a Rottentomatoes review success, and a financial failure at the box office and in terms of HBO Max views. It's financial failure is really important, because it's another strike against movie musicals after the financial and artistic failure of "Cats." If Dear Evan Hansen fails financially, it may make it even harder to bring musicals to the screen.

Only Steven Spielberg can save us now, or more precisely, this December.

It sounds as though the film of "Cats" was more entertaining, in a horror movie sort of way.

Wicked is also on its way. 2023 maybe?

Well, West Side Story is going to flop because the music is not contemporary or commercial. The only recent musicals that have been successful were Mamma Mia and The Greatest Showman because they had commercial music they could push. Are Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star is Born considered musicals? Both of those films were wildly successful because of the contemporary music.

The only Broadway film musical that has the potential to smash today is Wicked. That show has a huge fanbase and the music is contemporary enough for today's audiences. There really is no other Broadway show with that kind of potential for success.

[quote] Wicked. That show … is contemporary enough for today's audiences.

Who do you think should get the starring roles?

R154 Zach at nearly 60 is still more fuckable than Ben.

Man I don’t know what Ben did to piss off the entertainment industry but knives are out. I seriously hope he’s not suicidal

[quote] Are Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star is Born considered musicals?

Those movies don't suffer the problems of conventional musicals where people suddenly burst into song as some kind of heightened, musical dialogue. In some of the reviews, DEH was criticized for how jarring it was for a character to go from dialogue to the singing with an invisible orchestra. The reviewers appeared to want that fixed in some way? One fix is actually in the movies you cited and in "Cabaret," where all (or much of) the music and singing is in the realistic context of characters performing in musical entertainment jobs. But that fix is very limiting and can't help musicals like DEH or West Side Story.

Did no human watch the rushes and saw how fucking stupid he looked?

R158 I agree West Side Story is going to also be a flop

R164 So. Movie musicals will be killed off, again?

R164 That was destined to be a flop when they cast Ansel fucking Elgort (and some unknown boring girl as Maria) like this was destined to fail when they cast 45 year old Ben as a high schooler.

R166 I am NOT 45.

In some of the photos Platt looks like a 60-year-old Lisa Kudrow with a bad wig.

r161 it seems like a sort of Pia Zamora situation. The kid actually has some talent, but the fact that a relative with money is bankrolling the career makes everyone pissed.

Zadora! auto-correct doesn't like Zadora.

so what will this likely megaflop do to the return of the show itself in these tenuous theatre times? There are at least three productions slated to come back to the stage. In the past, good movies seems to have helped their live shows (Chicago), and bad movies sometimes hurt them. In this case, so much of the criticism seems to be about the material itself (cavalier treatment of mental illness and a 'hero' who actually has no ethics) - and not just bad moviemaking - I wonder if it may truly hurt the show.

r126 Jordan fisher is straight and he had just started on Broadway and will be starring when it returns

R133 He couldn't even be bothered to shave for his big premiere?

R161 Likely it was when they saw the reaction to the trailer, but I do like to think it was the pissy interview Ben gave after which did it.

At least Ben has season 3 of The Politician lined up! Oh, wait, Netflix doesn't want any more seasons of that flop...

This is going to be a lesson that will be shared on Broadway for generations.

What a real teenager looks like.

"This is going to be a lesson that will be shared on Broadway for generations."

Don't cast your geriatric kid in a teen role?

Not everyone gets to be Barbra.

I shall never understand the weird process by which a body with a voice suddenly fancies itself as a mind. Just when exactly does an actress decide they're HER words she's saying, and HER thoughts she's expressing?

—All About Eve

Jordan Fisher is only 7 months younger than Ben Platt.

[quote] Are you suggesting that Joyce Carol Oates should have played the title role?

She's Catholic, not Jewish.

Why do people care what critics think? I don't read reviews. Every movie, every TV show, every Broadway show I ever saw was simply because I wanted to. Some I had zero idea what I was about to see, some were fabulous, many not, but I have never regretted any.

Well this should be a new experience for you. Some of us don’t have infinite amounts of time and money to devote to seeing everything we want to. We have to prioritize.because many of us with discerning taste do regret spending $100 and 3 hours or even $10 and two hours on say the August Osage County movie.

Often, a review will even excite me to see something I had no interest in like the Come from Away.

Well, it always was, wasn't it? Wasn't its success pretty much just one sub-generation that wanted something like Wicked to call their own?

Not having seen it is it supposed to be misery porn or up lifting, I get both vibes from what I’ve read?

Both. It’s not Catcher in the Rye but it’s more than after school special. At least it was in the theater production where the adults had real roles.

Does Next to Normal have a lot to answer for DEH, it seems like the YA version?

I liked NEXT TO NORMAL but it trivializes and distorts the main character's mental illness in rather troubling ways. I don't think DEH comes close to that: the adolescent title character is somewhere on the autism spectrum (it's left vague) but mostly poorly socially adjusted. Not much else is made of his actual illness or treatment.

The score for DEH is vastly more accomplished and interesting than NEXT TO NORMAL, as far as I'm concerned.

[quote]August Osage County movie.

After all the acclaim for the play and the stellar casting, that movie was a rancid piece of shit.

Streep was hilariously hammy in it. Mommie Dearest level scenery chewing.

R179 Actually a good actress (or actor) should make their character's words and thought their own to make a fine performance. Even better, if they can imagine what other thoughts and words they would use as subtext as that character, but use the ones the author or screenwriter wrote as the best choice to actually say (and to keep employed!).

R182 Professional critics (and also word of mouth, since everyone basically is a critic and has an opinion) do serve sometimes as being helpful as a guide to what you may or may not like. It also depends on what you think of a critic; some folks you might consistently disagree with, so something he/she hates might be just what you might like, and the opposite scenario as well. It serves to possibly save you time and money in choosing amongst lots of offerings.

You hear the joke about Ben Platt playing Peter Van Daan in a play set in that Annex in Amsterdam but told from Peter’s point of view?

He's in the attic!

Along with Pia Zadora!

Does the movie at least add a twist to the ending different from the stage version, he finds out he’s the one dead and not a Connor, something along those lines?

God, Platt looks so creepy. They clearly used CGI to try to make him look younger; instead he looks like an alien in a bad wig.

I saw the show on Broadway not long after it opened and he already looked too old for the role. A relative worked on the show for a while and has some pretty unflattering stories him. Apparently he was a nightmare for the company manager.

R195 details, details!

I’m sure his Dad being producer on the film didn’t make Platt any easier to work with or more receptive constructive criticism.

I wonder how many times the director had to hear “I workshopped this role for three years,”

May he have Nikki Blonsky's post-Hairspray career.

Can someone spoilt the ending of the film? I heard it was different from the stage ending. Thanks.

Nikki Blonsky was actually better in the film than Marissa Jaret Winokur on stage, though still not up to Ricki Lake's star quality in the original John Waters film.

Meanwhile, TV Tracy (Maddie Baillio) is one of the stepsisters in the new "Cinderella."

R197 At least he got the workshop without having to go through 3 or 4 rounds of auditions at least in front of the creatives and producing team.

Is this the worst kick to a young performer's cunt ever?

" In some of the reviews, DEH was criticized for how jarring it was for a character to go from dialogue to the singing with an invisible orchestra."

That's an idiotic criticism as 98% of movie musicals are structured that way. CABARET and the 3 musical versions of A STAR IS BORN are the only exceptions I can think of. If someone has that problem with movie musicals, then that person should just avoid the genre altogether.

I saw DEH on Broadway with Taylor Trensch in the title role. He doesn't have as strong a singing voice as Platt, but he did manage to avoid the kind of annoying plaintiveness that Platt indulges in frequently. I suspect Trensch is a better actor (he was wonderful as Dill Harris in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD on Broadway - he took over the part from Gideon Glick and was a definite improvement) as he didn't indulge in a lot of physical tics in his performance.

I can see why the reviewers are honing in on the less savory aspects of Hansen's character, as a film is bound to magnify those in a way the stage version could avoid. Clearly writer Steven Levinson wasn't willing to take a hard look at that aspect and the director was no help. And I've seen some photos of Platt from the film where he looks...well, "special."

The comparison of Platt with Lea Michele is spot on. Both have an outsized sense of entitlement.

I don't see how he's an more entitled than anyone else. If you had connections, you'd work them for all they're worth, too

He worked them right out of a career as did Lea.

Yes, R206. But when you use them in such an obvious way and the results are, well, less good than expected, then you're fair game.

" In some of the reviews, DEH was criticized for how jarring it was for a character to go from dialogue to the singing with an invisible orchestra."

These have be among the biggest idiots on the planet.

Nobody goes through life accompanied by a John Williams score.

I remember from a relative years ago hearing about "Henry's Fonda's very untalented daughter". Jane was pretty bad in some of her early films, but she got better. She also got cast in some roles on stage and screen through family connections like Josh Logan, but she didn't have her Daddy financing whole productions for her. Platt has a very good singing voice and has the style -- for certain types of contemporary music, but other times I've seen him hamming up and being indulgent with songs like what he did with from "West Side Story" on some award show. If you're around him and a show with his Daddy, no one's really going to correct him much. Worked for DEH on stage, but apparently people were afraid to tell them he looks almost like an old-age pensioner on screen playing a teenager.

Lea Michele is definitely a massive bitch, but she didn't have parents who bought her a career. Gotta give her that much.

Did Lea Michele act out when she was playing the little girl, daughter of Tateh in "Ragtime" on Broadway years ago?

Did Richard Linklater make a huge mistake by casting Ben and Beanie in his Merrily We Roll Along?

The movie version of "Chicago" was specifically reframed to avoid any "they're singing for no apparent reason" situations. That also caused them to jettison some songs.

That worked for "Chicago" for that director, but not for "Nine" or other films. Some folks aren't used to conventions like having people sing out with orchestra, but then again do people have full orchestral musical scores playing during drama or comedies either? They just weren't making musicals with any regularity, the way the studios used to churn them out, from great ones to passable or worse, back in the studio system. But no one really complained about someone breaking out in song, unless the song and/or the performer wasn't good. Most of the time, they were waiting for Deanna Durbin, Judy Garland, Jane Powell, or whoever was starring to sing.

Couldn't Evan Hansen at least have been attending community college?

R194/R199 No, though they did change the ending slightly (SPOILERS) that show Evan posting a social media video admitting he made it all up. He also researches Connor, reading all of his favourite books, etc, and finds a video of Connor performing his music, which he shows to Connor's parents as they'd never seen him perform.

R197 Well, given the kind of shit he thought it was okay to say publicly in that interview, can you imagine what he comes out with in private?

Ben Platt will play the role forever like Yul Bryner did with King & I!

R218 combine that with the super bitchy interview Galvin gave a few years ago. They must be a barrel of laughs to double date with.

Julianne Moore is so clearly at that stage in her career where she's concerned she'll never work again - I mean, does she actually even READ the scripts anymore? How did she (and Amy Adams!) get mixed up in this dreck?

This from IndieWire talks about the problem of going from dialogue to singing in DEH:

[quote] Awkward, choppy dialogue precedes many of the songs, with some lines being half-dialogue, half-lyric. The first few verses are often more talky than melodic, and while this is a common musical trope, “Dear Evan Hansen” tries very hard to increase the duration before a conversation actually turns into a song or flits between dialogue and song, and these attempts fail. There’s simply no way to blend the two. You either talk or you sing.

more:

[quote] Indeed, the music is where “Dear Evan Hansen” will likely lose its audience. In the inevitable scene where the truth is found out, “Words Fail” is especially painful to watch, as there are so few uttered words of dialogue preceding it. This makes sense, given the gravitas of the devastating reveal, but it’s a moment better served by long pauses and silence. Instead, the forced melody destroys the emotional weight the scene should have had.

I don't remember that problem with "Words Fail" in the Broadway cast album, so we'll have to wait to see the film. I do remember that he has a fantastic voice.

Wait until the reviews for West Side Story start coming out...talk about a shitshow.

The older you make Evan the less forgiving the audience is going to be of his chicanery. He needs to be a minor making mistakes that he can learn from not pathologically damaged.

Especially when Platt isn't changing his performance. The way he fidgets and tugs at his clothes in the trailer makes him look like he's playing at being a middle schooler.

[quote]Julianne Moore is so clearly at that stage in her career where she's concerned she'll never work again - I mean, does she actually even READ the scripts anymore? How did she (and Amy Adams!) get mixed up in this dreck?

Because the play was a hit and it sounded like a good bet. I'm sure they didn't know how it would turn out once it was committed to film.

[quote]I don't see how he's an more entitled than anyone else. If you had connections, you'd work them for all they're worth, too

If he or anyone involved with it [bold]really[/bold] cared about the final product he would have/they would have convinced him to step aside. None of the negative reviews with this slant, him being too old, would exist if he had of done so. It's coming back to bite them all in the ass.

As R208 said, the product is suffering because of it so he's going to get the blame.

The basic plot of some kid profiting emotionally and socially because of all the lies he spews built upon some other kid's suicide is very off-putting. Was it because a lot of it was via the internet and social media that this became such a hit on Broadway?

R227 That and they should have renamed it Dear Ezra Hoffman.

The Sound of Music I assume to this day is one of the most popular movies ever made probably even more so in foreign countries and people have no problem with them bursting out in song in dramatic situations.

If it were made today they would cut half the score and only have the songs sung by the family while they were performing to make ignorant critics happy.

I have a question for people who've seen the play. Evan writes about having a crush on this guy's sister, right? And he dies and they find the note and think he wrote it. Do they assume the dead guy had the hots for his own sister?

Here's the letter, which should be devastating to Zoe when she thought Connor was the one who wrote it. "...All my hope is pinned on Zoe, who I don’t even know, and doesn’t know me."

Dear Evan Hansen,

Turns out this wasn’t an amazing day after all. This isn’t going to be an amazing week or an amazing year, because why would it be?

I know, because there’s Zoe, and all my hope is pinned on Zoe, who I don’t even know, and doesn’t know me. Maybe if I could just talk to her. Maybe nothing would be different at all. I wish everything was different.

I wish I was part of something. I wish that anything I said mattered to anyone. I mean face it, would anyone notice if I just disappeared tomorrow?

Sincerely,

Your most best, and dearest friend, Me

[quote]If he or anyone involved with it really cared about the final product he would have/they would have convinced him to step aside. None of the negative reviews with this slant, him being too old, would exist if he had of done so. It's coming back to bite them all in the ass.

Reviews for 'The Politician' also said he looked too old to be playing a high schooler. This was before he signed up for the DEH movie so he/they knew how he comes across on screen. That's what hubris does.

[QUOTE] The basic plot of some kid profiting emotionally and socially because of all the lies he spews built upon some other kid's suicide is very off-putting

It can be done well. Brilliantly, even.

See “Heathers”

The songs are good. The characters are well drawn, and sympathetic. The plot is compelling and progresses beautifully. We want to see all these hurt people not hurt anymore.

But it has to be about everyone not just Evan for it to work. Otherwise, the whole thing just degenerates into a narcissist exploiting the grieving, which is what Ben and poppa Platt made it.

They reduced Julianne Moore’s mother role, which should have a been an easy Best Supporting Actress nod. They cut Connor’s Dad’s song which not only gives his character a reason for being but is the culmination of understanding Evan’s pain.

It’s all such a sad waste because Ben is as flawed, self-centered and misguided as Evan. But Ben isn’t 16, bereft of a father and succeeding through no fault of his own. Ben is a grown man failing because of his ego and dragging other people including the whole Evan Hanson industry down with him because he ultimately doesn’t believe in the humanity at the core of the property. Only his own ambition and adulation.

R233 But that's a satire and a black comedy. DEH is all serious and over the top sentimentality.

Do celebs and folks in the industry read and post to DL, especially these theater and film boards? Besides places like the trades (Variety, Backstage, Hollywood Reporter) and ATC and Broadwayworld, where else is this kind of stuff (other than fan groups on social media) discussed in a way to get more (relatively) unbiased opinions of what they create?

Something I found particularly offensive on Broadway -- the whole show seemed to me presented as making some sort of comment on the evils of social media, with the set frequently covered with social media projections and with the Act 1 finale ("You Will Be Found") theoretically rife with irony, since the anthem was about a lie.

And yet Act 2 abandoned this conceit entirely, not even mentioning (IIRC) the slightest social media backlash subsequent to the revelation of the truth. Disgustingly false in every way.

Why do they have Evan display autistic tendencies but insist he's not. And it never bodes well for a movie musical that runs longer than the stage show yet throws out a bunch of songs. People go to musicals for the music.

At 60, Julianne Moore is entirely too old to play the mother of a high-school student, no matter how youthful she looks (or how youthful Ben doesn't). I agree that she's miscast.

R239 In Op’s photo I do not see a mother and her 17 year old high school son I see a lesbian couple in their living room.

"At 60, Julianne Moore is entirely too old to play the mother of a high-school student, no matter how youthful she looks (or how youthful Ben doesn't). I agree that she's miscast."

So says the 70-year old gay man wearing Abercrombie & Fitch while watching Amazon's "Cinderella".

Is that what it’s called “Amazon’s Cinderella?”

[quote] I remember from a relative years ago hearing about "Henry's Fonda's very untalented daughter". Jane was pretty bad in some of her early films, but she got better. She also got cast in some roles on stage and screen through family connections like Josh Logan

She was so inept in this movie they had to cut 20 minutes of her footage. So the missing 20 minutes were replaced with 20 minutes of out-takes showing Angela Lansbury walking down stairs and Angela Lansbury riding in cars and walking along corridors.

R115 remember In the Heights advertised as the movie event of the summer which died at the BO in late spring?

[quote]The movie version of "Chicago" was specifically reframed to avoid any "they're singing for no apparent reason" situations.

I wonder if this is also what hurt the movie version of "Rent" -- i.e., people living in terrible situations yet bursting out into song? Or was that simply just a case of the story feeling too dated?

La La Land was a hit and audiences enjoyed the impromptu singing and dancing. Musicals aren’t dead.

I refused to see La La Land because it's pure plagiarism.

How fucking retarded are people that they can't handle the conceit of a film musical? They've been doing this successfully since sound first hit the movies. The first sound film was a musical. If there's a problem, it's not coming from the musicals.

[quote]How fucking retarded are people that they can't handle the conceit of a film musical?

Tastes and expectations have changed. Movie musicals were once as common as movie westerns. "South Pacific," a conventional filming (except for the stupid color filters) of a hit R&H musical was the top-grossing movie of 1958. As recently as the '60s, the movie of "The Sound of Music" was such an enormous success that studios were looking for more Broadway musicals to film, even reaching as far back as the 1940s' to make films of shows such as "FInian's Rainbow" and "Paint Your Wagon." But many of those 1960s "road show" movie musicals bombed, and film musicals quickly fell out of favor. By 1972, "Cabaret" was hailed as a breakthrough movie musical precisely because the characters didn't suddenly burst into song. That's all well and good for musicals that happened to be set in a cabaret. The movie of "Chicago" followed the "Cabaret" template, even cutting the song "Class" because it was two characters singing "in real life." I don't think it's possible to turn back the clock and change people's expectations.

Oh bullshit. Into the Woods, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd, The Greatest SHowman, La La Land, Moulin Rouge, Dreamgirls, Enchanted, The High School Musical series, Hairspray, Mamma Mia and its sequel, all of these films were 21st century musicals that did well at the box office and featured people breaking into song. You have no idea what you're talking about.

People haven't grown up seeing Grease, The Sound of Music, or The Wizard of Oz? Really? We have 30 year olds going to the movie who've never seen a music video or a movie where people sing? Get the fuck out of here with that nonsense. If people don't like musicals, they don't like musicals but its not because audiences just aren't used to them. Hell, we've had musical TV series, people burst out in song in commercials, and both movies and TV series spoof musicals. If someone is that culturally illiterate, so be it, but I find it hard to believe the movie going public is so stupid that seeing characters erupt into song mystified them or confuses them. I don't expect them to know some obscure films but surely they've seen The Wizard of Oz and learned from a young age that yes, there are movies in which characters burst out into song.

Platt in DEH is Lucy in Mame.

[quote]I find it hard to believe the movie going public is so stupid that seeing characters erupt into song mystified them or confuses them.

And yet we have professional film critics saying that one of the problems with "Dear Evan Hansen" is how jarring it is when its characters suddenly burst into song, accompanied by an orchestra.

No, what they're saying is the way the director and writers handled it is jarring. Read the reviews. They aren't condemning the conceit, they are condemning the execution.

[quote]You hear the joke about Ben Platt playing Peter Van Daan in a play set in that Annex in Amsterdam but told from Peter’s point of view?

The joke is that they wanted to cast his friend Beanie Feldstein as Anne and Peter tells her that Auschwitz will be a great place to shed a few of those excess pounds.

On the transition from dialogue to singing in DEH, here's a very favorable review of the movie and Ben's performance that still points out some issues with how it is handled in parts of the movie.

[quote] Rather than turning on a spotlight, so to speak, to differentiate the music from the speaking scenes, (director) Chbosky fuses them together. Sometimes that dressed-down method is off-putting, and other times it’s inspired and confrontational, particularly in the second half when Evan’s life begins to crumble.

[quote] However, while a string of ballads for 2½ hours can soar onstage, they can sag a film. A few songs have been cut, and a couple decent pieces have been added, mainly for Amandla Stenberg who plays a girl who starts a fund-raising campaign after the suicide of Connor (Colton Ryan). Still, there are unquestionably too many musical numbers here. Many would be more effective as spoken dialogue.

R231 thank you. That was driving me nuts. I would hear about the plot, and that point was unclear.

[quote]Oh bullshit. Into the Woods, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd, The Greatest SHowman, La La Land, Moulin Rouge, Dreamgirls, Enchanted, The High School Musical series, Hairspray, Mamma Mia and its sequel, all of these films were 21st century musicals that did well at the box office and featured people breaking into song.

They are all 21st-century musicals that did well at the box office BUT they didn't all come out at the same time in history. Compare the number of musicals released vs. the amount that are not released and this number is almost minuscule. This makes it sound like there have been a ton of musicals that featured this and the truth is there aren't that many musicals that get made into films. Furthermore, a few of these are classics that far surpass any level of fame that Dear Evan Hansen did.

R254 and the critics nailed it, it's often not about "breaking into song" as it is about "breaking into song" at the appropriate time in a way that isn't jarring. If you're watching a movie musical where this happens you can usually pinpoint when it will because it seems appropriate. When you can't do that, it's distracting.

To circle back, the issue isn't that people don't get musicals it's that they're not often done very well to the point where they're regularly seen on television or in film. For all of the ones mentioned that did well there are ones like Cats, Nine, Rock of Ages and From Justin to Kelly.

Brutal.

Based on these early bad reviews is it likely they may release this via streaming rather than solely in theatres?

Is it too late for additional editing?

On social media, the critical masses seem to have moved on from mocking Ben Platt to fingering director Stephen Chbosky as the bad guy, which seems more just. He really does sound like an idiot.

And no, it doesn't sound like any amount of editing could save it.

Ouch!!! “Undoubtedly one of the worst movie-musicals ever made.”

I'm a huge musicals fan, and I really loved "In the Heights" on stage, but I thought the movie was a slog to get through. I rewatch musicals all the time, but I don't think I'll ever see "Heights" again. I even enjoyed "The Prom" more (and have watched it twice already.) Over the last two nights I watched filmed stage performances of "Newsies" (an excellent one from Atlanta) and "Merrily" (the London revival) again, as well as the London "South Pacific."

I loved "Come From Away" on stage -- I really hope the movie version doesn't mess it up.

Maybe it’s best if they just shelve for a few years until people forget these reviews and then quietly release it on streaming?

You should watch COME FROM AWAY and report back, R263. We've been discussing it on the Theatre Gossip thread.

I genuinely think the movie of DEH is going to destroy the legacy of the stage show. Concrete, immortal proof that the Emperor has no clothes. If the show had run its course and closed, it would have been remembered fondly. But in ten years, no one will recall the stage production. The only record of it will be this reportedly creepy film. It will define the title and consign it to the second tier.

And all just to satiate Platt's ego.

Were they thinking of reopening DEH on Broadway? How about now after those movie reviews which dissect the plot mercilessly? Why didn't most NY critics point out these flaws when the show opened?

DEH is scheduled to reopen on December 11. There were never plans to close it, as it's been selling steadily. CV-19 forced a shutdown, just like every other Bway show.

I don't think the film version of Rent hurt the stage show. It ran another 3 years on Broadway, re-opened off-Broadway and is still beloved.

And theater-goers still cherish their beloved memories of me in "Cats" in spite of what JHud did in the movie.

And stagehands still cherish their beloved memories of you in Sunset Boulevard, Betty.

Like many other Broadway shows, DEH was filmed for the National Archives with the original cast on June 25, 2017. So his lauded Broadway performance is on film, and in the future may compete with the new movie as his definitive Evan performance. However, at present:

[quote] Performances filmed for the Archive are made available for viewing at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center for qualified theatre professionals and researchers, though only after a production has closed.

I saw Andrew Garfield in his award winning performance in Angels in America on the National Theatre at home website for $10. (They recorded one of the UK performances.) Maybe future generations of the general public will be able to do the same with the US National Archive recorded shows, including the Tony award winning DEH.

As far as high school was to me once is enough. Pass.

They rushed this into production because they wanted Platt. They could have avoided all this nonsense of Ben being to old by just stating Evan Hansen attended Rydell High.

You don't say no to the producer or his precious son. This is a situation where you keep your head down and think of the paycheck.

Ben is basically the DL eldergay who insists he still looks young and hot while wearing Abercrombie & Fitch. And daddy humors his son's unchecked ego.

Oh, and btw, did you guys see that he's going on tour next year?

[quote] I don't expect them to know some obscure films but surely they've seen The Wizard of Oz and learned from a young age that yes, there are movies in which characters burst out into song.

The difference is that in The Wizard of Oz, the characters are singing songs and they know they are singing them. When Dorothy is singing in the barnyard, she knows she is singing and if anyone happened by, they would recognize that she was singing a song to herself. In DEH, when the characters are talking to themselves or to each other, one can assume that in their world, they are not actually singing to each other. It’s only the audience that is hearing the characters’ thoughts and conversations put to music. So for some people, it can be jarring, wondering if a character is really singing a song within the character’s world, or are they just speaking normally but it’s presented as a song to the audience only.

Supposedly no one's used to people bursting into song, so I guess all those High School musical movies and TV shows, as well as Glee, were big bombs. If you have to analyze why people are singing in a musical, maybe you're just not that bright. It's like asking why they're singing at the opera. It's an accepted form of entertainment.

West Side Story has choreography by Justin Peck., which will be beautiful and the music never fails.

By the way. the age of most high school kids' moms isn't 60, which is the age of Julianne Moore.

Julianne looks 50 and this Ben looks young enough. What hateful and jealous little bitches to really go in on him for doing the part. He sings beautifully. I’m sure the film is fine. His looks don’t bother me I kind of want to fuck him.

r279, but does she LOOK like she's 60? To me, she looks mid 40-ish.

I’d say Julianne playing the mother of a high school student is the least of this turkey’s problems.

I was a “surprise baby” and my parents were in their late 50s when I graduated high school.

Julianne looks like a child.

[quote]but does she LOOK like she's 60? To me, she looks mid 40-ish.

Candace Cameron-Bure from Boy Meets World is mid 40s. Kate Capshaw, Melissa Joan Hart. Julianne Moore looks like their mother. Maybe you're used to movies where Meryl Streep plays women 15-20 years younger than her age.

[quote]Julianne Moore is so clearly at that stage in her career where she's concerned she'll never work again - I mean, does she actually even READ the scripts anymore?

She was really desperate for this role:

[quote]Moore tells the magazine that she wanted the role of Evan Hanson's mom so badly that she auditioned for the first time in years for the role. Moore lost the role to another actress, but due to Covid the actress dropped out for a prior role and Moore was cast. She says she was scared because she is not a singer, but was up for the challenge.

I really don't understand why she said any of that in public, it makes her sound pathetic. Even more so now we know her role is cut to nothing.

R259 He looks like a serial killer in that photo

R267 It was a big hit with the theatre kids, and seems few - if any - theatre critics were willing to go against the crowd.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

R259 That Toronto review kind of misses the mark about the age thing. The critic talks about how audiences were willing to accept Tobey Maguire (at roughly the same age Ben Platt is now) as high school kid Peter Parker in Spider Man, but that nowadays audiences have more awareness and expect more realistic casting, age -wise. (Not really.) But Tobey Maguire was believable. Michael J. Fox was believable as Marty McFly. Etc. Timothy Granaderos in 13 Reasons Why was in his 30s, but he looked a certain way and got away with playing a high school student at the same age as some of the actors playing teachers. Ben Platt at 26-27 looks like a parent. It's just the way some people look/photograph.

R284 Who from what and Kate Capshaw? Julianne looks 41. Deal.

Maguire and Fox had boyish looks. Platt has the looks that makes him look well into his 30s. R289 is rights. Even at their best some people have features that make them appear older.

Honest to God, whatever they did to Platt to attempt to make him look younger actually made him look older. Didn't ANYONE look at the dailies and see it?

I know music was a big feature in Perks of Being a Wallflower (which is a really good movie), but does Chbosky have any experience with actual musicals? I mean, I don't know that having made one successful movie about teenage alienation should be the qualifier for a musical in the same vein.

I'm not sure if I was rooting for this movie or not. I know it's a mark of bad taste, but I actually do like a lot of the music (and despite hating the movie, honestly thought Pasek and Paul should have won an Oscar for Greatest Showman). But so many of the replacement Evans have had a warmth that Platt just doesn't have. It's really off-putting.

One of the great benefits of the pandemic is that we haven’t had to be subjected to any of Damien Chazelle’s shit for the past two years R37.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Love that Joker!

Why do women who have such bad work done look like M to F trannies?

I buy Julianne Moore as middle-aged mom. Ben Platt as a teenager? No. Visuals matter.

The producer of the In The Heights film was the producer of the flop Tootsie musical.

[quote]Platt has the looks that makes him look well into his 30s. [R289] is rights. Even at their best some people have features that make them appear older.

Just to repeat, reviews for 'The Politician' also said he looked distractingly mature to be playing a high schooler on screen - even when the genre of that show could get away with casting old.

This was before he signed up for the DEH movie so everyone involved, from studio execs to the Platt clan, knew that.

He's young looking and convincing! So much so, I hear Platt is up for the starring role in the upcoming reboot of "Dennis the Menace"!

I think Ben is Waving Through a Window at 40.

Well, DEH isn't the worst that could happen. Ryan Murphy said id if he could re-do the Glee pilot he'd cast Ben Platt as a jock and school heartthrob (!!!)

[quote]Imagine it's 2009, and I lived in a world where I knew Lea Michele, Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein (Ben and Beanie, I believe, were in high school then...and I think they dressed up as Glee characters once for Halloween?) If I had access to that talent, here's the new pilot: Lea and Ben are frenemies who fight for the heart and soul of Glee Club. Ben is also on the football team, and pretty much sleeps with the entire school and is the heartthrob of McKinley. Beanie is their mutual best friend, and torn. Suddenly, Beanie joins forces with Sue Sylvester, joins Glee Club and becomes the main soloist and the ruthless star of the club. Lea and Ben have to then join forces to dethrone her. I WANT TO SHOOT THIS DO OVER PILOT. Maybe I will?"

I had no interest in seeing this. The show and what I know about the sensitive pimply drama for closeted teens has made cringe as a bystander for a while now. Now that they’ve made a weirdo movie with a creepy Jerri Blank lead where he manipulates an entire town sounds hilarious and the kind of thing you could have a great night smoking and making fun of it.

I’m definitely going to check it out when they panic rush it to Peacock next week like they’re doing with Halloween Kills.

DEH is on tour and coming to Indianapolis......maybe it's the fate it deserves.

The producers made a huge mistake in not casting James Corden as Evan.

[quote]I buy Julianne Moore as middle-aged mom.

She's been middle aged for 20 years so she should be good at it. In Far From Heaven (2002) her son looked about 10, and now her son is 16

Here's a good review from the Wrap:

[quote] And really, here’s the bottom line: If you have a heart and any kind of tolerance for musicals, at some point you will surrender to “Dear Evan Hansen,” to Ben Platt and to a sterling cast of actors who were not in the original Broadway musical. It’s messy at times and melodramatic at others, and its treatment of mental health issues is not the most nuanced, but those feel like quibbles given the joy you can find in its best moments.

[quote] Why do people care what critics think? I don't read reviews.

Well, then a big hip-hip-hooray for [italic]you,[/italic] Mary Jane.

So far, only 54% on rottentomatoes.

SPLAT!!

Good God, if ever there were a face made for radio, it's Ben Platt's.

Holy mackerel.

Omg

Some popular artists are doing their own versions of songs from DEH and those songs will be included in the soundtrack album. Sam Smith is doing 'You Will Be Found," while Carrie Underwood is doing "Only Us,.

I prefer this version of " Only Us" to Underwood's.

Never make a movie with somebody's name in it.

It's OK if that somebody's name is somebody famous but never have an UNKNOWN SCHMUCK's name in a title.

I promise you it will fail!

Watch World's Greatest Dad instead. That movie ripped my heart out.

Just back from a screening in NY. It was followed by a Q&A with Ben Platt, Julianne Moore, Amandla Stenberg and Nik Dodani.

For the record I never saw the stage production. I knew only “You Will Be Found.” I’d only seen Platt once and that was in an excruciatingly hammy guest role on Will & Grace. Look, he does have an excellent singing voice (although Moore was a tad over the top at the Q&A describing him as “the best male vocalist today”). He serves the songs well. He’s just not the easiest guy to have to look at for a film of this length. In some shots he looks OK age-wise and in others he really doesn’t. His hair is alright except in a climactic moment when the mother hugs him (both are sitting) and the shot makes it look like she’s hugging an oversized poodle. Moore is always lovely and her big song is beautifully acted (she has a sweet voice) but she’s miscast as Heidi Hansen. She and Platt make zero sense as mother and son both physically and emotionally. She should absolutely have played Amy Adams’ role. Adams is fine but she just looks too young to play Cynthia. Stenberg is fine but way too movie star gorgeous. Dever is very good but the relationship between her character and Evan is patently ridiculous and I don’t mean because Evan seems like he’d be more interested in the dead brother. Speaking of which the actor who plays him is quite adorable in the “Sincerely Me” number. Danny Pino doesn’t have much to do but is hot as hell so it’s nice to get to look at him for a bit instead of Platt.

So do I think this is one of the worst movie musicals of recent years? No. I actually disliked the interminably long, cutesy and obnoxious In the Heights more. I think those who love the stage version of DEH will be fine with this. Will this get anything besides a few comedy/musical category nominations at the Golden Globes, though? I highly doubt it.

R316 Are there any vaguely erotic moments in it?

Here's a short clip that leads up to one of the new songs sung by Amandla Stenberg. Ben's line readings in this scene are fine, the problem is some of the closeup cuts to his reaction to the song. (You'll see.)

[quote] Stenberg is fine but way too movie star gorgeous.

It's ridiculous how beautiful she is and how great her singing voice is. Loved her in "The Hate U Give."

R316 Oh honey, am sure we will make up our own minds.

Why does she suddenly start singing? I've never had a conversation with somebody and they suddenly start singing. If they did I'd say you're being obnoxious.

[quote]Why does she suddenly start singing?

Because it's a fucking musical.

R317, nothing erotic in the least. Danny Pina in black briefs would have been nice. The gay Indian-American sidekick claims he hooked up with a Brazilian supermodel dude but we never see him.

Well, it seems that the movie version of he Humans is the anti DEH and a career best for Schumer and some love for Beanie.

Why are they "hoisting' Beanie Feldstein on us ? Isnt it enough we have to endure her insufferable brother ?

Gender parity?

to complete the expression doesn't amount to a [jonah] hill of bean[ie]s!

[quote] Now the reviewers are just being mean:

Welcome to my world.

Hated the trailer for this movie, but the performance shown in R313 is utterly charming.

This is neat. Youtube has a video of some of the setups for scenes in DEH. It's amazing how close the cameras get to the actors' faces in some scenes. (This video was not intended to be a stand-alone video, so it may be taken down eventually.)

So, the dead guy’s a ghost and he’s singing and dancing through this all? I guess it has more similarities with NtN then I thought?

R309 I think you meant SPLATT!!

Does Evan Hansen's rabbi appear in the movie?

So, what IS the next step for our darling Ben?

Will Daddy buy him a new vehicle?

Unfortunately for Ben, he's not a leading man type. He's not good looking enough to be a conventional leading man and he's not a good enough actor to sneak into stardom via critical accolades. But, he seems to be too much of an egomaniac to settle for character actor roles which he's a bit young for anyway.

He has a good voice and quite a few fans who seem to really like his voice...his best bet might be as a concert crooner type. And, more theater stuff.

But, again, I think his ego is too big to settle for that.

HIs problem is, Ben Platt is a Mandy Patinkin but without the sex appeal (when Mandy was young) and without Mandy's acting chops but plenty of the Patinkin craziness.

I remember hearing about Mandy Patinkin and his temper tantrums. How is he going these days?

I love the shills turning up with 'that scene looks neat'....

R333 Maybe he should fucking kill himself? Jesus can you think of anything else negative to say?

R332 Evan is the rabbi.

R312, couldn’t they get someone else other than that disgusting sounding Sam Smith to sing “You Will Be Found?” He is such a creature.

R245, Rent would have been more successful if it had used actors with more star power at the time. Having big names seems to be necessary for a movie musical to be successful at the box office, but it’s not always sufficient.

Moulin Rouge Chicago Dreamgirls Hairspray Mamma Mia Les Miserables La La Land The Greatest Showman

Rent: the movie was too sanitized. It’s suppose to slumming it with the Bohemes but it came off as an audition real for Juilliard grads

RENT suffered from the same problem as DEH: the actors were all waaaayyyy too old. A 21 year old squatting in a condemned building is romantic and gutsy. A 30 year old doing the same thing is pathetic.

I can’t believe they excised “Anybody have a Map” and “Good for You”. What a mistake, almost as bad as the hair perm.

[quote]Will Daddy buy him a new vehicle?

Yes, a Chevrolet.

I find the comparison to LucyMAME interesting in that one of the complaints about that (as well as "Hello Dolly," "My Fair Lady," "Gypsy," etc.) is that they didn't allow the person who originated the role on Broadway to do the film. Sort of the reverse situation here.

[quote] Does Evan Hansen's rabbi appear in the movie?

Yes, in the animated sequence in the Briar Patch.

[quote] I find the comparison to LucyMAME interesting in that one of the complaints about that (as well as "Hello Dolly," "My Fair Lady," "Gypsy," etc.) is that they didn't allow the person who originated the role on Broadway to do the film. Sort of the reverse situation here.

Audrey Hepburn was an improvement when it came to the non-singing parts, and Barbra Streisand was an improvement when it came to the singing parts.

Mandy P. is currently stinking up The Good Fight. I loved this show for years but his ridiculous story line finally made me give up. I blame whatever writer dreamed up this nonsense too.

Blame Robert and Michelle King, R347. They came up with that asinine storyline. At least it’s over and Mandy won’t be back next season.

Platt Goes Splatt?

The movie versions of Mame and Hello, Dolly! were also criticized for inappropriate ages of the lead characters. Lucy was way too old and Babs was way too young. I'm not sure either movie would have been better with other actresses, though. Gene Saks' direction and Paul Zindel's screenplay sunk Mame. And Dolly was WAY too overblown, with a bizarre performance from Michael Crawford, a boring one from the woman who played Irene, and a sullen, scowly one from Walter Matthau. Luckily we had Danny Lockin's cute butt in tight pants to admire in Dolly.

Chris Columbus had no business directing "RENT". He had so little faith in the work he chose to direct it in San Francisco and a few pick ups in NY. He didn't have the balls to have it sung thru like on stage and turned lyrics into dialogue. The original cast was magic on stage but alas, they aged out. Spike Lee should have directed.

"Spike Lee should have directed."

He would have turned it into an enclave of black activists being persecuted by " The Man."

I think Mame definitely would have been better with Angela but you are right that Saks' direction and the screenplay were dire. Oh shit and those costumes. Mame needs also to be a parade of fabulous fashions instead of clothes inspired by the brutalist movement.

R333 Oh you just know he's going to insist daddy buys him another project. With how much of his ego he's displayed in public, he must be a monster behind the scenes, so I think there's no doubt about that happening.

This is from the soundtrack of the movie- Kaitlyn Dever and Ben Platt singing the movie version of "Only Us."

Found another one on YouTube that was taken from TicTok. This is apparently a 1 minute clip of the opening number from DEH the movie, Waving through a Window. I'm not seeing the problem with his singing/acting here. Remember, some critics claimed this is the worst musical ever made, so we're trying to see if that's so, even before the whole movie is released.

Does anyone believe this is the worst musical ever made? Have you been living for the last twenty years of “hyperbole for clicks”? Did you see the Bruce Jenner/Village people musical, Can’t Stop the Music or even heard of it?

I know a lot has happened since its release, but have people forgotten the travesty that was Cats this quickly? Surely, that's got to be in the top 5 worst movie musicals of all time, yes?

I own the title of Worst Musical Ever Made

R357 It's not out yet, so how can any of us have that opinion? Or did you just want to whine about something that hasn't happened?

So the movie was filmed in vertical mode, that doesn’t bode well.

[quote]Does anyone believe this is the worst musical ever made?

Have you never seen "At Long Last Love"? Probably not, because it's unwatchable.

Dear Evan Hansen ... your Medicare card came in the mail today.

The linked clips look fine to me. I’m not seeing the disaster reviewers are describing. And I don’t really care how old BP appears. I’m accustomed to seeing 20 somethings play teenagers. I can’t pinpoint BP’s age based on the clips. I predict the film will do fine financially and find an audience.

Too bad this wasn’t done ten years ago-Hunter Parrish would have been sheer perfection.

The problem isn't his age, is that he LOOKS 35 or older! I honestly am shocked they allowed that above "official soundtrack" picture without major hairline editing. Unless Evan Hansen's angst is a result of a glandular condition, it is just too jarring.

And the 50 year old with the bad perm is hard to look at.

Jesus, he doesn’t look so old. Somewhere in his 20s.

That whole vulnerable/fragile vibe Platt is attempting in that clip @ r356 is seriously cringey.

[quote]Too bad this wasn’t done ten years ago-Hunter Parrish would have been sheer perfection.

No matter how nutty, someone looking like Hunter Parrish would never have been invisible in high school.

One thing that bothered me in the show was the musical tic of cutting note values short to indicate vulnerability.

“ The problem isn't his age, is that he LOOKS 35 or older! I honestly am shocked they allowed that above "official soundtrack" picture without major hairline editing. Unless Evan Hansen's angst is a result of a glandular condition, it is just too jarring.”

I find his teeth more distracting than his hairline. Maybe he had excellent orthodontia work done, but to me his teeth look like Hollywood veneers.

This is BRUTAL.

Unnecessarily arch. Variety do better. Bad movies should not be an excuse to write bad articles.

If the review/letter was "brutal," it was mostly brutal to the author-critics ego about his influence and worth (which he kind of admits) . He means to kill DEH with his words, but he fears DEH is immune from his killer insights about the movie:

[quote] The truth is, when I was watching this in the darkened Directors Guild of America Theater, it took about 10 minutes to realize what I thought about you didn’t matter. By the end of “Waving Through the Window,” half the audience was clapping. A woman sitting across from me was audibly sobbing during multiple moments, and got so overwhelmed at one point that she lay her head on her companion’s shoulder. This happened just minutes before she turned the flashlight on her phone and couldn’t figure out how to turn it off. I wish everything was different,

[quote]One thing that bothered me in the show was the musical tic of cutting note values short to indicate vulnerability.

Huh?

Is that Evan’s house in that picture? I always had the feeling he probably lived in a pretty shitty house, maybe even a trailer, with his mom being the sole bread winner, working overtime to pay the bills. Evan was embarrassed by her, when he saw the wealth of Connor’s parents. But that looks like a nice home with built-ins.

It’s very much a middle class home. When Evan’s mother says she has the money for college she does mean it, she’s not lying to the dead kid’s parents.

I don’t understand what’s driving the extreme hostility on Twitter. The fact that Platt is too old for the part isn’t enough of a reason for the vituperative reception, and the fact that his character is a shit who gets redeemed was just as true in the original show, which never generated the competitive, show-offy hostility that the movie does (although there is a deliciously mean Forbidden Broadway number). Have we gotten that much more scoldy in six years?

[quote] I don’t understand what’s driving the extreme hostility on Twitter.

Surely these Twitter users aren't pissed off at the blatant nepotism that Ben Platt receives from his father producing his pet projects to star in roles that would be much more suitable for other performers who don't have a daddy to buy them their careers.

They should have changed the title to “Dear Eleven Hansen” and cast Millie Bobbie Brown in the lead. She has the same acting tics as Ben and is age appropriate.

Platt is definitely going the route of pop performer. But is he really going to fill arenas like Madison Square Garden? Maybe I underestimate how many people fall for his cringey plaintiveness. After all, if whiny Sam Smith can make it...

I saw At Long Last Love twice at Radio City. The second time was a couple of weeks later and they had already cut it! I was furious.

The hatred for this musical is . . .

. . . obviously and shockingly . . .

. . . A N T I - S E M I T I C ! ! !

I am going to see the movie and decide for myself. The hate bandwagon on twitter is defenitely influencing negative reviews.

[quote] Never make a movie with somebody's name in it.

Did Goldwyn really say that?

If so, that's interesting given that his company had prestige pictures they promoted the hell out of such as SUSAN LENNOX--HER FALL AND RISE, ANNA CHRISTIE, LETTY LYNTON, SADIE McKEE,and MRS. MINIVER.

R385 Well, whatever you do don’t let Ben know about the bandwagon, he’ll just want to jump on and sing.

R379, Twitter routinely chooses an openly gay celebrity to hate on it’s gays that do the hating. Sam Smith, Ellen, and several others have been at the center of the bandwagon hatred before.

I think the hatred for the movie has to do with a number of things, but mostly with the casting of Ben Platt. He has a good voice, and so when he was age appropriate he seemed fine to play the lead on Broadway despite that he got the part because of who his dad is; now that he's too old for the part, it's obvious he got cast ONLY because of who his dad was (the movie would likely have pulled in bigger audiences with an actual teenage star who can sing in the lead role). And his egomanical statements to the press (and the bizarre press he keeps getting, like that piece that said he's destined to win the EGOT) just make people hate him all the more. He's not handsome or charismatic; he's just some nebbish with a receding hairline whose father is well-placed enough to have guaranteed him this big leading role.

Look, R386. Sit down and listen!

All them dames were famous before I bought them.

All those dames had their publicity already done and paid for by someone else. I didn't have to spend extra dough publicising them. I spent enough making the • • • • movie.

I know Spielberg spends another 33% on top on the budget, I never do that. I'm not a schmuck, and neither is my friend Jack Warner.

R372 I praised his obvious veneers back at R135. I can't sympathise with a gawky kid with such rich parents.

Ben found a vehicle that clicked for him and he rode it for all that it was worth. Good for him, but it is over. He is not attractive, charismatic or likable. A voice is nice but as we see every week on the talent shows, voices are a dime a dozen. I’m sorry Ben but you’ve stayed past your expiration date. Be grateful for what you had, most theater geeks never come even remotely close to that.

Re Lucy/Mame: George Cukor was originally signed to direct the film. Shortly before filming was to begin, Lucy broke her leg skiing and production had to be postponed for over three months to give her time to heal. Cukor was signed for other projects and dropped out. Saks knew the material and could take over immediately, so he lucked into the job.

As for Zindel, he gave a long interview in which he described having to go over to Ball's house every day and work with her on the script. She wanted Mame "humanized." By time they got through, the character had been dehumanized most of the other characters' best lines had been dropped. He felt powerless but you couldn't say No to Lucy and keep your job.

R293 Cukor could have saved that turkey.

[quote]Did Goldwyn really say that? If so, that's interesting given that his company had prestige pictures they promoted the hell out of such as SUSAN LENNOX--HER FALL AND RISE, ANNA CHRISTIE, LETTY LYNTON, SADIE McKEE,and MRS. MINIVER.

Sam Goldwyn was an independent producer. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was a company that bore his name (due to a merger with a company he was no longer a part of). He had nothing to do with producing those movies. He did produce Bulldog Drummond, Arrowsmith, Dodsworth, Stella Dallas, The Adventures Of Marco Polo, Raffles, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, Roseanna McCoy, Hans Christian Andersen and Porgy And Bess, though.

Ben was on Kelly and Ryan with finger nails painted bright blue and mentioned his boy friend, Ben broke up with long term pal, Don. Who's the new boyfriend?

The new boyfriend probably works in a nail salon.

R395 All except one of those were famous names.

Ben's been dating his DEH replacement and superbottom Noah Galvin for a year and a half

The new boyfriend must care nothing for looks and everything for $$$.

[quote]I don’t understand what’s driving the extreme hostility on Twitter.

The negative response started with the release of the first trailer. It was a gut reaction of seeing closeups of a decidedly non-cute 27-yo who looks 35+ on screen trying to pass on as a high-schooler.

Obviously, the final product isn't putting this initial knee-jerk to rest.

[quote][R395] All except one of those were famous names.

What's the difference between a name like Evan Hansen and a name like Stella Dallas or Dodsworth?

Ben & his boyfriend

Oh, no, his boyfriend is Noah Galvin?!

Plattvin will spark as much tabloid insanity as Bennifer!

Ferris Bueller

Stella Dallas had been a popular novel with a famous silent film version. Dodsworth had been a major novel and then a hit play.

Ben is closing his next concert tour at the Hollywood Bowl. That's 17,500 seats.

[quote] Stella Dallas had been a popular novel with a famous silent film version. Dodsworth had been a major novel and then a hit play.

And Dear Evan Hansen has been a hit musical. If it fails as a movie, it won't be because of the name.

Maybe Bette should have done "Stella" as a musical...

[quote]Stella Dallas had been a popular novel with a famous silent film version. Dodsworth had been a major novel and then a hit play.

And Dear Even Hansen was a hit musical, genius.

*Evan

I hear an echo...

R413 Sorry, it was my post he was answering so I have a right to respond, even if you beat me to it. :)

-- R 411

R408 how many will be filled?

R402 These were two dime-store novels which were sold in their thousands in every state of the union. They were already known everywhere.

Who is this "Evan Hansen"? Is he Welsh or Danish? He looks Jewish.

He may be known to the New York gays but this unknown schmuck isn't famous in Peoria!

The mega convoluted logline was enough to turn me off.

The author of Stella Dallas was the benefactor of Sylvia Plath. She paid for her education at Smith College and she had her moved to better and private treatment after her suicide attempt and continued to pay for and gift her money and other things throughout her whole life. Without Stella Dallas there would be no Sylvia Plath.

[quote] Ben is closing his next concert tour at the Hollywood Bowl. That's 17,500 seats.

He has been at the Bowl before---

He's no Kirby Furlong!

[quote]Cukor could have saved that turkey.

Yeah, well right before "Mame" he made the bloated unfunny "Travels With My Aunt" a very Mame like character and flop. So maybe not.

I can't disagree with you, R422.

Poor Maggie was pretending to be a geriatric but Miss Ball wouldn't need to do that at all.

Janet Jackson couldn't fill the Bowl (the Hollywood Bowl, not her toilet, which she fills several times a day). There's no fucking way Platt will come close.

Daddy will buy up all the tickets and give them out free on Hollywood boulevard.

[quote] The linked clips look fine to me. I’m not seeing the disaster reviewers are describing. And I don’t really care how old BP appears. I’m accustomed to seeing 20 somethings play teenagers. I can’t pinpoint BP’s age based on the clips. I predict the film will do fine financially and find an audience.

Thanks for weighing in, Marc Platt Productions PR Shill!

[quote] He may be known to the New York gays but this unknown schmuck isn't famous in Peoria!

And yet above, we were explicitly told that being a hit play in New York was a [italic]major reason[/italic] why "Dodsworth" succeeded at the box office.

"Erin Brockovich," "Jerry Maguire," and "Michael Clayton," all of which turned solid profits, prove that in the last 20 years having full proper names in titles is not disastrous for the box office.

Good Will Hunting, Billy Elliot, Billy Madison, Charlie Wilson's War, Charlie St. Cloud, and for oldies, Cluny Brown, Mildred Pierce, Harriet Craig, Hilda Crane, Joe Smith, American...

You forgot Happy Hunting with Ethel and Fernando's giant schlong.

I don't think Ethel shared Fernando's shlong though.

'Dodsworth' was famous because it written by the first American to get a Nobel Prize for literature.

One of his books sold two million copies.

I have a name, R432.

R428, R429 All those movies have stars' names who are billed ABOVE the unknown title name.

This new movie has an unknown person playing an unknown charcater in a movie that will be hard to advertise.

It's also odd they cast Amy Adams to play Evan's mother when Amy Adams and Ben Platt appear to be peers in those photos of them from the film. She's a very attractive 47 who reads as mid 30s on film and Ben Platt is a very mature 27 who reads as mid 30s.

Awkward.

[quote] He's no Kirby Furlong!

Thank God they broke that mold. That kid is insufferable in Mame. All twinkly and actor-y.

R435, Amy Adams plays the dead boy's mother but same difference.

Not R435, but R377. I also thought Adams was Evan’s mom. I love Julianne Moore but what an awful, awkward choice to play his mom. This movie was doomed from the beginning.

Julianne Moore is 60. SIXTY.

Who does she think she's kidding?

The storyline of the misidentified person who decides to go with it probably predates Beowulf but the earliest version that I'm aware of of this particular trope is Cornell Woolrich's novel "I Married A Dead Man," later adapted into the film noir "No Man Of Her Own" and much later ripped off for the Sandra Bullock hit "While You Were Sleeping."

I didn't know Happy Hunting was someone's name.

LOL...I got confused. I thought Evan Hansen WAS the dead boy and not the name of Ben's character.

It's confusing when you hate something you haven't actually seen.

No Evan has to write daily letters to himself as all nervous boys do.

Do you think the reason Ben Platt is dating Noah Galvin is because when he looks into Noah's gaping asshole, he thinks he's looking in a mirror?

That is very sweet of you to think so.

[quote]Do you think the reason Ben Platt is dating Noah Galvin is because when he looks into Noah's gaping asshole, he thinks he's looking in a mirror?

Well what do you see when look into your lover's gaping asshole R444?

They've released another 1 minute clip from the movie. You Will Be Found.

Noah Galvin replaced Platt on Broadway in DEH. So when Platt is fucking Noah, he is symbolically having sex with his favorite person: himself. No one else is good enough.

[quote] I didn't know Happy Hunting was someone's name.

She's the sister of Will Hunting, the title character from "Good Will Hunting."

She was named after Happy Rockefeller.

Ben will be performing tonight on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

But Sondheim will be on Colbert.

R444, he’s tap, tap, tapping on that ass . . 🎶

(only funny if you’re familiar with the song)

If you want to see Ben play an unconvincing character with all his acting tics on display, check out on Hulu B.J. Novak’s new show Premise, where Ben is a heterosexual Brooklyn SJW who discovers in his sex tape some key information that can get a Black man off from a police violence charge, endearing he is not.

[quote]Ben will be performing tonight on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Btw, they had to call it The Tonight Show because TV talk shows named after people can't be successful. According to Sam Goldwyn. Or someone.

Here's the brand new, final trailer. The first half of it is completely different from the other previous trailers. it shows how the singing starts out as conversation, or internal conversation. This trailer version also emphasizes a connection with scared, lonely kids in the (potential) audience.

The damage has been done. They could shine a projector into Noah's open hole and it won't make a dent in the box office

I really hope this will be the box office disaster it looks like it will be.

Holy cow, this thread has legs.

Has anyone posted pix of Ben at the Met Gala?

TOTES ADORBS!

God he is homely.

I’m 99% sure I saw him that outfit before, I can believe he reused an old outfit for the Met Gala.

Ben's look is very "Boogie Nights" 70s porn disco chic. Fabulous.

I couldn’t bear to watch him spout platitudes on The View.

He really does have a face for cremation.

[quote]If you want to see Ben play an unconvincing character with all his acting tics on display, check out on Hulu B.J. Novak’s new show Premise, where Ben is a heterosexual Brooklyn SJW who discovers in his sex tape some key information that can get a Black man off from a police violence charge, endearing he is not.

More than that, you get to see his naked thrusting ass throughout. Plus, just to further antagonize DL, he even quotes Hamilton in one scene. Above and beyond that, it's just about the worst half hour of television you'll this year, but you can't blame Platt exclusively; the writing is as bad as it gets.

Galvin only took over the role for a couple of months, before Taylor Trensch stepped in and played it for a year. I got the impression that Platt wound up leaving a little earlier than originally planned and Galvin filled the gap until Trensch was scheduled to begin.

I saw both Platt and Trensch. Platt had the stronger singing voice (Trensch struggled with some of the highest notes in Waving Through A Window at the performance I saw), but Trensch acted it better without all of the Method-y tics that were mostly awards bait.

Ben is canceled on " Distractify," an influencer site:

Why is Ben Platt canceled? He's facing backlash for comments about 'Dear Evan Hansen.' While many people are excited about the musical coming to life as a film, not everyone is thrilled with the decision. At first, the comments were mostly directed at Ben's appearance in the trailer. Many felt resembled a 30-year-old man rather than the 17-year-old character he is supposed to be playing.

Ben Platt is only 27, but the discussions prompted a defensive response from him that resulted in a now-deleted tweet from May 2021 (captured by Variety) saying, "Thank you from the bottom of my [heart] for the outpouring of trailer love yesterday. The film required me to revisit areas of personal pain, so seeing people excited and moved makes it so deeply worth it. P.S. to the randos being jerks about age, read this great article and/or watch Grease."

Although he deleted the tweet, all the negative responses to the film upset Ben, who brought it up again on the Zach Sang Show in Aug. 2021. He said, "People like to have something to say that is negative, regardless of what it is. And so if my thing is something that I can’t control at all — which is my age — then bring it on. I’m glad it’s not about the performance or my voice or anything that actually matters."

Ben added, "I think the reaction is largely from people who don’t understand the context of the piece — the fact that I created the role and workshopped it for three years. Were I not to do the movie, it probably wouldn’t get made."

The last sentence drew particular ire from fans, who pointed out that Ben's father, famed producer Marc Platt, is responsible for both the movie and the musical that jump-started his fame.

One user tweeted, "If you don’t think Ben Platt’s casting in the Dear Evan Hansen movie has at least something to do with nepotism, here’s your reminder that everybody in the OBC [Original Broadway Cast] of The Prom had to audition for the roles they originated and none of them got cast."

Another person chimed in, "While I am so over the discourse of this. To suggest that there is no Dear Evan Hansen without Ben Platt is incredibly unfair to everyone else who has played the role." Other notable actors who have played Evan Hansen include Noah Galvin, Jordan Fisher, Andrew Barth Feldman, and Taylor Trensch.

Since when is Andrew Barth Feldman notable? Admittedly, they're stretching the definition with the others, but the kid whose only credit was DEH itself being notable? What?

I saw the film last night. I enjoyed Ben & the whole cast when I saw the show on Broadway. Ben was fine in the film (as was Juliane Moore). For me, I didn’t like the new songs. The role of Jared was significantly reduced and Alana’s part was expanded. The actor who plays Connor is cute and can sing/dance but not quite the dark goth Connor from the stage version. The parents roles were also reduced somewhat. The finale/end song was changed which really lessened the emotional impact of the stage version. I went into it with pretty low expectations and enjoyed it more than expected but it could have been better had they stayed with the original music.

I never understood the need to change songs and endings. People who will see this film are those who have either seen the stage version ( which has been on tour) or listened to the cast album. They are expecting to see and hear the stage version; no need to present anything different ( This isn't Demi Moore's " Scarlet Letter"). It's just an admission that the stage play was not good enough for the movies, when, in reality, the opposite is true.

R468, I agree with a lot of what you wrote. That’s very true about Connor. The only thing remotely goth about him were his painted fingernails. He just looked altogether too squeaky clean, like the quarterback/homecoming king. Although I did think he was very charming in the “Sincerely Me” number.

[quote]I never understood the need to change songs and endings.

The main (perhaps ONLY) reason they add new songs is for Oscar consideration.

I'm lost at the Ben hate. No, he's not hot. Yes, he has connections and a rich dad.

I didn't see DEH, but saw him on some show where he was doing a song from his first CD. After that, I started checking him out on YouTube and really enjoy his performing.

But claiming his dad.will buy out the Hollywood Bowl is BS. I just bought tickets to his San Diego show- $600 with M/G.

KMA. And no, I'm not Ben. The CD sales and concert venues are available for all to see.

R472 $600??? Is he gonna suck your dick?

R473, only fangirls pay such ridiculous amounts for the meet and greet packages.

I'm a guy, not a girl FYI. Includes booze, food and 3rd row seats.

Ben killed it last night on Jimmy Fallon. It was his best live performance ever. He's so much better than Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes or Ed Sheeran.

Isn’t he tired of singing that fucking song yet? I know I am.

Then stop singing it, R477.

[quote] I'm a guy, not a girl FYI. Includes booze, food and 3rd row seats.

You still got ripped off.

Evidently, all the other Amex presales didn't think so.

Enjoy Steve Fisted Grande. He's hot!

I can't imagine spending that kind of money to see anybody but...different strokes for different folks!!!

(Seriously, did you have a stroke? Is that what impaired you to spending $600 to see BP?)

[quote] Evidently, all the other Amex presales didn't think so. Enjoy Steve Fisted Grande. He's hot!

I love how this fangurl thinks Ben Platt is so much more talented and fantastic than Steve Grand. Honey, they both suck. The difference is it only costs $35 to see Steve Grand, and you'll probably get laid after the show. With Ben Platt you pay $600 and you definitely got fucked.

[quote] never understood the need to change songs and endings.

I agree. I loved "Hairspray" but ticked they cut the fun song "Mama I'm A Big Girl Now". More Michelle Pfeiffer is not a bad thing and another 5 minutes of the movie wouldn't have hurt it. No reason for the cut.

Heard one of Ben’s pop songs on Sirius yesterday. They did this weird affect to muddy the vocals. The guy has a good voice but you couldn’t even hear it… it’s like something they’d do for Britney. Odd.

[quote]I loved "Hairspray" but ticked they cut the fun song "Mama I'm A Big Girl Now".

It was cut because they didn't want to have to go to a split-screen. Whether that was a good choice or not is a matter of opinion, but it wasn't cut just for funsies.

Chicago cut "Class" for a similar reason, because they couldn't make it work with the conceit that all of the numbers were happening in Roxie's imagination.

Ben's going to be on the CBS morning show in a few minutes.

Who is more despised on DL: Ben Platt or Ansel Elgort?

Omg R371, I fucking hate that so much. It’s a weird style that Broadway singers have adopted because they think It makes them sound more pop. It’s fucking obnoxious. Platt is by far the worst example of it.

[quote]But claiming his dad.will buy out the Hollywood Bowl is BS. I just bought tickets to his San Diego show- $600 with M/G.

Wow--you managed to get Meryl and Glenn to go together? You should be negotiating in the Middle East.

I've always liked Forbidden Broadway's take on Ben/DEH

The screener has leaked on pirate sites lol

R491 yep, saw that too. Woop[.

Didn't Madonna pull the same shit with one of her albums (leaking it)?

Ben's really desperate.

[quote] I loved "Hairspray" but ticked they cut the fun song "Mama I'm A Big Girl Now".

[quote] it was cut because they didn't want to have to go to a split-screen. Whether that was a good choice or not is a matter of opinion, but it wasn't cut just for funsies.

And they could have done a fun tribute to "Bye By Birdie" and the telephone number.

[quote]Chicago cut "Class" for a similar reason, because they couldn't make it work with the conceit that all of the numbers were happening in Roxie's imagination.

And one line in the court room, "I can only imagine what that conniving Velma and Mama are saying about me now" cut to Vlema and Mam listening to the radio cue playback..

Wha la, great song saved. It ain't rocket science.

Of course sometimes the new number that was added for the movie ends up in future productions of the stage version.

Watching now. Tic, wince, grimace, look sheepish.

Is his acting playing to the balcony, or is it just bad?

Is he now the favorite for the Worst Actor Razzie?

Julianne looks old. Fuck, Ben is annoying.

R497 Perfect description. Big, and he never stops acting. And so weak. He also looks really thin. Connor could get it, and seems to be written more gay.

R500 Even in his promo stuff he doesn't stop acting. He and Amandla Stenberg did Wired's web's most asked questions (the lack of "how old is Ben Platt?" proves that claim is bullshit) and he's so on, it's tedious.

Also, fuck them for having Isaac Cole Powell in just a towel, and only showing his back.

The hair is not distracting. His acting is. Cutting the Mothers song and the opening Breakfast scene with Connor loses alot of needed story.

BUT he looks small. They seem to have run a computer programme over his body and he looks really small and shriveled. It is fucking spooky.

Up to For Ever. Evan is coming across like a gay psycho.

Watching Platt do the song you can really see how Ben Levi Ross totally inhabits it.

This Ben?

[quote]Cutting the Mothers song and the opening Breakfast scene with Connor loses alot of needed story.

Oh, dear.

Oh, dear.

Oh, dear.

Sam Smith & Summer Walker cover "You Will Be Found." Actually, I didn't expect it would be this good.

Can't someone create a musical about butch young guys?

^NEWSIES!

"NEWSIES!"

I knew someone was going to say that.

: )

Ben Levi Ross and Taylor Trensch sing "Only Us" at each other, for Valentine's Day 2019. Aside from it being obvious how crazy they are/were about each other, they both have a real warmth that Platt just...doesn't.

NEWSIES that last movie made in which the producers thought Ann-Margret was still sexy.

They always add one number for movie versions of Broadway musicals so they can have a good shot at Best Song (they can't with the songs originally written for the show, which are ineligible): e.g. "Listen," "You Must Love Me," etc.

Bye, Bye, Bird-hee.

[quote]They always add one number for movie versions of Broadway musicals so they can have a good shot at Best Song (they can't with the songs originally written for the show, which are ineligible): e.g. "Listen," "You Must Love Me," etc.

"Listen," is one of the worst songs ever written period, let alone Oscar bait.

[quote] Can't someone create a musical about butch young guys?

West Side Story...Jersey Boys...Rock Of Ages...Seven Brides For Seven Brothers...

R516 - And I would much rather watch those.

Thanks!

"Can't someone create a musical about butch young guys?"

What are we, chopped liver?

[quote]Bye, Bye, Bird-hee.

That's an example of a song that was written for the movie that gets added to the stage version. I saw the Broadway revival a few years back, and they used it as the encore/curtain calls number.

Hairspray has added "Come So Far," no? The TV version used it as a curtain call song.

That’s adorable, R511. Thanks.

I wonder if Taylor Trensch was considered for Connor for the film. I think he would have been better casting than the actor who’s playing him.

Are Ross and Trensch still together?

Yes. Seems they read LPSG, as someone posted on there suggesting they broke up, and they posted pretty quickly on social media to point out they're still together

[quote]That’s adorable, [R511]. Thanks.

The way Ross just lights up when Trensch walks in melts my cold black heart a little.

Mine, too, R524. It’s just such a genuine, lovely expression he has on his face. I know…MARY!

The way his face lights up means his rosebud is doing the same thing "downstairs".

Probably, but I can't imagine the Platt/Glavin household having such a sweet moment.

Madison Square Garden will look like a ghost town by the time Ben and his stagecoach arrive. Should have booked him in the Beacon.

[quote]Can't someone create a musical about butch young guys?

What more do you need?

NY are his peeps. What a bitter cunt.

Newsies was filled with some of the biggest flamers on Bway. Almost as gay as the men’s chorus of Hello Dolly.

Newsies backstage.

[quote]Who is more despised on DL: Ben Platt or Ansel Elgort?

I'd like to know, too. And why are they despised? Because they have everything?

I think it's the perceived nepotism.

This should have been a Disney production.

[quote]Because they have everything?

If only I could have a homely face, bad reviews and Noah Galvin. Life would be complete.

The picture of Ben as Evan in today’s NY Times is more soft-focus than any movie still of Lucy in Mame.

Waving through a window-which is covered with Vaseline.

Are all the actors cast as Evan Hansen contractually obligated to only date other Evan Hansens?

R534 don't ding ding!!

R539 Related: Are they all contractually obligated to be gay?

It's Broadway Musical Theater R541, it's the law.

USA Today

An out of place leading man?!! But he's the reason the movie was made! He's the reason the musical exists at all! He spent years and years and years workshopping it!

An elderly teen in a movie musical comedy can be part of the fun. In a musical drama it is just sad in the wrong way. It doesn't help that the guy isn't pretty like a Miss Atlantic City.

[quote]It doesn't help that the guy isn't pretty like a Miss Atlantic City.

And I can attest to the fact that his incidentals are no bigger than two lentils.

And that doesn't spell success.

I'm entranced by the guy in R272's picture (on the left). I understand that he is Michael Park and he has a fivehead, but his body is perfection! Tell me more about him.

Box office expectations for the weekend debut of Dear Evan Hansen, according to Variety:

[quote]DEH, the Universal film, which sees Ben Platt reprising his Tony-winning role, is projected to debut to approximately $10 million from 3,300 North American cinemas. It’s the only new film to open nationwide this weekend. Box office tracking, even in pre-pandemic times, can be unreliable, and musicals have proven to have mixed track records in theaters, so industry experts have indicated that a start in the high single digits wouldn’t be unexpected.

[quote] An opening weekend haul below $10 million isn’t ideal for any major studio release. However, “Dear Evan Hansen” carries a modest $28 million production budget, meaning it doesn’t need to sell as many tickets to turn a profit. That’s good news, because the film has been skewered by critics (it has a 43% on Rotten Tomatoes), many of whom criticized the plot and the decision to cast the 27-year-old Platt as a high school teenager.

And Vulture.com talks about what DEH, the film, may be hoping to emulate at the box office:

[quote] Indeed, the people who want to love it (DEH) — fans of the musical, and fans of musicals — could likely find their way into theater auditoriums no matter the early critical verdicts. In 2018, the Hugh Jackman movie musical The Greatest Showman opened to a raft of craptacular reviews and took in a lackluster $8.8 million over its debut. But the film scored well with audiences, boasted a popular soundtrack, and hung on in theaters for months, eventually taking in a strong $435 million to become a slow-burn hit. Especially given Dear Evan Hansen’s preexisting cultural footprint — having a juggernaut run as a stage production in Washington, D.C., Toronto, London, and New York prior to reaching the screen, in addition to a cast album recording that hit No. 8 on the Billboard 200 in 2017 — a similar outcome would hardly raise eyebrows.

(Benj Pasek and Justin Paul wrote the music and lyrics for The Greatest Showman and for DEH.)

I bet it'll be on Peacock before Halloween

Excerpt:

The result is a disproportionate amount of dialog for a musical, bogging the film down with an excruciatingly long runtime of 2 hours, 17 minutes. In fact, the film is so bloated, screenwriter Steven Levenson, who also wrote the stage version, had to nix four songs from the original score including “To Break in a Glove” (a personal favorite) and “Anybody Have a Map?”, which would’ve given a mostly wasted Moore (as Heidi Hansen, Evan’s mother) a moment to shine.

Instead, the extra padding only brings more attention to the reality that what seemed like good intentions on stage come off as cruel on film. One look at Adams’ sad eyes and you’ll feel anger, not heartbreak, knowing that Evan is essentially gaslighting Connor’s poor family to make himself feel better. Realizing this, the filmmakers tweaked the original ending in an effort to make him more sympathetic. But it’s too little, too late to save him from becoming one of the most unlikeable onscreen protagonists in recent memory.

Indeed, “Dear Evan Hansen” has something relevant to say about the mental health issues that young people face. But the translation from stage to screen has made that message more convoluted and difficult to decipher. I ended up feeling the same way about the film as Evan does about gluten-free apple pie. Tempting, but probably best to avoid.

I've seen so many fangirls saying "It doesn't matter that he looks so old, he sings so beautifully and it needs to be captured on film!"

God, look on YouTube.

That's a ridiculous thing to say!

I *AM* big. It's the pictures that got small.

Benn Platt IS Norma Desmond!

Ben was on the Late Late Show with James Corden last night. My god, the amount of smug cuntiness in that studio...

This film makes me wonder how actors feel when they're obligated to do press for a film widely regarded as a piece of shit. Like, at this point does Ben feel like DEH is a part of his life, so he doesn't care what people think? Is he motivated by the desire to help his dad recoup his investment?

Given the response to the trailer, and now the film itself, I'd want to crawl in a hole (not Noah Galvin's!!!) and die.

A narcissist like Ben hardly wants to crawl into a hole and die. He is a shining star in the cinema firmament.

I couldn't begin to imagine the amount of self love these two self absorbed creeps give off together.

I think it's pretty clear Ben lives in a bubble, and he thinks people are just being haters because they're jealous of his alleged talent or something stupid.

His birthday today, apparently. 40th, presumably.

Why would he fill MSG? Are there really that many fans? i would think Radio City would be hard to fill. Has he sold that many cds or whatever it is they sell these days?

Too bad the Pitch Perfect movies are over, That's the only place BP belongs now. Maybe they could do a geriatric version?

They've released the soundtrack to the film today on streaming services like Spotify. I wouldn't be able to tell that there is something wrong with the movie based only on the soundtrack. Julianne Moore sounds great in her big number, "So Big, So Small," Even Danny Pino sounds strong on "Requiem." Everyone else sounds great, although I do agree with some reviewers who say the two new songs were unnecessary. (Anything the songs were designed to fix could have been done in dialogue.)

In some of the reviews that hated on Ben, they sometimes mentioned that he has a gorgeous voice, even if his presence in the film was a problem. It is gorgeous, and he has adjusted his song performances for the film. They've been appropriately scaled back from the hyper emotions in his songs on the Broadway cast album of DEH, especially the song, "Words Fail."

The Rottentomates score for this movie has further fallen to 37% as more reviews have come in. The soundtrack album is good, but apparently not good enough to overcome the pictures on the screen.

Here's Ben singing, "For Forever" on the film's soundtrack album.

I will admit that as little I think of Ben as an actor, he does have a really nice voice.

It's not so nice that if his name was Ben Smith he would have been the one who workshopped this show and got the movie made, but "For Forever" is a song I really like, and it's the most human emotion he shows.

[quote]The Rottentomates score for this movie has further fallen to 37% as more reviews have come in.

Whereas "Come From Away," which was also released this month (on streaming) is at 97% fresh, and you never hear anyone talking about it.

[quote]Why would he fill MSG?

Daddy will buy all the available seats.

The Trump Family singers will be the lead-in.

He's capable of having a nice voice, but his CONSTANT need to show off his variety of vocal tricks just makes him a chore to listen to, and it's even worse when it overtakes his 'acting'. He's just too desperate to show off how talented he thinks he is, whether the song or scene calls for it or not.

One potential bright spot for the movie at pic. We'll see if it materializes in box office receipts this weekend.

r567 Every one of those 93% was bought and paid for.

Good news for the MSG concert. Ben signed a top notch band to accompany him. They have played for a number of famous stars, including the Countess Luann and Miss Lake Dardanelle. Now Ben.

COME FROM AWAY a taping of the stage show, like HAMILTON, as opposed to a separate film version. Critics will view something like the former in a different way than a movie adaptation.

Universal hoping for $10 million opening weekend.

Is DEH available to watch anywhere online? Streaming?

Did poorly in previews on Thursday.

[quote]Is DEH available to watch anywhere online? Streaming?

Peacock in four months.

[quote]Benn Platt IS Norma Desmond!

Max! Bring me Lucille Ball's Mame filter!

Because of DEH's box office performance this weekend, Deadline.com indicates that the movie may be released to streaming as early as the second week of October (17 day theatrical window).

[quote] Universal’s Dear Evan Hansen, arguably the most prolific major studio release on the fall schedule since Shang-Chi, is not doing well after a $3.3M Friday, including $800K Thursday previews, on its way to $7.3M in the No. 2 spot; a lowly result which isn’t that far from Universal’s previous big Broadway feature take Cats which died promptly off a $6.6M opening over the Christmas 2019 holiday. Dear Evan Hansen, I hear, is on a 17-day theatrical window, especially with these numbers.

[quote] If there’s anything positive to say about Dear Evan Hansen, it’s that the teen dramatic musical cost significantly less than Cats, a net $27M after Georgia tax credits versus Cats’ $90M net. Dear Evan Hansen‘s demise at the domestic B.O. comes as no surprise after critics promptly ravaged it following its TIFF premiere with a current Rotten Tomatoes score of 33%.

[quote] The fans of the Tony-winning Benj Pasek & Justin Paul musical did show up on Friday and Thursday, hence the A- CinemaScore. Initially, I heard off Thursday previews that the Screen Engine/Comscore PostTrak was 82% and a 60% definite recommend, it’s now fallen to a 78% positive with a 57% definite recommend. Despite my enjoyment and consistent emotive cry while watching this 2 hour and 20 minute feature, this movie about a teenage boy with a social anxiety disorder who means to do good, but falls greatly short of that following the school bully’s suicide, doesn’t exactly spell escapism at the movie theater at a time when people want to have the time of their lives, away from the gloom of the lingering pandemic; it’s the stacked deck of fanboy IP in October of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, No Time to Die, and Dune that has many excited.

That actually really surprises me. I figured this was going to be Great Showman critic proof.

The Wrap.com compares its box office with the highly rated (on RottenTomatoes.com) musical film, "In the Heights."

[quote] The one bit of good news for (DEH) the Pasek & Paul musical adaptation is that it has strong audience reception with an A- on CinemaScore and a 93% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. But that is no guarantee that the film will have legs as “In The Heights” had similar audience reception along with critical acclaim earlier this summer and still flopped at the box office, falling 72% in its second weekend. “Dear Evan Hansen” is likely to meet a similar fate with mainstream audiences as “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” and “No Time to Die” are set to hit theaters over the next two weekends.

Musicals: You're very good, you're very bad, you still can flop.

Josie Grossie meets Evan Hansen

OK what is the motivation if any by Benn Platt. The majority consensuses is that he looks too old for the role yet he has done all promotion with a full Grizzly Adams beard. Is it to say see I look so much younger in the movie or just I doesn't give a fuck.

The should have made an ending twist that Connor's parents knew it was a lie all along because Connor had bragged about bullying him and went along with it because they thought they were saving poor weak little Evan from suicide.

[quote]Dear Evan Hansen, I hear, is on a 17-day theatrical window, especially with these numbers

Called it!

R580 Probably doesn't give a fuck, more petulance from a spoiled rich kid

It really does amuse me how little other Broadway folk are promoting this film. Literally the only things I've seen from a bunch of them are reposting the photo of DeMarius Copes at its premier. Does make me wonder what Broadway people really think about Platt, because if he was even half as loved as he tries to pretend, they'd be doing a lot more for him.

Well, maybe there's still hope for Babs's Mama Rose to make it to the big screen!

Ben Platt at 27 looks about 30.

Excuse me, my mistake: Platt is 29.

Would this make Glenn Close rethink a "Sunset Boulevard" movie? Norma Desmond was supposed to be 50 years old, and Close is 74. If you make Norma older, the time period for the movie may have to be adjusted by 10 or 20 years?

The last time she mentioned Sunset Boulevard was in a May 5th, 2021 interview with Variety.

[quote] As COVID restrictions ease up, Close is hopeful that she’ll finally be able to reprise her role as Norma Desmond in Paramount’s movie adaptation of the Broadway musical “Sunset Boulevard.” “We’re very very close,” she says. “We’re ready to go.” She says Andrew Lloyd Webber is still working on new music for the big screen version. “I feel passionate about it. I feel if I could just bring her home to the movies, I don’t give a shit what I do for the rest of my life. I’ll play grandmothers until I die.”

[quote]As COVID restrictions ease up, Close is hopeful that she’ll finally be able to reprise her role as Norma Desmond in Paramount’s movie adaptation of the Broadway musical “Sunset Boulevard.” “We’re very very close,” she says.

Reminds me of that old joke about her name: "Glenn Close-but-no-cigar."

Maybe this last sentence from the NY Times review has already been quoted upthread, but it's so brutal and true that it's worth repeating: "Treacly and manipulative, 'Dear Evan Hansen' turns villain into victim and grief into an exploitable vulnerability. It made me cringe."

[quote]Maybe this last sentence from the NY Times review has already been quoted upthread, but it's so brutal and true that it's worth repeating: "Treacly and manipulative, 'Dear Evan Hansen' turns villain into victim and grief into an exploitable vulnerability. It made me cringe."

Whether or not DEH "turns grief into an exploitable vulnerability" is a matter of opinion, aside from being quite a confusing statement. But, I'm sorry, "DEH turns villian into victim" is absolutely, categorically untrue in the minds of anyone with enough intelligence to actually pay attention to what happens, and what doesn't happen, in the show and the movie. So, R589, I'm sorry that both you and the reviewer lack sufficient intelligence to be placed in that category.

R590, get off your high horse, you silly Mary. It makes absolute sense if you can comprehend those very clear (and accurate) assessments. I can't account for your obviously driveling love of that musical, but that's your problem.

And by the way, R590, many of the reviews call into question the shady nature of exploitation and self-aggrandizement that is at the heart of the story.

[quote]Would this make Glenn Close rethink a "Sunset Boulevard" movie? Norma Desmond was supposed to be 50 years old, and Close is 74. If you make Norma older, the time period for the movie may have to be adjusted by 10 or 20 years?

I think G would have an easier time.

For BeNorma, 16 is 16 no matter how you slice it. 50 in Gloria Swanson's day is very different from 50 in 2021.

R590, you are deeply tiresome. Shut the fuck up.

R590 is deeply triggered, poor thing. DEH the movie is going down in the flames of its own nepotism and pitiless miscasting of its star, and she can't stand that! Rush her to a space space!

"So, [R589], I'm sorry that both you and the reviewer lack sufficient intelligence to be placed in that category."

Proof that Ben Platt is a Datalounger.

Oh, I have NO doubt Ms. Platt is a DL denizen. She might want to stay away for the next few weeks, until her next job through nepotism, since it's been pointed out that nearly all her jobs have come from Daddy.

To R591, R594, R595 and the rest of you nasty pieces of work: Again there is no factual justification for the interpretation that DEAR EVAN HANSEN "turns villain into victim." If you disagree with that, please explain exactly HOW the show and the movie do this. And if you are unable to do so, then YOU are the ones who should shut the fuck up. Especially you, R594, who are such a turd that if anyone disagrees with you about anything, your only response is to label them "tiresome," regardless of how well argued their points are and regardless of the fact that you provide no counter arguments at all.

For what it's worth, I have been a vocal critic of some aspects of the DEH story ever since the show opened. But I'm certainly not going to align myself with people who aren't able to understand that the central character is written and portrayed as a flawed human being (like most of us) who makes some terrible mistakes and ultimately suffers for them. That is NOT the same as "turning a villain into a victim," and if you think it is, then you are all hopeless cases who probably view MACBETH, DEATH OF A SALESMAN, A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, etc., etc. as other plays that also "turn villains into victims."

R595, I wish someone would rush YOU to a "space space," i.e., somewhere in outer space :-)

R598/R599, you see a flawed human being, while other reviewers (and I) see a narcissist, much like Miss Platt sounds in her defensive interviews. Get over it. You're a very touchy Mary. You sure SOUND like Miss Platt!

I believe In The Heights was available on HBO Max concurrently with its theatrical debut. DEH is only in theaters now. So comparing debut boxoffice numbers between the two doesn't really make sense.

I haven't seen the DEH film, but based on the stage version I wouldn't characterize Hansen as a villain at all. He's definitely a screwed up, flawed character, and the critics in general recognized that given the large number of raves it got. BTW, I saw Taylor Trensch as Evan, not Platt.

Perhaps the changes made for the film hurt the story; I heard that the song Good For You was cut and that number is where Evan's mom, Alana, and Jared really let Evan have it over his behavior, which provided a good balance and precipitates his falling apart and revealing the truth. Cutting that song was probably a big mistake.

That said, some of the nasty posts in response to R590 sound like people conflating their disdain for Platt with the character.

I saw it. I thought it was good.