Bandstand and Dear Evan Hansen. Two musicals revolving around mental illness, released in the 2017 season. One snubbed by the Tony's and nearly forgotten, one catapulted to stardom. These two shows do mental illness very differently, let's explore why Bandstand is more effective. (TW: suicide, depression, anxiety, PTSD, flashbacks, etc)
Bandstand never outright says "These characters have PTSD", but DEH literally opens with a scene where you're straight up told that Evan has anxiety. Once again, when Connor is introduced to the story, there isn't any way that they show us Connor has depression, they just say it. It feels lazy and inorganic. The way Bandstand does it is much more subtle: the repeating refrain of "it'll be just like it was before [the war]", even as we watch Donny struggle to adjust to civilian life, find a job, and fight through panic attacks. The dialogue hints at what's happening, mentioning soldiers that couldn't adjust and committed suicide, and Donny claiming that if he can't play "what's the point of [him] making it back at all". It's just as obvious, but more natural.
Another thing Bandstand does more effectively is choreography and staging. The characters whirl around Donny when he's experiencing a flashback, the lighting illuminates what he's seeing in his mind, and it really let's the audience in on what Donny's mindset is like. Between songs and scenes, there are short interludes where you see how each of the band is coping and struggling with PTSD and the wide variety of reactions. DEH doesn't really have any moments like this, where we get to see inside Evan's head and feel what he's experiencing. This also is a much more effective method of storytelling, because it allows us to see what happened to Michael instead of Donny blatantly telling us, where Evan has to simply speak the story of how he fell out of the tree.
Bandstand also does an incredible job of displaying how different people with the same mental illness react. Each of the members of the Donny Nova band reacts differently to the horrors of WW2. Nick is paranoid and doesn't let anyone in, Davy is a jokester who abuses alcohol, Donny refuses to talk about his feelings and focuses on his music, Wayne doesn't give himself a minute of silence for fear that he'll have to relive those moments, etc. This is the most opiniony thing in this entire opinion based post, fair warning, but Evan feels like a stereotype. He's a loner, he stutters, he can't talk to girls, he's awkward. It's damaging to portray people with anxiety as the same one stereotype.
Bandstand also does flawed characters better. All the characters have their issues, and these issues aren't justified or excused. No one tells Davy that his alcoholism is okay, no one acts like he's allowed to do whatever he wants, just because he has PTSD. Conversely, Evan lies for (one could argue) personal gain, harms and hurts the entire Murphy family and all his friends, and no one even cares. They get mad at him, he barely apologizes and does nothing to prove that he's changed, but he faces no consequences. Connor is the same, his abuse is waved off because he's depressed, and no one in the show or in the random holds him accountable for more than Zoe's verse of Requiem.
Finally, the characters in Bandstand are much more layered and three dimensional. The characters all have their own backstories, and personality traits, and families, and interests. They all feel like fully fledged humans, no one is archetypal or one dimensional. Additionally, none of the characters exist solely to be another character's something. Julia isn't only in the show to be Donny's girlfriend, she has her own opinions and objectives and stands on her own. But in DEH, all the characters have one stereotypical personality trait. Larry is the regretful angry dad, Cynthia is the weeping mom, Zoe is the angsty teen, Connor is sad angry depression boy, Evan is sad nervous boy, Heidi is single mom, Jared is haha funny joke teen boy, Alana is ivy league bound nerd, etc. They don't have any opinions or interests that are counter to Evan's, and they all only exist to be Evan's love interest, Evan's friend, etc. This is annoying and bad story telling but it's also super damaging, because it perpetuates the stereotype that people with mental illness are only their mental illness. Evan doesn't have a trait beyond his anxiety and even that arguably isn't portrayed well.
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