run away with me

I know we don’t have a lot to go off of, but the casting and several mentioned changes are enough to question the intentions of Pasek and Paul and the other producers, writers, and directors involved.

Of course Pasek and Paul aren’t the main heads of this project, but considering their past successes with La La Land and The Greatest Showman and even an Oscar nod(s), it feels like they’re trying to create a new Oscar worthy blockbuster that fits the norms of mainstream media more than the needs of the audience and the integrity of the story.

So, let’s talk about the cast.

Ben Platt. Too old. I’m sorry, but he’s beyond playing a high schooler and compared to the rest of the cast, he’s just not a convincing teenager. 

Amy Adams. Incredibly talented both in acting and singing. She has a wide array of titles, more recently working in drama and thriller. She is too cool to play Cynthia. She would, however, be great as Heidi.

Amandla Stenberg. The It-Girl. She is amazingly talented, but why does Hollywood result to only ever booking specific young Black actresses? Zendaya and Amandla are always the first to be chosen for a “racially diverse” female character.

Kaitlyn Dever. No thoughts. I haven’t seen Booksmart. Just seems like another It-Girl choice with the success of that movie.

Nik Dodani and Colton Ryan are the only ones I am looking forward to. Nik will be a great Jared and it’s wonderful we have a POC in that role. Colton will be a fantastic Connor and hopefully this will boost his career more as he was just kind of an “understudy” on Broadway and most DEH fans ignored him. (Also, Kleinphy rights, lmao.)

Now, let’s talk about Danny Pino…

I won’t be commenting on him as an actor, rather I will talk about a rather big change to the role of Larry Murphy.

Larry Murphy is now Connor and Zoe’s stepfather.

This may seem small, but it’s a change that entirely changes the dynamic of Larry with the Murphy family, especially Larry and Connor’s relationship.

Larry and Connor’s relationship is often overlooked because a lot of the fandom tends to ignore or vilify Larry. He’s the tired father that doesn’t understand the changes in his life, so he approaches them with anger and frustration. He watches his own son spiral into a severe depression and eventually take his life. The whole time, he was just as lost as Connor, not knowing what to do for his son and only ever using discipline to handle him. He comes off cold and stoic, but eventually breaks from the reality of his loss.

A stepfather can absolutely have this relationship with his stepson, however it automatically changes the dynamic of Larry and Connor. Considering how Hollywood handles mixed families, Larry being Connor’s stepfather is no doubt going to turn into a case of “Ergh! I hate my stepfather!”

On top of that, while Evan and Connor are reflections of each other, their families are supposed to differ in dynamic with the Murphys being a traditional “Nuclear Family” that appear perfect to everyone outside of them, while Evan’s family is broken and estranged. Connor feels isolated because he feel he doesn’t fit the forced perfection of his family. Evan feels isolated because he feels he’s invisible to his own parents. Larry now being the stepfather destroys that contrast and erases the very important difference in Evan and Connor’s lives as highlighted in songs like “To Break in a Glove” and “Words Fail.” Evan wants to be a part of a family that hasn’t been torn apart at one point.

We also need to look into the intention of changing Larry to the stepfather. The article breaking the news boasted of Dear Evan Hansen’s diverse cast. Not a bad thing at all and something I look forward to, but right off the bat it comes across as “we’re rewriting this character for the sake of diversity rather than the integrity of the story.”

Why does Larry need to be rewritten as a stepfather to accommodate a white passing Latino actor when they could have casted Latinx actors for Connor and Zoe and made the Murphy family biracial?

Why are the only POC cast members always the side characters in the plot?

Pasek and Paul do not have the best history of diversity in either their movies or their musicals, so this casting and rewriting of the story just feels like pandering. You can have a diverse cast without having to jump through hoops rewriting the story and the characters.

Yes, this character is Larry Murphy.

But he’s not Larry Murphy.

Changing Larry Murphy to a stepfather automatically changes his character. It changes his agency, his motives, his personality. He will not be the Larry we know from the musical or the book no matter how close they write him because now he just the stepfather. Just as the characters from Be More Chill were changed from the book to the musical, their motives, personalities, identities, looks, and so much more changed with them. Changing one important aspect of the character changes the whole character even if they share the same name.

Overall, this entire cast feels thrown together. All of these actors have differing background and catalogs of work. While it is important to break from typecasting and to branch out with actors and actor dynamics, this lineup feels like a hastily thrown together mix of A-Listers, It-Girls, TV actors, comedians, Broadway stars. You have a modern day Hollywood starlet, a cop show veteran, two recently popular It-Girls, a comedian, an understudy, and a Broadway household name all put together in a Hollywood musical.

The entire thing feels like it’s trying to be more of a teen “Coming of Age” blockbuster rather than a show about mental illness that is heartbreaking, both down to earth and anxiety inducing, and incredibly complex in nature.

I wish the casting directors and producers would have expanded their talent search and rather compiled this project with a softer and more under the radar approach, focusing on revising the story rather than changing it, casting upcoming and not yet established young actors, and not trying to push this seeming narrative of appealing to mainstream and “Academy” audiences.

Giving Dear Evan Hansen an extreme Hollywood A-List makeover only seems to take away from the rawness and the realness of the story.

So, think about it.