📣 Open comment to the friend who inspired this series 📣 Dear V, I need a couple of days to digest this. Actually, make it a few weeks... Love, Babs

Her: How did we get to a forest? That's so random Me: *Sobbing in the corner*

In Waving Through A Window, the falling in a forest part is based on the idea that if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear, does it actually make a sound? Its one of those things that we can prove based off logic, but can never actually prove for definite, we just assume it would based off the way sound works, etc. Also, climbing a tree and falling off was how he attempted suicide but just broke his arm instead. No one came to get him, he was alone, on the ground, waiting and waiting for someone to come and save him but no one did. Its defo the deepest song in the musical. Such a great song though, and I totally agree it being with karaoke worthy lol

You gotta see the show and hear the dialogue to actually understand the story. The music is fantastic though

What I love about Dear Evan Hansen is no one is fully good or fully bad, they feel so human. Evan lied but he only did it to make people feel better, and never meant to make it go this far. Conner was a bad person but was going though so much inside and his parents we're pretty sucky. Zoe has every right to see Conner the way she does, but never tries to connect with him, and all the parents, while being pretty bad at their job, are genuinely trying. There's no right side or wrong side, it just feels so real and human. Also to answer your question in the desc, the first time I saw Dear Evan Hansen, I cried at "Is there another truck coming in the driveway, a truck that'll take your mommy away" and also cried at the monolouge Evan does at "Finale" that isn't in the cast recording. I was very emotional.

In Requiem, it’s the parents and sister of Connor Murphy (the boy who commits suicide, the one who was high in the first song) all singing about why they don’t want to sing a requiem/mourn Connor’s passing. Zoe (his sister) doesn’t want to pretend that her brother wasn’t a really flawed and troubled person (because everyone kind of romanticizes the person he was after his death). I’d recommend reading the synopsis of the musical and it’ll make soooo much more sense. DEH isn’t a sung through musical so it’s really confusing if you don’t have a basic idea of the plot line.

The tree reference is because: Did Evan fall from a tree, or did he let go?

The show starts with Connor alive. Connor pushes Evan down but later apologises by signing his name all over Evans cast. Connor finds a letter that Evan wrote to himself as advised by his therapist. Connor gets upset by what Evan wrote and kills himself. Connor is found with evens letter starting with dear Evan Hansen. Evan gives in to the parents persistence and says that he and Connor were friends.

For the “When you’re falling in a forest and no ones around, do you really even crash or even make a sound!?” That’s IS how he broke his arm but the reason he climbed the tree was to k*ll himself and when he fell it took some time before his mom found him (if I’m remembering correctly on the mom part)

"He's lying isn't he?" That's literally the entire plot of the musical xD

If you want to cry, there’s a cut song from DEH called In The Bedroom Down The Hall. It’s sung by both Evan and Conner’s mum’s about how they feel about their sons.

To "defend" evan: Evan never wanted to lie. He got into this situation through a long way of bad events. He just wanted to do things right and not to hurt anyone. The porpuse of this comment is not making Evans actions seem okay, how a lot of people want to do it in the deh fandom, i just want to let you understand. I don't know if it makes sense haha. It's 3am for me and i think i need to go to sleeo haha sorry

The lie was really not meant to be that malicious(?). It really just snow balled into this massive set of lies. You really should see the show.

Listen to Waitress! It’s such a good musical, in my opinion.

i wish “connor” and evan fighting (it’s really evan arguing with himself) was in the soundtrack because the “did you fall, or did you let go” line always gets me

‘this is like cats movie wrong’ 😹😹😹 also the forest theme is because evan is obsessed with trees

“How did we get to a forest” oh honey

DEH was my gateway musical,,, I literally only watch bootlegs cause geography and no money exist though. I related too hard with Evan and Waving Through A Window and You Will Be Found just like, reduced me to a sobbing mess xD. Side note: Will Roland. That is all.

This musical meant a lot to me as it helped me when I was going through depression. Me and my dog would listen to lots of musical soundtracks but mainly DEH, as you could tell that he enjoyed it. Around a week ago I was listening to it and singing along when my dog came in when it started playing 'You Will Be Found'. He just sat in front of me and looked into my eyes throughout the entire song. Sadly he passed away on Monday 24th August. He meant the world to me, he was my best friend and basically the brother that I don't have. I listen to the soundtrack to remind myself of him but I can't bring myself to listen to 'You Will Be found' yet as it hurts too much.

barbara: laughing about the forest theme me knowing why he was in the forest: ;-;

"When you're falling in a forest? How did we get to a forest? What?" *anguished wailing*

DEH “crash course”: (Caution spoilers ahead. Do not read if you wanna watch the musical) Evan suffers with anxiety. His father left at a young age and his mother works as a nurse or doctor and isn’t around much. He goes to a therapist who tells him to write letters to himself starting with “Dear Evan Hansen, today is going to be a good day and here’s why...” The show opens with “Anybody Have a Map” all that other stuff gets understood within the first ten or so minutes or less. In this we meet our main characters: Evan, Evan’s mom, Conner, his sister Zoe (Evan’s crush), and their parents. So then we have some seems at school. Evan awkwardly trying to ask people to sign his cast. Jared, an old family friend, is like “heck no, we’re family friends, not actual friends. There’s a difference. I’m not signing your cast. Buh-bye.” Then we meet Alana. I swear she’s schizophrenic or has ADHD or something along those lines. She’s super jumpy and has a short attention span. Once Evan asks if she’ll sign his cast, he doesn’t even get through the full sentence before Alana cuts him off asking what happened. To which I believe this is when we learn he “fell out of a tree on his park ranger apprenticeship.” Or something along those lines. Somewhere in the school scenes in the beginning in “Waving Through a Window.” Eventually Evan bumps into Conner. Conner is the definition of an emo. Chains, long dark hair, big bulky boots, black hoodie. Your classic angsty teen. No one liked him, not even his family. Connor didn’t mind as he pushed people away anyway. The two have a terrible first encounter and Evan is literally scarred for his life. Later on, Evan just finished his therapy letter that went something along the lines of “Dear Evan Hansen. Turns out today isn’t going to be such a great day after all. (Insert stuff about how he wishes people, especially Zoe, Conner’s sister and his crush, will notice him) He prints it off and then enter Conner. Conner and Evan actually have a somewhat heart warming conversation about being outcasts and whatever and Conner actually signs Evan’s cast. All the way across in like 6” tall letters. Only for Conner to pick up Evan’s letter and start reading it moments later. Conner reads it was it mad at Evan for stalking Zoe and writing about her. He storms off with his letter forgetting to throw it in Evans face or in the trash. (This is important for later) The next day, things are blown up about Conner’s suicide. Evan gets called into the principals office where Conner’s parents are sitting there. Upon seeing Conner’s name on Evan’s cast, Conner’s mother tears up. Conner’s parents mistaken Evan’s therapy letter for Conner’s suicide note directed to Evan and thought Conner and Evan were friends. Evan legit tried to say that were never friends, but Conner’s parents wouldn’t have it. They said the proof was right there on Evan’s cast. Eventually realizing they wouldn’t leave him alone until he admitted to being their dead son’s friend, Evan made up this story about sending emails to each other and spending a lot of time together. Evan was then invited over for dinner. Conner’s parents let many details about Conner’s youth slip like going to an ice cream shop and having picnics at an apple orchard that helps Evan create false memories of him and Connor’s friendship. Cue the song “For Forever.” Evan says Connor was there and he took Evan to the hospital when he broke his arm, but Evan was actually alone and just laid there until he was found. (That’s also important for later) Next Evan turns to his family friend, Jared and asks him to help write fake emails to prove Evan and Conner were actually friends. Jared thinks it’s stupid but eventually agrees. “Sincerely Me” is a whole so no about creating fake emails. Requiem is Connor’s family refusing to mourn Connor’s death. (Fun fact I am borrowing the novel version of this musical from a friend and there’s a scene in the book that’s not in the musical of Connor as a ghost attending his own funeral. In which his second grade teacher, whom he threw a whole freakin printer at as a second grader, attended. Noice) Evan’s visits to the Murphy’s have became more and more frequent and his mother has no idea. (Important later) Evan tells Zoe all these things “Connor” thought about her while they’re going through old things in Connor’s room, but in reality it was just Evan’s personal feelings for his crush. “If I Could Tell Her.” Evan kisses Zoe then gets flustered and runs out. Smooth 😂 Evan messages Jared to ask him what to do where we are given the best line of the entire show, “I can’t believe you tried to kiss Zoe Murphy. On her brother’s bed. AfTeR hE dIeD.” Then “Dissappear” happens when Connor visits Evan as a spirit saying, hey this can be something, let’s be popular. Basically XD So Evan goes up to Jared and Alana and together the three create “The Conor Project” A project that shows that everybody should matter. Mind you, Alana doesnt know this is all fabricated. Then the first 2 minutes of “You Will Be Found” is Evan’s speech that gets recorded and published online. It blows up and develops into this beautiful song that I was in for a youth group fine arts contest. (Fun fact I missed the audition for that because I was not informed it started. Luckily I still practiced as a backup because two days before the performance, a girl bailed.) Imma skip ahead here a bit. Evan’s plan entirely backfires. Jared’s getting tired of making emails, Alana realizes Evan’s stories aren’t added up and realizes it’s all fake at the same time that Evan’s mom realizes that her son was staying over half his time at a stranger’s house. Nice... cue the song “Good For You.” On the plus side, Evan and Zoe get together. Evan has his whole “Yup I was an idiot song.” Which was “Word’s Fail.” Things begin to patch up as his mom tells Evan the story of when his father left them. “So Big So Small” And I know how the story ends but I can’t remember how it got there from here. There’s one major Evan character thing that I haven’t said yet because I couldn’t remember if it went before or after “So Big So Small” and that’s when Evan fell out of the tree. He tells people he fell, but in reality, he jumped. He wanted to die. That was a suicide attempt that failed. The story ends with Evan and Zoe in a apple orchard that was planted in memory of Connor as the “Finale” plays which is a reprise of “For Forever.” I hope you have a better understanding of DEH now

I haven't seen the musical but I've read the book and I thought I'd just let you know some little bits about it: Connor found Evan's letter (he printed it in the computer lab) and due to a previous confrontation that day he assumed it was about Evan being a creep (his sisters name was on it), then later killed himself with the letter in his pocket Evan then blamed himself for Connor's actions and when Connor's parents found the letter and 'confronted' him about it he just went along with what they said (they actually assumed the two had been friends) Connor was a bit of an outcasted child because he wasn't good with emotions and made one friend when he was sent to an all boys school. He later got kicked out of the school for drug charges that he took so his friend (who he was in love with and there was a lil something there) wouldn't get in trouble. So, despite Connor having never done drugs before, his parents sent him to rehab. I'm not entirely sure when he became depressed or started doing drugs but it happened somewhere along those events. Due to his problems with emotions (and feeling like his parents cared more about his sister) he had shitty relationships with his family, purposefully causing problems so that he didn't do it by accident, and is why his sister sees him as an antagonist despite the fact that he actually loved his sister (in the familial way y'all weirdos that will read that wrong). There's a lot more but I don't really know if what I've already written makes sense (and also you posted this video 5 months ago so I doubt anybody's even gonna see this comment) but if you'd like to know more I'll definitely continue writing! :)

Here's some background Evan had to write letters to himself, and Connor found one and thought it was creepy because he talked about Zoe, Connors sister. That day Connor killed himself, and the letter was in his pocket and everyone assumed Evan was Connors friend. For Forever is him lying to Connors family, and Sincerely Me is Evan making fake letters to Connor. The whole musical is Evan lying to everyone and in Good For You, it's Heidi, Jared and Alana getting angry with Evan for abandoning them. You Will Be Found is Evan's speech. There's actually a DEH book. It reveals a lot about Evan and we get to see Connors POV

i'm quite late to this video, but i really recommend watching the show (if you can find a bootleg lol) as there are so different layers tied in with depression, anxiety and generally really emotional things. act 2 is where the songs showed the really heartwrenching things, but, with more context, the songs in act 1 are just are heartbreaking! i'm really enjoying this series though! :)

Trees and the forest are somehow a thread through the entire show because Evan broke his arm falling from a tree (Or did he let go?), he is obsessed with trees. And also "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" is a philosophical thought experiment that raises questions regarding observation and perception. In this case, it is parallel to Evan's existence, he feels invisible and alone, so the question that arises here and there in the show is if there is anybody who notices him at all.

So just to help a little the reason Evan lies in the first place is because Connor's parents found Connor dead with a note addressed to Evan (The dear Evan Hansen letter from the beginning) believing the Evan may know something about Connor that lead to his death they begged him to tell them, unsure of what to say or do Evan panicked and said that he and Connor were friends and the parents believed him due to the letter and the fact that Connor signed Evan's cast. Once the lie started he feared telling them the truth, he had given them a reason to believe their son had a friend, was happy that he didn't just die because he hated his life, it gave them hope and Evan felt like he couldn't take that away from grieving parents. So he kept going. One thing lead to another and Zoe (Connor's sister) and Evan started growing feelings for each other (which also progresses through second act), while Connor's parents treated him like family. Evan with his family friend Jared wrote more letters because the parents wanted to see more and Evan still didn't know how to reveal the truth without hurting anyone. Later together with Jared and Alana, Evan creates the Connor Project with the goal of keeping Connor's memory alive despite the fact that he's no longer there (You will be found). In the song Requiem (which I am backtracking a bit I just want to explain) each member of the Murphy family is singing why they won't have requiem for Connor, the mother explains that within the letters that Evan gave her she finally found her son again, the father refuses to morn Connor, while Zoe is torn she doesn't want to morn Connor because she remembers how much he bothered her yet if she were to believe Evans letters it would mean her brother wasn't a monster and that she misjudged him, refusing to thing about the possibility Zoe refuses to mourn her brother. To break in a glove is Larry (Connor's dad) admitting that he may have been too hard on Connor but that he believes that the hard way is the right way (which is essentially the metaphor within the song). After that is when things start to break down we have Good For You where Evan's mom learns that her son is spending more time with another family, that he practically doesn't need her anymore, Jared who snaps on Evan who accuses him of only helping because they're family friends and that's the way Jared gets his car insurance, Alana questions Evan about the emails since they are all positive and there's no change showing why Connor even killed himself. With losing his friends, and his mother being disappointed in him Evan decides things have escalated too far and finally tell the truth (Words Fail). After loosing everything he has Evan confides in his mother and reveals the truth to her, where in turn she tells him how she always worried that she would never be enough (So big So Small). Then there's the finally which some time has passed. We see Evan writing his letter to himself telling himself that despite his mistakes, despite all the wrong he's done it's time to restart and he will probably never become friends with Zoe, Alana, or Jared for a while but he accepts that, he understands now that the most he can be is himself, and that's it. Now I did skip a lot of the beginning, but I was trying answer most of your questions which do take place in the other 3/4 of the show. My recommendation is to watch the show or read the book, it'll defiantly fill in a lot of the blank spaces, since there's a bunch of information between songs, but I hope this helps! :)

The forest part is pretty funny lmao. It took me a while to process that it was always referring to the first time that Evan attempted suicide, by jumping out of the tallest tree he could find while working at a park.

for forever if you didn’t know is about evan lying to connor’s family about this perfect day they had when really the reason he broke his arm was he trying to kill himself by jumping out of a tree but fails

I'm surprised there's only 1 comment saying that you missed a song (Only us - my personal favourite) but that was a really good reaction 😁

That moment when you’ve seen the musical twice and you want to explain it so bad

I'm late but the "to get the girl and his dad's gloves" kills me hahaha

DEH in four word: WRONG AND THE FOREST I'm sorry haha I really love this musical aka it's with Carrie my favorite musical. I don't why, but it's probably 'cuz the awsome mix between great music, relatable characters (i mean there're all with porpuse no good humans in a way. Everyone has they own bad aspects which let them all seem more like real human. Especially Jared kleinman (evans 'family' friend / the one angry guy in 'good for you'). If i should name a character from a musical with a relate the most to it would be him.), great lyrics and an emotional story. It's just in my eyes fantastic

The song everyone seems to know is actually Waving Through A Window - in my opinion, You Will Be Found is criminally underrated, its gorgeous and Noone talks about it.

I had listened to the songs before watching the show and was worried about seeing it because I knew it would be emotional. I was with my daughter and I cried just about all the way through - but not at the bit about the truck for some reason. And not just tears down my cheeks, it was full on sobbing and shaking, the lady sat next to me with her husband was the same. This was in the West End and at the interval most of the audience just sat there unable to move, ice cream sales severely down! Be More Chill the following night was so much fun!

This was so fun to watch!! Just finished watching your Hadestown one!! (one of my all time fave musicals!) but Dear Evan Hansen is one of those musicals that it’s best to know the story a bit at least so you can keep up with the songs because I made my friends listen to the soundtrack and they were SO CONFUSED!!!! For a first time listener you actually did pretty well keeping up with the storyline 😂 it’s such a good musical when you get used to the storyline and you will be found makes me cry pretty much every time I hear it 🥺 loving these videos ❤️

"The forest is so random" ...I'm going to tell her...

Okay im late, i know. BUT i really wanna take evan in defense. He was printing one of his letters on the scool computer and Conner took it from him. Right before that, Conner wrote his name all over Evans cast. The same day, Conner took his own life and the only goodbye letter on him was evans letter (that starts with dear evan hansen), therefore conners parents belives that evan and conner were friends. When Evan tried to tell them, they saw his cast and kept dening it when evan says its wasnt conner who wrote it. Evan has extrem anxiety and planed to tell the family the truth at the start, but when he saw the family finding comfort in what he said, he couldnt break their hearts. And then, the lies just kept going...

This is the main reason I watch bootlegs instead of listening to the soundtrack first. There are many musicals where you can’t get the plot by listening to the soundtrack (this being one of them!), so I usually search until I find a decent bootleg to watch, which isn’t a good thing, but I need to understand the plot somehow lol

I remember finally seeing the musical after know about the show and a few songs for a few years before, and the way Evan and his mom’s relationship hit me the hardest because it was like looking at my own relationship with my mom. Anyways, we both cried a lot during that show.

Just discovered your channel and already watched everything. Some other shows you might want to try: Hadestown, Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, waitress, Dogfight, Sunday In the Park with George (really any Sondheim), Spamilton (really fun parody of Hamilton from the creators of Forbidden Broadway), Matilda. So many shows so little time

I love watching you have those aha moments when you figure out the show!

I love your reactions so much. So far you've reacted to some of my favorites and your so fun to watch! I was literally looking at a different DEH reaction video when yours popped up and I switched immediately. If you haven't listened to it yet, maybe watch Bonnie and Clyde the musical.

"Not cool Evan." Yep that sums it all up.

The forest lyric in waving through a window, is a reference to a common philosophical question.... If a tree falls in a forest and nobody's around to hear it, does it make a sound...

Ok dont know why people listen to more then the first two or three songs before they watch the show, its on the Tube go watch it. That aside, the thing people are missing is Even is kinda being dragged along by events, he has strong anxiety to the point that he'd rather not eat then have to interact with a pizza guy, hes not deceiving people to gain anything he mostly doesnt want to upset people or let them down.

You really have a way of connecting with your audience, I literally started answering your questions out loud xD

Pro strat: read the synopsis on wiki while playing the music it'll all make sense

I have (well-treated, mostly resolved) social anxiety disorder and I always like to warn people that Evan in DEH is one of if not the most accurate and real portrayal of social anxiety I’ve ever seen in media. It is visceral. I was in a much worse place with my anxiety when I saw the show (Ben Levi Ross was my Evan), and I was so overcome that after the show I had a giant panic attack in a corner of the theater lobby. I want people with anxiety to know to be careful when interacting with this show. DEH is important to me and I will likely never watch it or listen to it in full again, it’s just too much. When you understand how irrational and debilitating social anxiety really is, you understand that it was functionally impossible for Evan to open his mouth and tell the Murphys they had the wrong idea about him and Connor, and that’s not an excuse, just an explanation. For me I was mostly devastated that we got to see Evan’s worst moments but we didn’t get to see him fully heal. I needed an anxiety story with much more focus on healing at the time I saw this, so that was hard for me. It’s problematic but there’s also a lot to love about DEH. I’m still conflicted.

The tree in a forest thing is a famous philosophical question just a bit reinterpreted. "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

The person singing Requiem, If I could tell her, Only Us is Zoe Murphy, Connor Murphy’s younger sister and Evan’s crush

I absolutely bawled at So Big/So Small 😭

To answer your forest question. He wants to be a forest ranger whenever he grows up. It’s better explained in the book. Conner is a tough character to understand because he’s hiding that he’s gay. He lives in a very conservative family. He’s afraid to tell his family about his secret so he commits suicide. Evan is the awkward kid who creates the lie that Conner was his friend because Conner had a letter Evan wrote to his therapist. The family misunderstood that connection due to their grieving. Evan also suffers from anxiety.

It physically hurt me when she started making the wrong assumptions 😂

The show starts on the day Evan meets Connor. So they meet briefly a day or so before Connor had died, Connor signed his cast and had a small… chat with him, which eventually led to the rabbit hole of this. Can you imagine? Sorry let me just point out How it started: Evan wrote a note for therapy How it ended: Evan lying about a kid who had died and living almost an entire lie for months

I’m not defending Evans decisions but he technically didn’t lie. I should give a spoiler warning here so spoiler alert read the rest of this at your own discretion. He just wrote a letter to him self because his therapist told him to and in it he wrote about Connors sister and when Evan and Conner met Conner was already depressed so when he found a “friend” or atleast someone who liked him he got some hope and then he saw the letter and thought Evan was just using him to get to his sister (which is right before he committed suicide) after witch Conners family found the letter and thought Evan and Conner were friends so they tried to get to know their son through his only known friend and Evan with his severe social anxiety didn’t confirm nor deny it until they sat down for lunch or dinner( I don’t remember) but Evan just afraid of wat would happen if he said infront of the embarrassment he would face if he told the girl he liked and here parent that that was a letter to himself. It’s basically Evan going down a gigantic anxiety ridden rabbit hole

Okay but the biggest lie Evan made during the entire musical: tHe OnLy mAn ThAt I lOvE iS mY DaD- we all know he liked Connor he's a murphysexual hknknkkgkgknggndgndgjskfbs-

My suggestions for other musicals to cover are Be More Chill (a sort of comic modern re-telling of Little Shop of Horrors set in a high school) and Freaky Friday (which never got a broadway run but is still an incredible adaptation).

I don't know if anyone answer this specific question, but we do briefly see Connor alive. He was the kid in "Anybody Got a Map" who was going to go to school high. He briefly runs into Evan at school, takes one of Evan's therapy letters to himself and kills himself later that day. The parents find out, assume Evan was his friend, and then he kind of gets trapped comforting the family while gaining a new family (he only has his mom at home who works long shifts). It all snowballs, in part through the internet stuff in the middle. It's definitely something you need to see to fully understand, especially appreciating the incredibly cool Jared Kleinman!

Most are unaware that green spaces and forests have measurable benefits to mental health. Outdoor therapy and nature programs have a long history prior to psychiatric drugs, and I feel DEH gives a nod to this with Connor’s orchard.

The line “When you’re falling in the forest and there’s nobody around do you ever really fall or even make a sound” is a reference to a phrase that means if you say you did something or something happen but no one can prove it did it really happen but Evan means if he’s falling but he has nobody will anybody notice? And he didn’t broke his arm that way it was a lie, he tried to kill himself but only broke his arm.

before i watched the musical i listened to the soundtrack first, and i was obsessed with For Forever and i was convinced DEH is about a coming of age gay romance musical. lmao boooyy i was so wrong!

This musical mastered songs that sound cute and wholesome out of context

Requiem is connors (the boy that killed him self) families reaction to him dying. Just so you know. The girl is connors sister

In requiem it was Connor’s family (sister, dad, mom) singing about missing him but also how he was kind of a burden in a way? Like of course they loved him but… I think what sums it up pretty much is “why should I go and fall apart for you?” Genuinely wondering why it’d even be worth it to feel so down about someone like that being gone, but also wondering why despite all that they still feel that way

When I first listened to the show I loved it because the music is so beautiful, and Ben Platt has the voice of an angel, but when I read a synopsis and found out the actual plot I got kinda turned off from it because I've known people who have done genuinely damaging things that I excused because of mental illness/disability only for them to continue to do even more damage to me and people I care about. I'm not saying we shouldn't forgive people for things that aren't fully under their control, or that people with mental illnesses are harmful, I'm just saying it was a touchy subject for me. Plus people shipping Evan and Connor just made me not want anything to do with it...

Someone probably already explained this, or maybe you’ve done more research on the show since this went up, but in Sincerely Me, Evan and his sorta-friend Jared are writing fake emails to convince the parents that he and Connor knew each other. The line “my sister’s hot” is a reference to the note that Evan writes to himself at the beginning of the show. He basically talks about how he’s in love with Zoe (Connor’s sister). It also includes details about how Evan thinks life is so difficult. Connor finds and reads the note, gets upset, and then commits s*ic*de with the note in his pocket. Everyone assumes Connor wrote the note for evan, since the note starts with the words “Dear Evan Hansen”. If that were the case, it would be really weird that Connor talks that way about his sister. This also implies that Evan’s note was the last straw for Connor. If you take that into account, you can kinda understand the guilt and anxiety that Evan must have felt. He was trying to tell the truth at first, but he got freaked when everyone started assuming things and started making stuff up.

I didn't think about it that much when I first listened to it because I had a feeling it would be bad. BRO I WAS WRONG SO SO WRONG. I cried when Heidi said, "Your mom isn't going anywhere" like wtf that hurts. My sister has a similar situation to Hiedi (Evan's mom) so when I played So big/So small for her, she cried instantly. It was full-on SOBS I felt so bad!!!!

sorry ik this is a year late but its a big pet peeve of mine when people react to things and then talk over what they are reacting to and then miss something important to the story ;-;

Please. Do yourself a favor and do falsettos. Its amazing

The trailer for the movie just dropped! You should react to it! 😊 I also just heard the soundtrack and wikipedia'd the show only. But just saw the trailer and was like.... "Woooahh....ohhhh" PS love the reaction videos!

Barbara darling where Is only us??? You gave us hadestown with no - if it's true and now DEH without - only us? I'm more devastated than Connor's mom,! Still love your commentary but please do West Side Story and omit Maria, America and Tonight.😁

Good for you and to break in a glove are arguably the best songs from the show but still the most underrated. Most people hate break in a glove but it's just cause they don't understand the song properly.

Let me explain a little bit of the plot (I’m not defending connors actions I’m just explaining it a little so you can understand a little more): So a few days before Connor killed himself, he and Evan met when Evan was printing his “Dear Evan Hansen” letter. Connor signed Evans cast and they got into a fight, so Connor took the dear Evan hansen letter and stormed off. Apparently he still had the letter with him when he died so his family assumed that he and Evan were friends, and Evan thought that he could help the family by pretending to be friends with Connor (and he was to anxious to say they weren’t friends). So that’s why he’s pretending to be friends with Connor. I hope this helps! I suck at explaining things sorry if that made no sense. Also this isn’t your fault but the way you keep laughing at the “falling in the forest” thing when I know why it’s there... I’m just very upset that I’m crying while your laughing

I'd love for you to listen to Hadestown or Book Of Mormon. I don't know if you're planning to do them already 🥺 Love your reactions as always!!!!

Just out of curiosity: do you have any connection to Portugal? I'm pretty sure the mug that appears at 2:28 is from here! =) PS: another great video! It's quite possible that this is my favorite youtube channel at the moment! Looking forward to seeing reactions to Book of Mormon, Moulin Rouge The Musical, Kinky Boots, Memphis and so much more...

Evan did lie about being friends, but originally because he was too anxious to deny it or even say anything. He also wants to fix the relationship Connor had with his sister Zoe. He still lies, so it is still messed up. Also Evan broke his arm in a forest when falling out of tree

The thing that always get's me with this musical, is that Evan technically isn't doing anything wrong...IF he had truly been friends with Conor. It's just the fact that he and Connor wheren't friend, that makes all his actions moraly wrong. Becouse, think about it! What he is basically doing is giving the family of Conor piece of mind, making sure Conor doesn't get forgotten and getting himselfe a suport system that his mom, despite her best efforts, could not give him becouse she was always working. But than you remember that all the things he says about Conor, are lies becouse he didn't actually kow Conor that well and that he had to abuse his real friends computer abilitys to fake E-Mails between himselfe and Conor! And that just makes it really depressing! >.

I know this is an older video and probably you are more familiar with the plot of DEH but this is my take. There is a lot left out of the soundtrack, especially what leads up to the lie. Spoilers!!!! Evan Hansen has severe social anxiety. Like when his mom is working late, he'd literally rather skip dinner than have a 5 second conversation with a delivery person. He is supposed to be writing positive letters to himself as a form of therapy. He goes to finish writing it in the school computer lab but instead the letter goes very negative, almost like a suicide note. Just after he prints it out, Conner Murphey comes in and offers to sign his cast. Evan lets him but then Conner sees the letter on the printer and notices his sister's name (Evan's crush on Zoe Murphy being the one even potential bright spot in his life) freaks out and takes the letter. A little while later, Evan is called to the Principals office. Conner Murphy's distraught parents are there. Their son took his own life and their only clue as to why is a mysterious and depressing letter addressed to Evan Hansen. Evan does initially try to explain the real origins of the note but neither of them will listen to anything other than what they want to hear. Mrs. Murphy is especially distraught crying "This letter is all we have!" Then they see that their son signed Evan's cast and they pretty much come to their own conclusion and then invite Evan over for dinner to talk about Conner. Honestly the more I think about this as someone who used to work in child care, these early parts of DEH make my blood boil. The idea that anyone would think it was appropriate for a kid, any kid, let alone one with mental health struggles to have an unsupervised meeting with another kid's parents? Big NO!!!!! Admin should have notified Evan's mom and obtained her consent and Evan's consent to meet with the Murphys in the first place and not held the meeting until said consent was given and Evan's mom could be present. Even if that took a while with Mrs. Hansen's busy schedule. DEH has a plot that could have been prevented by High School admin DYFJ.

philosophy 101, the tree question is a classical saying in philosophy. if a tree falls in the forest, but no one saw it or heard it, did it really happen? it's a question of perception of the concept of realism. think of it as the polar opposite of the Mandela Effect.

Yeah. The songs are beautiful. I still think the plot isn’t great and there’s no excuses for Evan’s behavior. And the fact that there’s so much you can’t pick up from the songs is very telling IMO.

This is definitely one of the musicals that's hardest to follow if you've just listened to the music, especially because it's not one of the musicals where it's 90% music, and it's an original show so you don't have anything else to go off of

Oh, I just started this, but trying to figure out the plot from the songs is torture

Here's a tip! Watch animatics in place of listening to just the soundtrack by its self in future videos! It'll give you more of a clue whats going on and an idea as to the themes of the musicals that don't get their own song!

Barbra 2.0 I like you

You should react to the movie trailer

Please do “Something Rotten”

THE VAMPIRE SONG. Sorry but I will stick by Lauren

Wait I was rewatching and I just realised- did you even realise that Connor was also singing in the musical?? Cos idk it sounds like that, srry if I’m wrong and just assuming

While I see recently you've done some reactions to professionally shot videos of stage performances, you're the only KZfaqr I know of who does reactions to Original Cast Recordings, so I thought I'd suggest a few shows that have good cast recordings, but no proshot videos (as far as I know): *A Doll's Life* (music by Larry Grossman, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green), *Rags* (music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Stephen Schwartz), *Nine* (music & lyrics by Maury Yeston -- the Original 1982 Broadway Cast Recording starring Raul Julia is superior, and you want the long version that runs around 90 minutes if you can get it), *The Magic Show* (music & lyrics by Stephen Schwartz), and *How Now, Dow Jones* (music by Elmer Bernstein, lyrics by Carolyn Leigh).

Please listen to Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812.

Evan is not supposed to be liked. He’s not supposed to have a good reason. He’s supposed to be the bad guy, everyone else was pretty in the right (ofv everyone did their good and bad) but for the most part Evan is genuinely the worst person in the show, let me show you So Evan lied to make people feel better blah blah we all know that Evan’s mom is constantly working due to the lack of money, and kind of lashed out when she found out Evan had been hiding so much from her and basically finding a new family. Though she isn’t an ideal, or amazing mom, she’s definitely trying her hardest and isn’t even close to the worst. She genuinely cares and takes care of her child, and it’s barely her fault that she can’t be home much. Connor’s family (just gonna sum it up cuz I don’t have all day) wasn’t the best, and was almost falling apart, but they were also trying. A loving mom who wants the best for her children. A dad who’s a little less than responsible but is stressed and still trying for the most part. A sister who wasn’t treated the best by her brother and only reacted how most people would, which is getting angry and defensive. (I can’t remember these next two characters’ names sry, if someone could remind me it’d be greatly appreciated) “Outgoing kinda annoying girl” was overall nice. A bit self centred but was trying to do good, and chances are, she’s never been told to stop how she acts, so she doesn’t know that she’s doing something wrong, and the worst she does is… pretty bad but in an innocent way. She was honestly just trying to help raise money and support people going through different times, and she found that through Connor’s death. She actually reminds me of a friend of mine so “Annoying, mean, helps Evan write emails guy” he’s… and asshole yes, but I wouldn’t doubt that he has a lot going on at home and he’s clearly not the most confident in himself. To be honest the worst he does is make fun of Connor, yes it’s mean and could escalate really badly but… it didn’t? It doesn’t excuse what he did, not much excuses what any of these characters did, that’s kind of what the whole musical is about, but he’s not the worst person to exist or anything I think that’s it? So yeah, Connor’s kind of the bad guy here, he lied to get what he wanted, he hurt a lot of people in the process, but I think the message is that you can do bad things but you can always make up for it, when you do a bad thing that started from doing something good, it’s redeemable, and often they know what they did wrong and it’s much easier for these people to fix their behaviour after the situation has blown over. In this particular story Evan apologizes, understand’s and doesn’t blame anyone else, works on himself to never do anything like it again, and even tries to get to understand Connor a bit with reading his favourite books. And as a little extra he was able to work on his mental health (the end, “dear evan hansen today’s going to be a good day because at least you’re you, and that’s enough”)

There's so much more behind the story than you hear And it's sad that most people I know of only go off of the soundtrack and judge the characters without knowing the story (read the book if you can, it explains even more than the musical and it's just amazing)

The first lie is an accident

I really dont like Evan as a character... I just cant forgive him for what he did to the Murphys, eventhough I realize that he didnt want to get in that situation. I still love the musical tho

This musical has LOTS of dialogue so just listening to the song lyrics (which you are constantly talking over anyway) leaves lots of holes in the plot for you so you’re not going to be able to follow the story this way. Evan is a very troubled, complicated young man and you simply do not understand what you are listening to, and to your credit you do somewhat admit that. Speaking of what you’re listening to, this is a cast recording, not a soundtrack. A cast recording is the music from a stage show. (That’s what you’re listening to.) A soundtrack is an inherently cinematic thing. It is the music, the SOUNDTRACK from a motion picture, which there will be soon when the movie comes out.

Evan isn't the villain but he is more for a anti-villain.

Honestly my thoughts on the whole main character being horrible and the lack of reproductions for their actions have grown. This in my mind is an issue in a lot of modern YA musicals and I used to dislike all of them but I think the reason heathers is handled better with similar plot points and has grown on me is because heathers is a dark comedy and DEH is painfully sincere in its mental health messaging. The movie makes a lot of things worse but ya this show is just very imperfect I don’t think bad but the flaws are the tough pills to swallow when you go into to it unfortunately.

It’s been 2 months but I’ll give you context. The musical is about Evan a boy who finds it hard to be sociable and Conner a boy who ends up taking his own life. The Forest reference is because during the summer Evan fell from a tree and broke his arm and waited near and hour for someone to help him and no one came. Anyways one day at school Conner signs Evans cast, but after seeing some Evan printed about his sister and Evans crush Zoe freaks out and takes the note KHS. Conners parents assume Conner wrote the note to Evan and he pretends he was friends with Conner to make friends, and do some good.

Musical Theatre and TV Episode Reactions Suggestions: The Addams Family Musical Avenue Q Book of Mormon Cats (1998 & 2019) Chicago Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas Dorothy in Wonderland Evil Dead the Musical Hairspray Henry Danger the Musical Jekyll & Hyde (2001 & 2019) Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1999) Kirari Super Live Les Miserables The Lion King Musical Mamma Mia Mary Poppins Matilda the Musical Monty Python's Spamalot Thee Pee-Wee Herman Show Live on Broadway Peter Pan Live (2014) The Producers Rock of Ages School of Rock the Musical Seussical the Musical The Solve-it Squad Returns Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark Tarzan the Musical Wicked