Expand<\/a><\/p>\nA key facet is that Evan\u2019s questionable actions of deceit seem understandable, even perhaps laudable, in the moment. Additionally, the resulting social media tsunami is something we now take for granted in daily life.<\/p>\n
This is a meaty role for a younger actor that can punish a lesser actor on two fronts.<\/p>\n
The character\u2019s vulnerabilities require deft performance choices to navigate maturing from plaintive despair to swelling confidence.<\/p>\n
Sheer physical appearance is McCall\u2019s ally here. Thin and lanky, an angular face set above a notable Adams\u2019 apple (and, as a sharp-eyed seatmate suspected, some unseen tape making those ears stick out further from his head?), McCall\u2019s gawky, though not geeky, physicality in the role almost ensures adolescent quandaries.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s more here. McCall manifests an anguished quality through glance and gesture, as well as dialogue, in the character\u2019s questioning of his own worth.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, though, when he is seen closer to stage front, McCall conversely somehow also projects hints of self-confidence lurking within.<\/p>\n
The even more fiendish part of this role, though, may be that it requires a vibrant, powerful tenor to sing, and occasionally belt, across a demanding multi-octave range.<\/p>\n
McCall has the chops needed. His is an assured, clear voice delivering Benj Pasek and Justin Paul\u2019s inspiring music and lyrics. He establishes his primacy in two early numbers, the up-tempo \u201cWaving Through a Window\u201d and then the solemn declarations of \u201cFor Forever.\u201d Near the show\u2019s end, his delivery of the heart-rending \u201cWords Fail\u201d is especially gripping.<\/p>\n
The 12-person cast\u2019s vocals also do \u201cDear Evan Hansen\u2019s\u201d lovely musical arrangements proud. The show\u2019s best-known song \u2014 a widely heard source of rallying comfort during the pandemic \u2014 is the stirring, 6-minute first act ending \u201cYou Will Be Found,\u201d and here the crescendo is amplified through excellent harmonies.<\/p>\n
There are some notable supplementary acting turns. As Connor, Nic Hermick agilely animates a haunting part so that quixotic upbeat aspects of the character feel appropriate as they emerge.<\/p>\n
Both of Evan\u2019s two high school cohorts in whipping up a social media tornado deliver on the comic sidekick goods.<\/p>\n
Analisa Idalia, as Alana, is aggressively upbeat, generating self-aggrandizement through unrelenting industriousness at social media engagements.<\/p>\n
Gabriel Vernon Nunag, a veteran in the role from a national tour production, makes for a suitably smart-alecky Jared, Evan\u2019s \u201cfamily friend\u201d (not, as Jared smarmily points out, to be mistaken as a real \u201cfriend\u201d).<\/p>\n
Nunag nicely evolves from whipping out fast faux bro cynicisms to baffled hurtfulness when he suffers the stinging social blow of being casually dismissed by lowest-on-the-totem-pole Evan.<\/p>\n
Best of the principal adult roles are actors Josh Adamson and Jill Van Velzer as a distanced husband and wife, abruptly and awfully redefined as grieving parents.<\/p>\n
As Larry, Adamson comes to the fore in his well-acted singing in the duet number \u201cTo Break in a Glove\u201d he has with McCall.<\/p>\n
As Cynthia, Van Velzer is impactful in leaking desperate grief breaking through her earlier self-absorption as a distant, upper income wife and mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cDear Evan Hansen\u201d is an 11-year-old musical. In its original Broadway and national tour incarnations, the show\u2019s electronic displays on a screen bedazzled with rapid-fire tallying of ever-mounting, internet page views.<\/p>\n
Here, the production updates the show\u2019s electronic background on La Mirada\u2019s sizable LED backing screen.<\/p>\n
Projection Designer David Murakami\u2019s successful imagery now reproduces key words from Evan\u2019s personal journal in oversize block type, blurring in and out other online comments and through deploying a barrage of swelling and shrinking Instagram feed images.<\/p>\n
This adds up to only one aspect of the backing. Separately, there also additional, abstract geometric patterns updating in different, shard-like patterns, changing colors and mirroring the jagged themes of loneliness or anxiety affecting mostly Evan as well as mirroring the other characters\u2019 feeling in the moment.<\/p>\n
The visual achievement matches director and choreographer Stephen C. Anthony\u2019s good work being seen on the stage below.<\/p>\n
\u201cDear Evan Hansen\u201d is the latest in La Mirada Theatre\u2019s past couple seasons of producing homegrown versions of very different kinds of musicals \u2014 \u201cFiddler on the Roof\u201d to \u201cLegally Blonde\u201d to \u201cSweeney Todd\u201d \u2014 at a continually high level of execution.<\/p>\n
Whatever they\u2019re putting in the backstage water cooler these days, other local houses would do well to get some of it.<\/p>\n
\u2018Dear Evan Hansen\u2019<\/p>\n
Rating: 4 stars (of a possible 4)<\/p>\n
Where: La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada.<\/p>\n
When: Through Nov. 22. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 1:30 and 6:30 p.m., Sundays.<\/p>\n
Tickets: $15.95-$132<\/p>\n
Information: 714-994-6310, 562-944-9801; lamiradatheatre.gov<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cDear Evan Hansen\u201d is musical storytelling of the highest caliber, a work of exemplary intelligence and a committed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,1058,28069,420],"class_list":["post-517900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-theater","tag-theater-review","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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