Theatre reviews: Dear Evan Hansen | Oliver in a Twist

Dear Evan Hansen is an operatic tale of fate, yearning, class and deception let down by underwhelming music, writes Joyce McMillan

Dear Evan Hansen, Playhouse, Edinburgh ★★★★

Oliver in a Twist, Oran Mor, Glasgow ★★★★

The first week of July, a blast of summer heat, and two big, vibrant shows that left me just slightly confused about what exactly was going on. After a long UK tour, the smash-hit musical Dear Evan Hansen arrived at the Playhouse in Edinburgh, playing to a packed audience including many young people, and featuring two young Scottish stars – Ryan Kopel and Lauren Conroy – in the leading roles of painfully shy teenager Evan Hansen, and Zoe Murphy, the girl he worships.

The theatrically thrilling first-half finale delivers a stunning visual image of Evan Hansen’s new viral fame

First staged in the United States in 2015, Dear Evan Hansen is an upmarket high school musical – by Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul – about how, through a misunderstanding, the troubled Evan suddenly finds fame and popularity at school and on social media as the “best friend” of Connor Murphy, Zoe’s brother, who has taken his own life.

Suddenly in demand, and able to bring comfort to Connor’s family, Evan cannot resist playing up to his new role, fabricating ever more elaborate narratives about the non-existent friendship; but meantime, his hard-working single mother Heidi (an excellent Alice Fearn) feels she is losing him to the well-to-do Murphies, while his ‘family friend’ Jared constantly reminds him that his new life is based on lies.

This is no mean story, in other words; an operatic tale of fate, yearning, class and deception in a high school context, and a story so lush in emotion and narrative layers that it takes almost three hours to tell, including a theatrically thrilling first-half finale that delivers a stunning visual image of Evan’s new viral fame.

What is slightly strange about the show is the music itself, which veers between predictable if emotive 21st century anthems that sound as if they might have been written by a well-trained bot, and long rambling arias in which the music trails along in the wake of what sound like over-written prose monologues.

Oliver (Elena Redmond) gets in a tangle with Darren Brownlie’s Phil Pikes as Fraser Boyle (Nancy. left) and David McKnight look on

There’s no question, though, that the leading players – including understudy Will Forgrave, stepping up boldly to the role of Connor – deliver fine dramatic and musical performances. And from the audience, the show attracts huge cheers after every song, and a final standing ovation; welcoming a story which clearly speaks with unusual power to the mental health crises of young people now, and is becoming ever more popular, as its internet fame spreads.

At Oran Mor, meanwhile, Andy McGregor’s lunchtime summer panto Oliver In A Twist offers up a memorably bold and cheeky satirical send-up of Lionel Bart’s musical Oliver!. In this version – uproariously delivered in 60 minutes by a gifted cast of five – Dame Nancy and her son Jammy Dodger (Fraser Boyle and Dani Heron, both in fine form) have recently arrived in London from Glasgow, and are trying, with new Cockney accents, to make their way in their big city; this despite evil landlord Phil Pikes (Darren Brownlie, camping it up outrageously), who is not only charging them rent, but an eye-watering “transaction fee”.

Enter Elena Redmond’s posh Oliver, a workhouse escapee who soon joins Dodger’s gang; and via a brilliant theme-song and dance entitled Any Old Jam (as in, we can get out of any old jam), the story unfolds in at almost literally breakneck speed, with the Dodger coming a cropper when a wall falls on him in the final scene.

There is a truly hard and cynical edge to all of this, as all the characters make it crystal clear how little value they place on human life; and the usually genial spirit of panto often goes missing, in a London whose streets are “paved with shite”. If the mood is a shade baffling, though, there’s always the closing song to cheer us up; and the sheer wit and energy of the writing and performances is impossible to fault, from start to finish.

Dear Evan Hansen at the Playhouse, Edinburgh, until tomorrow; Oliver In A Twist at Oran Mor, Glasgow until 19 July.