Dear Evan Hansen: What The Movie Changes (Including New and Cut Songs)

The movie adaptation of Dear Evan Hansen makes some major changes to the original Broadway musical, including removing songs (and adding new ones). The main aspects of the story remain the same: Evan Hansen (Ben Platt) is a high school student struggling with his mental health and ability to connect with others. His therapist asks him to write letters to himself as an exercise in positivity, and when a classmate of Evan’s, Connor Murphy (Colton Ryan), takes one of these letters and then commits suicide, Evan goes along with the assumption that he was friends with the Connor and that the letter was a suicide note. For a while, this brings Evan the connections he desires until the lies begin to catch up with him.

There are a few minor differences between the stage and film versions, including some cut songs and a couple of added ones. There are almost always changes when adapting a story from a previous source into a film; this is commonly seen with book series, such as the changes made in adapting the Harry Potter series into movies. Sometimes these changes are necessary, as it can be difficult to fit every aspect of a play or musical into a movie.

Fans of the musical Dear Evan Hansen will immediately notice the first big change: the removal of the opening song of the stage version, “Anybody Have A Map?” — a song performed by Evan and Connor’s mothers about their confusion over how to connect to their sons. The film instead chooses to open with the better-known song “Waving Through A Window,” but in eliminating the former song, many of the parallels between Evan’s and Connor’s characters and families have to be emphasized in other ways. In fact, the character of Connor in Dear Evan Hansen is much less present in the first half of the movie than he is on stage, where Evan has several interactions with an imaginary version of Connor including a full song titled “Disappear.” The film version of Dear Evan Hansen replaces this song with a song called “The Anonymous Ones,” sung by another classmate, Alana (Amandla Stenberg), who reveals that she suffers anxieties similar to Evan’s.

“To Break In A Glove” is another song lost from the stage version of Dear Evan Hansen, which belongs to Connor’s father, Larry Murphy. Another small change is made to the character of Mr. Murphy: in the film, Connor’s natural father died when he was very young, so Mr. Murphy (Danny Pino) is Connor’s step-father in the movie. It seems this change was made to build a stronger connection between Evan and Zoe Murphy (Kaitlyn Dever), Connor’s sister and Evan’s love interest, who bond over the fact they don’t know their real fathers very well.

The final song left out of the movie is “Good For You,” a song in which Evan’s mother, Alana, and Jared (another friend Evan makes along the way) express their anger over discovering Evan’s lies and the ways he has used and mistreated them. The movie also adds in a scene in which Evan posts a public video admission of his actions and apology to Instagram, whereas in the stage version he only apologizes to the Murphys and his mother. Finally, Connor is given a song at the end of the movie, “A Little Closer,” revealing that Connor played the guitar and wrote a song while in recovery for drug addiction. The loss of the good songs from the original show is probably part of the reason for the mixed reviews Dear Evan Hansen has received. Overall, the changes made in moving Dear Evan Hansen from stage to film either don’t make a significant difference to the film or they eliminate development that is given to supporting characters.

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