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    The Stage Musical 
  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • While Evan's initial lie comes from a sympathetic place, just where that place is greatly depends on how Cynthia is acting in that particular performance. If her growing hysteria is directed inwards, then the lie comes from a place of comfort, trying to persuade her that her son wasn't alone in life. If she's directing it towards Evan, especially if she comes towards him, then there are hints that he's just trying to get her to stop and then can't stop himself once he's going, especially since he's often portrayed as being somewhere on the autism spectrum.
    • Is Jared gay? It's never explored in-universe, but with all the gay jokes he keeps writing into the letters between Evan and Connor, it's hard not to wonder. It's likely just that—a joke—but some fans interpret this as Jared testing the waters with Evan about his own potential homosexuality since it's shown time and time again that Jared deals with just about everything through humor. Original Jared actor Will Roland has even supported this interpretation.. The 2021 film seems to go with this theory as it mentioned Jared hooked up with a guy at summer camp.
    • Zoe's part in "Requiem." Does she really not miss Connor and truly hate him, or is she going through denial—the first stage of grief? It's true that her relationship with Connor was very troubled and she's absolutely right that his death doesn't erase his actions, but she still sounds upset even while she insists she won't grieve for Connor.
      • Confronted with the idea that Connor was "not the monster that [she] knew" but a complicated person in a lot of pain, she's possibly grappling with a lot of conflicting emotions - guilt for not reaching out to her brother, anger and resentment that he was capable of being vulnerable and kind around Evan but not her - and has no idea anymore how she's supposed to feel about her brother.
    • Was Imaginary Connor really just Evan's Imaginary Friend, or was he a legitimate Spirit Advisor? It seems like it could go either way—for what it's worth, in the novel we do get some chapters from the perspective of Connor's spirit, and while he doesn't interact with Evan as much as in the musical, he does get a Not Too Dead to Save the Day moment.
    • How genuine are Alana's intentions? Does she actually believe in The Connor Project and wants to help other kids struggling with mental health issues, including herself? Or is she just using the opportunity to social climb and look good for college? The movie more strongly implies the former.
    • Did Connor really commit suicide or did he accidentally die from a drug overdose?
  • Base-Breaking Character: Evan himself. Specifically, the fanbase is split on whether he deserves sympathy or forgiveness after what he did. Part of the fanbase thinks that while what he did was wrong, he's still sympathetic and redeems himself in the end, citing his anxiety, depression, and mostly good intentions (not to mention in the novel it's made clearer that he tries to tell them in the first place, but doesn't want to break their hearts when they practically plead that Connor wrote the letter). Another part believes that what he did is simply too manipulative and cruel (however unintentionally) to the Murphys to be forgiven. (Of course, this doesn't factor in the mercifully small faction that doesn't think he did anything wrong at all.)
  • Broken Base:
    • Heidi's outbursts before and during "Good for You". Was she completely overreacting towards Evan seeing the Murphys as a Parental Substitute, and is the one at fault due to her little time spent with her son? Or is her anger completely in-character and justified, due to Evan secretly choosing the Murphys instead of actually talking to her about his problems?
    • The novel and its canonicity to the musical. Particularly the backstory and character it gives Connor and the existence of Miguel.
    • "To Break In A Glove" is the show's most divisive song. Detractors believe it's a boring number that isn't up to the overall score's standard, while defenders say that it's a pleasant tune and does a good explores interesting dynamics between parents and children.
    • Connor's parents aren't exempt from this either. Either they've got every right to be mad at Evan when the truth comes out because Evan did lie or they're just as responsible for this mess as (in their understandable grief), they pressured Evan into the role of Connor's best friend.
  • Can't Un-Hear It: Ben Platt's performance as Evan is so universally acclaimed that all the following Evans are judged by how they measure up to him. This trope arguably wound up hurting the film version, as all the huge praise for his original work was used to justify Platt reprising the role, even though most agreed he could no longer pass as a convincing teenager, an infamous criticism against the movie.
  • Common Knowledge:
    • It became quite common to drag the show on Twitter, especially after the release of the movie's trailer, for Evan supposedly lying about knowing a boy who committed suicide just to get in his sister's pants. Of course, his true motivations are actually much more complicated and that while there's a lot of moral ambiguity regarding the decision, the initial lie comes from a genuinely sympathetic place (regardless of which Alternative Character Interpretation listed above you go with, Evan didn't actually plan the lie and wasn't considering Zoe or his crush on her when he told it).
    • There was also a Twitter phenomenon when the trailer was released where a surprising number of people assumed that Evan is gay and DEH is a coming-out story, à la Love, Simon.
  • Diagnosed by the Audience:
    • Connor is implied to have some sort of mental illness, as he is emotionally volatile, paranoid about what others think of him, and apparently had a history of suicidal ideation. It has been suggested that he has borderline personality disorder.
    • While it's never referred to by name, Evan shows a lot of the signs and symptoms of social anxiety disorder.
      • The 2019 tour takes Evan’s Motor Mouth and inability to make eye contact with others up a notch, giving him the appearance of being on the autism spectrum.
  • Draco in Leather Pants:
    • Connor's not evil, but a lot of fans seem to forget that he was abusive towards Zoe, not to mention a huge jerk to everyone else (though his Heel Realization in the novel allows him to get better). He's deserving of sympathy, sure, and he definitely had some issues, but he was no saint.
    • Somehow, the fact that Evan spends the entire musical manipulating everyone around him (albeit for understandable and sympathetic reasons) for his own gain is usually overlooked, and he's generally characterized as a Pure Cinnamon Roll. Though the contentious discourse related to The Film of the Play (particularly by those unfamiliar with the musical) took this so far in the other direction that it practically reaches Ron the Death Eater levels, with it being not uncommon to see Evan characterized as The Sociopath.
    • Jared, to a downplayed extent. People do acknowledge his Jerkass tendencies, but it's often defended as a front for his loneliness, even though he was still unnecessarily provocative towards Evan and Connor and highly complicit in the manipulation process. He's also the only one who's fully aware of the lie and wants to profit off of it without even the pretense of caring for others, yet there are fans who insist he's the only one in the show with a moral compass simply because he snarks about how what they're doing is fucked up.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: Both Jared and Alana are really popular among fans, despite them being secondary characters. Ghost-Connor also has a lot of fans.
  • Fanon:
    • Connor being gay or bisexual is agreed on by at least 80% of the fandom, especially on Tumblr. This is confirmed in the novel, but the canonicity of that adaptation is still hotly debated.
    • It's pretty much unanimously agreed (again, especially on Tumblr) that Jared is gay, which became Ascended Fanon in the movie.
  • Fanfic Fuel:
    • How Connor and Evan's friendship might have been. Many pieces of fanart, writing, etc., have Evan palling around with Connor, whether Connor's alive or (un)dead.
    • How things might have gone if the play had a more supernatural take, with more of a focus on Connor's ghost bonding with Evan due to Evan being the only one he can interact with?
    • Since Evan's not actually singing In-Universe, we don't really know what he said in that five minute speech that turned him into a national hero. There are multiple fanfics that are literally just personal interpretations on what Evan might have really said.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Connor/Evan. Having Evan hastily clarify that they weren't gay in "Sincerely, Me" only added fuel to the fire. Also: Evan/Jared, Evan/Connor/Jared, and Zoe/Alana. Every possible pairing that is not canon is far more popular among the fandom than the canon Zoe/Evan. However, unlike other examples of this, Die for Our Ship isn't really invoked for the most part; many AU fanfics have Zoe as a supportive sister/friend to the other characters as they form a relationship of their own.
  • Fandom Rivalry:
    • With Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, due to Dear Evan Hansen's Tony sweep snubbing Great Comet in the eyes of many fans, and arguably kicking off the chain of events that led to Great Comet's closure. Granted, Great Comet was truly done in by an unrelated later controversy, and it's debatable how much winning the Tony would've made a show that's infamously weird and hard to get into a mainstream hit, but that's hasn't stopped people from pointing fingers.
    • Less vitriolic than the above, but many fans of Come from Away are not happy to have lost the Tony to this show—though Come From Away did at least manage to keep running afterwards, so there's less animosity there. A live stage recording of Come From Away premiering on Apple TV+ the same month as the Hansen film's release (just as the latter gained significant attention coming out of its festival debut) revived the rivalry accordingly.
    • Fans of Next to Normal either love the show due to the similarities, or hate it for that very reason.
    • Despite the Friendly Fandoms listed below, some Be More Chill fans clash with Dear Evan Hansen fans due to how both shows tackle similar themes, but Hansen received critical praise and a Tony sweep that's led to a fairly long Broadway run while Chill had negative reviews, only got one Tony nomination and only lasted five months on Broadway. Common points of contention are which show tackles mental health better, which has the better love story, and whether it's better to tackle these heavy subjects with Hansen's heavy realism or Chill's comedic tone.
  • Franchise Original Sin: One of the biggest criticisms of the movie adaptation was the incredibly unconvincing Dawson Casting of 27-year-old Ben Platt as a teenager. Platt was older than his character in the original stage version as well (albeit not by a huge margin), but the inherent artificiality of theater as a medium made it easier for audiences to suspend their disbelief.
  • Friendly Fandoms:
    • With Heathers, due to both being quirky musicals revolving around a suicide. note 
    • With Be More Chill due to both revolving around a blue-clad teen who goes from awkward loser to schoolwide sensation through unusual means, while abandoning their unpopular main friend in the process. (This also goes for why they're friendly with the Heathers fandom.) It's common to write crossover fics where Evan and Jeremy are friends.
  • He Really Can Act: Previously, Ben Platt was best known for Pitch Perfect. There's a reason he became one of the youngest people ever to win the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for Dear Evan Hansen—his work in it is heartwrenching. Neil Patrick Harris was one of many to comment on how physically strenuous Platt's performance was, that it's almost technically impossible to sing clearly enough to fill a live theater while actually sobbing and crying the way he does in "Words Fail", and he pulled it off consistently in performance after performance.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: One part of "Sincerely, Me" has Connor and Evan sing that they aren't gay. As it turns out, Ben Platt, who played Evan in the original run, actually is gay. The humor has escalated with the news that four of the actors who've played Evan are dating each other — Ben Platt is dating his successor in the Broadway cast, Noah Galvin, and the third Broadway Evan, Taylor Trensch, is dating the first Evan from the touring cast, Ben Levi Ross.
  • Hype Backlash: The show was a huge hit with critics and audiences from the start and garnered a massive and vocal fanbase touting it as one of the best musicals of all time, so naturally, there are people who gave it a look and walked away unimpressed, often citing the characters (particularly Evan) as being Unintentionally Unsympathetic and the plot as being a poor representation of mental illness (though that particular debate has been going on since day one). Not helping matters is the show's win for Best Musical at the Tonys in 2017 over Come from Away and Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, with many audience members feeling the latter two shows were unfairly snubbed, saying the Tony went to the show that was trendy, rather than the show that was the best. (Some people in all three fanbases are still quite touchy about it, so bring this topic up online at your own risk.) This got worse after the movie's release in 2021, between the awkward decision to have Ben Platt reprise his role as Evan despite the actor having gone far beyond the age where he could convincingly portray a teenager, a few crucially plot important songs being cut, and simply fresh eyes who were never exposed to the stage production. Arguably, these elements served to highlight the flaws in the story and really amp the question of whether Evan is worth rooting for.
  • Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: Applies to most of the fandom's ships, with a few exceptions—most notably Kleinsen (Evan/Jared).
    • Tree Bros (also spelled Treebros): Evan/Connor
    • Sincerely Three: Evan/Connor/Jared
    • Galaxy Gals: Zoe/Alana
  • Jerkass Woobie:
    • Connor Murphy. He's shown to be a pretty big jerk, but he obviously had some unchecked emotional issues that his parents ignored, while his sister just hated him due to how he treated her, which led to his suicide.
    • Evan Hansen, depending on your interpretation of his actions. He acts selfishly during the latter act of the show, ignoring his mother and obligations to spend more time with the Murphys and avoid revealing his lie, but this is all because he just wants a normal life instead of always being lonely and poor.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • Jared's "kinky" in "Sincerely, Me" has gotten a lot of mileage. Role originator Will Roland is aware of it, and whenever he spotted someone recording the show he'd refuse to say it. It still got caught on video anyway.
    • Thanks to RuPaul forgetting Evan's name, it's not uncommon for people to joke that the protagonist's name is "Dear."
  • More Interesting as a Villain: While portrayed as flawed and doing the wrong thing in the story, the musical still frames Evan as a good person at heart despite pretending to be a dead person's friend to take advantage of a grieving family and hook up with said dead person's sister. Several viewers walked away thinking the story would have been far more interesting if Evan was portrayed as the Big Bad while making the Murphys the protagonists or at the very least make him a Villain Protagonist.
  • Never Live It Down: Jared makes a few jokes about Evan and Connor being gay, which have caused a section of the fanbase to be absolutely convinced that he's actually in the closet himself despite nothing in the way of explicit hints.
  • No Yay: "If I Could Tell Her" would be a cute song, except for the fact that it's supposed to be things Connor thought about Zoe, while still often very much sounding like things Evan thinks about Zoe. Or, to break it down another way: Evan is accidentally ventriloquizing his romantic feelings for Zoe through her dead brother and not doing a great job of hiding it, which means some verses kind of make it sound like Connor had a crush on his own sister. The fact the entire song is a lie at least means that's not how Connor really felt, but on the other hand... the entire song is a lie, which is not a great foundation for a romance. (Admittedly, a lie that's supposed to help Zoe feel better, but still.)
  • Romantic Plot Tumor: Evan and Zoe's romance is one of the most contentious aspects of the show, but unfortunately takes up the bulk of Zoe's time as a character, with her complicated relationship with her brother taking a backseat after Act 1 despite being a far more compelling story. Evan already having a crush on Zoe complicates his motivations for lying and makes him appear far more selfish than if he simply wanted to be part of the Murphy family. Even when the story acknowledges in "Only Us" that they don't have much in common besides talking about Connor and should try to move past it, their relationship is still pretty boring. The fact that Evan gets closure with Zoe at the end of the play, but not Jared, Alana, or Zoe's family, doesn't help, nor does the movie removing some more dubious actions like Evan's unwanted advance on her and thus defanging an already dull romance.
  • The Scrappy: Miguel from the book has gathered a rather tepid reaction from the fanbase for feeling tacked on to the story, since the musical didn't mention him at all and also for getting in the way of the popular Connor/Evan ship, since it's implied that Connor and Miguel were dating.
  • Signature Song:
    • "Waving Through a Window" is Evan's "I Want" Song and expresses the character's anxiety. It's commonly performed in promotional material for the show because it shows off the lead's acting and singing ability.
    • To a lesser extent, "You Will Be Found." It's the most heavily marketed phrase due to its inspirational overtones, and is also frequently performed at promotional events.
  • Spiritual Successor: Many see it as this to Next to Normal, which also dealt with family grief and mental illness.
    • Not only do the two shows have so many parallelisms that some theater fans have remarked that Dear Evan Hansen is just Next to Normal if portrayed from Henry's perspective (there's even a Tumblr post listing down all those parallels), the two shows were both directed by Michael Greif, who also directed Rent, and many stage actors had had played roles in both shows at some point.
  • Stoic Woobie: Zoe. The opening has her dealing with her brother's nasty attitude fairly well, simply snarking about how stoned he is and cursing at him, but as "Requiem" shows, she had a lot of issues with Connor abusing her.
  • Superfluous Solo: "To Break In A Glove", which doesn't relate directly to the main plot and exists mainly to give a solo and character development to Larry Murphy, who otherwise would come off as just a side character (since the primary conflict between Evan's and Zoe's family is between Heidi and Cynthia, who are set up as Foils in "Anybody Have A Map?") People who defend this song's importance point out that not only does it give us another window at what may have gone wrong with Connor's childhood and Larry's misfortune that he was very poorly suited to parent a kid like Connor, it also highlights Evan's insecurity about growing up without a father and how this has been a major unstated source of tension with Heidi. It was cut from the movie possibly due to this criticism.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
    • At one point in Act One, Alana sings a reprise of "Waving Through a Window", hinting that she may be struggling with anxiety just like Evan. It gets briefly acknowledged in Act Two when she questions Evan's fake friendship with Connor and reveals that the only reason she was invested in Connor was because of their mutual "invisibility" in society, but that plot line is dropped after that, just to focus on Evan's oscillating decision whether or not to reveal his lie. The movie elaborates more on this with Alana's new song "The Anonymous Ones," but still doesn't fully explore her motivations and implied mental health issues.
    • The song "Requiem" has a neat idea for Zoe: she doesn't want to grieve for Connor, as he was an irredeemable monster in her eyes. And the next song after that squanders this unique apathy, where she immediately accepts Evan's lies about Connor having so many unsaid, nice things to say about her, though it's understandable that she would want to believe good things about her dead brother.
    • What would have happened if everyone found out that Evan lied about being friends with Connor? How would people react to discovering that the entire Connor project was based on a lie?
    • The novel that came out later essentially gave Connor his own Barred from the Afterlife/Unfinished Business character arc, with him only able to move on after he not only realized how bad he had been but also preventing Evan from meeting the same fate as him. While it can be argued that this angle simply wasn't thought of when the musical came out, one might wonder if the novel's angle or a combination of the two would have made the story better.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
    • It may be hard for the viewer look past the part where Evan's plan essentially revolves around plots using Connor's suicide for his own gain, but they're eventually framed in a darker light and the truth behind his broken arm fully explains his desperation. When the movie came out, however, more newcomers and critics were turned off by the premise and found it hard to sympathize with Evan for keeping up with the lie for so long. The main point of contention is that the lie helps him get a relationship with Zoe, and his songs with her are supposed to be cute, but it's instead seen as manipulative of her grief past the point of sympathy.
    • Also, Jared when he lashes out at Evan. Yes, it's implied that he's lonely, too, but he still acts like a massive prick to Evan for the entire show. It's hard to really blame Evan for distancing himself from him and for calling Jared out on how complicit he is in the lie when Jared tries to wriggle out of it.
    • Heidi can come off this way to some, since her comments to Evan in "Anybody Have A Map?" come off as kind of passive-aggressive and backhanded, and her outbursts in "Good For You" seem pretty harsh, especially as Evan points out, she's never home.
    • Alana as well, since her lines in "Good For You" where she says she also knows what it's like to be invisible and forgotten are clearly there to chalk up Woobie points, but she's just as guilty of using Connor's memory to stay relevant as Evan is and Evan isn't wrong when he points out she treats his death like a publicity stunt, yet she deals with none of the fallout that Evan does towards the end of the musical, even after being personally responsible for publishing Connor's suicide letter online and directing a lot of hate and accusations are the Murphys.
  • The Woobie: Evan. He has no friends, severe social anxiety, and just wants to be accepted and loved.

    The Film 
  • Angst Aversion: One of the reasons the movie failed to perform as well as the musical is due to a comparative lack of comic relief. The movie cuts out several comedic moments (such as Jared's frequent commentary on Evan's lies) or reframes them to be more dramatic (such as Evan talking to his classmates on the first day of school). This makes the dramatic subject matter of the story more emotionally draining, and draws more attention to the imperfect way said subject matter is handled.
  • Audience-Alienating Premise: Several reviews of the movie say that, in a less obvious way, this show is just as ill-suited for a film adaptation as the notorious Cats, as swapping out the artificiality of the staging for a totally naturalistic look means you have nowhere to hide from how inherently uncomfortable the story (at its core, a kid getting caught in a lie about a classmate's suicide and using the opportunity to live a better life with said dead kid's family) is, and in the real world someone like Evan would absolutely not be the admirable figure he's portrayed as. As a result, while the stage musical did very well, the movie was a Box Office Bomb.
  • Critical Dissonance: The film has a 29% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, less than half the 60% rating required for a Fresh rating, but has an 88% audience approval rating based on over 1,000 ratings.
  • Diagnosed by the Audience: Aside from his obvious social anxiety, Evan has certain behaviors indicative of autism established by Ben Platt's performance — repetitive stimming and hand flapping, for instance — and in the script, like Evan's unusual special interest in trees.
  • Ending Fatigue: The movie has a greatly reworked third act, showing Evan's attempts to find out more about the real Connor in addition to publicly admitting his lie and showing how the rest of his senior year went after all this drama. These aren't bad ideas, but the problem is it all happens after the emotional crux of story that originally lead right into the ending. So now, despite things looking like they're gonna wrap up, the conclusion is postponed as we witness events that may be interesting, but don't actually change much at all about the story before it finally ends.
  • Hard-to-Adapt Work: A common criticism of the film is that the original stage show was too inherently theatrical to transition to a cinematic setting. On Broadway, the show is executed with a Minimalist Cast and little in the way of an actual set, instead utilizing dynamic lighting that dominates the stage, matches the music, and showcases Evan's inner feelings and increasing instability. This was completely lost in the transition to film, making the finished movie look a lot less lively and more mundane. Several of the musical's more dreamlike elements were also dropped in this transfer, including the majority of Connor's role, which significantly damaged the audience's understanding of and sympathy for Evan. Multiple plot-relevant songs were also cut, likely to prevent the movie's runtime from being too lengthy; however, the absence of "Good for You" made it feel like Evan never really got any kind of comeuppance in the end, to say nothing of how the other cut songs severely limited the side characters' development. And, finally, the main plot of the musical is something of an Audience-Alienating Premise when taken at face value, and removing it from the spectacle and theatricality of Broadway forced the viewers to confront it more directly, which made Evan very unlikable for some.
  • Improved Second Attempt: While the film was generally poorly-received, it earned a decent amount of praise from some fans for changing a couple of questionable elements present in the original show.
    • In the original show, Alana publishing Evan's letter to Connor before disappearing entirely to let the Murphys deal with the backlash killed a lot of her sympathy, as it was hard to support such a massive breach of privacy (especially since, as far as she knows, it's Connor's suicide letter). The film changes this slightly; while she still publishes the letter online, it's revealed that she almost instantly regretted it and took it down as soon as responses started coming in.
    • The film attempts to give Evan more of a comeuppance as he publicly admits to the entire fabrication, alongside actually trying to get to know who Connor really was while he was alive while helping the Murphys through it. Whether it actually works is hotly debated by the fans.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • After the movie trailer came out, many jokes about Ben Platt not looking like a teenager began to spread. Following the film's mixed-negative reception coming out of TIFF, a faked Hollywood Reporter headline claiming the film would be hastily re-edited to "digitally de-age" Platt spread like wildfire online.
    • As the film's trailer caught on, many people who were aware of the musical but didn't know the plot all came to the collective discovery that the show is not about a gay kid coming outnote . Both people's reactions to the discovery as well as just how many people thought the show was a coming out story soon became joke fodder.
    • One meme that circulated on Twitter following the movie trailer's release was to follow the phrase "Dear Evan Hansen" with the text of other popular letters from media, especially other Broadway shows, such as "Dear Evan Hansen, I have sent you several notes of the most amiable nature, detailing how my theatre is to be run. You have not followed my instructions. I shall give you one last chance..." or "Dear Evan Hansen, what to say to you? You have my eyes, you have your mother's name..."
  • Narm:
    • Evan reading Ready Player One due to it being one of Connor's favorite books just reeks of a desperate reference that missed the mark by several years.
    • Most of Evan's interactions with his mother, the Murphys, and other adults. Ben Platt's poorly done makeup aged him significantly, to the point where he looks the same age as (or older than!) characters who are supposed to be at least two decades Evan's senior. As a result, it can be hard not to laugh when a grown-up mentions Evan being in high school, since he looks too old even by Dawson Casting standards.
    • Speaking of makeup, "Words Fail" (and practically any scene where Evan becomes emotional/tearful, which is 95% of the movie) is more entertaining due to what seems to be Platt trying to cry through however much foundation was put on him.
    • In her review of the video Jenny Nicholson mentions that the "Words Fail" number becomes unintentionally hilarious because, despite the heart-breaking context of the song, Evan is the only one singing while other people are talking normally, which can leave one thinking the song is diegetic, and therefore, that in a moment of absolute family turmoil, hurt, and disbelief, Evan decided to explain the terrible thing he did with a song.
    • Evan's "You Will Be Found" speech going viral is a crucial dramatic moment in the show, but when we see the YouTube video of said speech, its ridiculous title sounds more like a Clickbait Gag — although this may have been intentional satire, it still comes in the middle of a montage meant to be inspiring and dramatic:
    "His Best Friend Died... You Won't Believe What He Did Next!"
    • Similarly, Evan's speech being recorded solely because he dropped his notecards and the entire student body thought it was so funny that they immediately whipped out their phones and started filming, like they were planning on making a YouTube fail video out of his speech about his dead (supposed) friend. It comes across somewhat like the movie doesn't quite understand how social media works; a TikTok mocking a teenager just because he made the not-very-funny-or-entertaining mistake of dropping some notecards probably wouldn't get many views, and it certainly wouldn't be the immediately viral, hilariously embarrassing content the characters seem to think it is.
  • Newer Than They Think: Despite the actor being accused of nepotism years before the film, this was in fact the first and thus far only project of Ben Platt's which his father Marc Platt produced.
  • Overshadowed by Controversy: This largely stemmed from Ben Platt's casting. It was one thing for him to be deemed too old to still play Evan, but the fact that his father Marc Platt produced the film caused many to rail against both for perceived Nepotism. Ben's attempts to address all the criticism only made matters worse when many found his response unsatisfactory. And while the original show wasn't without its critiques when it came to its handling of mental health, the movie version's portrayal was far more harshly criticized, adding even more bad press to the project. All of these controversies contributed to the film being a Box Office Bomb, as well as indirectly damaging the musical's public perception.
  • Pandering to the Base:
    • Alana was popular with a lot of young fans who wished she had more to do in the stage version. The movie clearly tries to please that crowd by greatly expanding her role. This new emphasis has the unfortunate side effect of taking away the focus from far more important characters.
    • Jared is openly gay here after all the LGBT Fanbase's theories about the stage version being in the closet.
  • Questionable Casting: Ben Platt's Role Reprise as Evan in the film adaptation raised eyebrows from the moment it was announced. While it's easier to get away with Dawson Casting on a stage production, fans were less confident that a man in his late twenties could convincingly play a teenager on the big screen. Sure enough, once the trailer dropped, many people commented on how much Evan looked more like an adult in a childish wignote  than a teenager, even moreso than the other high school characters played by young adults (who were at least relatively shorter). Calling overwhelming attention to this was the film giving him slight prosthetic work, form-fitting clothes in an attempt to make him look teenage-slender, and Platt playing the character with a constant shoulder hunch, which just made people think of the infamous 30 Rock "How do you do, fellow kids?" meme with Steve Buscemi's undercover character not exactly blending in with the high school crowd. Many also noted that since Evan's youth and inexperience with life is the major thing stopping him from coming across as monstrous, having him played by an obvious adult man flies in the face of that, especially when so many of his classmates are actual teens and most of his co-stars (who are also in their twenties) can at least more easily pass for teenagers.
  • Special Effect Failure: Even if Ben Platt's age wasn't an issue for you, it's likely ruined by the hugely unnatural makeup job that will probably just have you checking for foundation in his hair.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
    • The film removed a lot of Evan's more morally questionable actions, such as creating the fake e-mails of his own volition and essentially starting the Connor Project to keep himself from going back to what he started with rather than preserving Connor's memory. It also removed "Good for You," a plot relevant song in which the consequences of his actions start to pile up and the people in his life call him out for his behavior. As a result, it feels at times like the film is trying to downplay his lie and reduce his moral culpability to make him more sympathetic or straight-up turned him into a Karma Houdini, which made fans of the stage version really pissed, since Evan's morally gray character was a large part of what made the story so interesting to begin with.
    • Aside from "Good for You", a number of other songs were also cut, and many side characters' (particularly the adults') roles were drastically reduced, making the film seem much more like a teen movie and alienating viewers who liked the stage show's exploration of different parent/child dynamics.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
    • All the adults in the movie, whose roles are reduced and lose every number centered around them with the exception of Heidi's "So Big/So Small". Critics noted that this caused the adaptation to feel more like a teen movie, losing the adult perspective that complimented the younger characters' drama to much praise onstage. Heidi's role in particular received criticism for making the stage show's second largest role into a minor overall player, reducing her from a struggling single mom who we see struggle to relate to her son to just another side player in Evan's story.
    • Connor Murphy. The stage show keeps him present throughout with him appearing to Evan in visions in addition to representation of their emails. Outside of "Sincerely Me", the movie almost completely removes this element, with the negative side effect of us now losing a look into Evan's conflicted psyche and seeing in more explicit detail why he has a genuine moral desire to keep up his lies.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
    • Larry's now Zoe and Connor's stepfather rather than their biological dad. This can be seen as diluting the plot point of Evan having a new family of choice in the Murphys since there's already such a factor already in play with them. Still, there's potential to work with there, like having Larry and Evan relate to each other being a member of the family whilst feeling like an outsider. Instead, the change in relation isn't brought up much or particularly developed.
    • In another change from the stage musical, the film ends with Evan revealing his charade to both the Murphys and the rest of the world, exposing himself as a liar who never knew Connor. The full repercussions of this are never explored, which is especially odd considering how much time the movie spends discussing the aftereffects of the speech's Internet virality. It's hard to believe that the people who doxxed and harassed the Murphys over the leaked "suicide note" wouldn't do the same to Evan once the truth came out, and it's also likely that the people who donated to the Connor Project would feel cheated enough by the lie to start asking for their money back, potentially jeopardizing the crowdfunding effort. At the very least, the kind of negative publicity that a public admission of guilt would generate could seriously impact Evan's career and college prospects, and the permanency of the Internet could make that hard to recover from. None of these consequences are fully addressed, however, and the public confession winds up feeling like a superficial change that barely affects the story.
  • Took the Bad Film Seriously:
    • While the film itself was poorly received, Amy Adams and Amandla Stenberg both earned praise for their genuine acting performances.
    • More generous viewers have noted that - questionable casting and final performance aside - Ben Platt was at least clearly putting in a genuine effort.
  • Unintentional Uncanny Valley: One of the main criticisms of the film was that the makeup used to make Ben Platt look younger made him look so much older that it took them out of the story. Combine that with the many closeups on Evan's intense facial expressions throughout the movie, several viewers found the character to look genuinely frightening at time.
  • Unnecessary Makeover: Ben Platt's infamous makeup job and curls, especially given that Nik Dodani (Jared) and Colton Ryan (Connor) are both less than a year younger than him and neither had the same level of effort put into making them look younger.
  • WTH, Costuming Department?: While Evan's clothes are mostly normal, the film adaptation gave him an absolutely baffling curly haircut that looked so unnatural audiences and critics alike mistook it for a wig.note  He was also given very thick, noticeable makeup, which achieved the opposite of the desired effect by making him look far older than his actual age.

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