A musical about teen suicide sounds delightful doesn’t it? Probably not, which is one of the many obstacles this film will face when trying to find an audience. In spite of being a Broadway hit, the challenge to making this into a film is considerable. This week, the smallest flock we have had in a year, gathered to figure out why the movie is having trouble reaching the same heights of success that the play did.
Cameron Kanachki and Howard Casner join Richard in visiting this musical odyssey into depression, social anxiety, isolation, drug abuse, betrayal, kickstarter fraud, divorce, suicide, bullying, social media and unhummable tunes. “Dear Evan Hansen” may have it’s heart in the right place, but does it have it’s movie credentials all set up correctly. We have some doubts.
What we don’t have many doubts about are the performances in the film. Maybe Ben Platt is a little long in the tooth to be a teenager anymore, but he can sing. Surprisingly, so can Kaitlyn Dever, Julianne Moore and less of a shock, Amy Adams. In a movie that lasts 137 minutes, over 70 of those minutes are taken up by song but there is only one dancing number and it is as close to a show stopper as you are going to get from this.
Introduction
Discussion 2:30
Spoiler Territory Begins 19:30
Lambscores 59:30
Rants/Raves/Reviews 1:04:36
Name that Musical Game 1:16: 45
Howard Pop Art
Richard KAMAD
The show can be found, of course, via iTunes – just do a search for “LAMBcast.” Also, I always post a link to the show on the LAMBcast’s Facebook page, and there’s a player there if you’d like to listen online. Find the show here:
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/lambcast/episodes/2021-09-27T11_49_01-07_00
If you’d ever like to catch up on back episodes, go there. If you’re interested, you too can be a LAMBcaster – we love new blood! For more information on the LAMBcast, check out the topic at the LAMB Forums. Music provided royalty-free by Kevin MacLeod’s Incompetech website. Big thanks to Kevin for providing this service. Closing song by Cake. The LAMBcast loves feedback, too – if you’d like yours read on a future show, leave it in the comments section at the LAMB. Please visit and like our Facebook page, and finally, we’re on iTunes, and would still love a review, even if it’s a bad one. Thanks for listening!