By John Lyle Belden

Summer Stock Stage has taken on the recent Broadway smash hit Best-Musical Tony-winning “Dear Evan Hansen” with brilliant results.

Note that as this posts, there are very few (if still any) seats left for this production, through Sunday, Aug. 9, at Schrott Center for the Arts on the Butler University campus (next to Clowes). See summerstockstage.com.

Centering on teens who see the impending end of high school as a source of relief, this drama is like the old “afterschool specials” but for the current generation. Its set-up could be played for bigger laughs, but this musical, with book by Steven Levenson, music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, takes the feelings of its characters seriously. The absurdity of dealing with life and death issues at 17 provides ample honest humor to propel the plot.

Evan (Preston Angus) starts his senior year with a cast on his arm (he fell from a tree) and familiar, friendless anxiety. His single mom Heidi Hansen (Emily Ristine Holloway) encourages him the best she can, privately feeling inadequate while dealing with the stress of her job as a nurse and her college classes. Meanwhile, in another stressful scene, Larry and Cynthia Murphy (Eric Olson and Katy Gentry) are dealing with their kids, surly son Connor (Alden Duez), a senior, and daughter Zoe (Erin Rosenfeld), a junior.

In a first for a “Dear Evan Hansen” production, Zoe is deaf (as is the actor) and accompanies speech with sign language – in fact, some songs feature the cast all incorporating ASL in their choreography, and even Evan does some signing as he has long had a crush on her. Accompanying Rosenfeld at all times is Isabella Agresta as a sort of twin who provides her singing voice. Their coordination is flawless, so that understanding that there is just one girl represented becomes easy – especially considering that another character will frequently appear even though he is not really there.

That would be Connor, who displays serious mental health issues. Seeing Evan as also alone and troubled, he signs his cast. Evan had just printed out a letter to himself (“Dear Evan Hansen…”) that he wrote as a therapy assignment, but seeing Zoe mentioned, Connor lashes out, takes the paper from Evan and runs away.

We later discover that Connor takes his own life (no details given) and his parents find the letter. Seeing it addressed to Evan and signed “me,” they assume it was a last message between friends. Evan, feeling trapped and only wanting everyone to feel better, plays along. His anxiety feeds his talkativeness until an entire best-friends scenario is spun and he is trapped as the only source of solace for a grieving family.

Helping him in this charade is smart-aleck family friend Jared (Jack Diamant) and desperate overachiever classmate Alana (Aubrie -Mel Rubel). As the memory of Connor’s passing fades, they take it upon themselves to start The Connor Project to remember their (fictional) friendship and possibly help others.

If you’ve seen promotions for the musical when it was on Broadway, you likely saw the song “Disappear,” in which the Connor Project goes viral. We see various people reacting and posting on numerous screens hanging over the stage. While the moment feels triumphant, it is only the climax of the first act – there is much more to this story, including an inevitable reckoning for the title character.

Directed by Lauren Morris, we get characters in a situation that seems unreal, yet as messy as real life. Angus plays Evan with constant nervous energy, unsure of what he wants or where he fits. At first embodying the old question of, “if a tree falls and no one is there, was there a sound?” he struggles next with finding what feels like real belonging in a false situation. He commits fraud without malice, adding to his inner turmoil. Rosenfeld presents Zoe in her own whirl of confusion, forced to see a new aspect of her “monster” brother while finding affection for Evan. Olson and Gentry play a couple who were on the brink of dissolution, hanging their hopes on what they desperately want and need to be true. Ristine Holloway brings Heidi’s own struggles into the mix, desperate to keep some connection with her son.  Diamant is as close to comic relief as the show gets, while showing Jared’s own hidden issues. As Alana, Rubel is a girl seeking meaning in activity, seeing an opportunity to be the hero until the inconsistencies start to add up. Duez as Connor gives a great performance as a character who was and is always a cypher, even to himself.

I have seen a number of past criticisms of the musical for the way Evan seems to get away with his acts, and the treatment of issues like mental health and suicide, but at least in this production I see a measured handling of complex problems, with situations ending not tragically or happily-ever-after, but in a manner that allows for healing. Whatever our destinies, with honest effort, they “will be found.”