Displaying items by tag: Devin DeSantis

Paramount Theatre’s staging of Dear Evan Hansen brings fresh dimension to the Tony‑winning contemporary musical. Under Jessica Fisch’s direction, the story follows Evan, an anxious, isolated teenager whose therapist‑assigned letters to himself inadvertently spark a misunderstanding with the Murphy family - one that grows into a lie swelling far beyond them and eventually into a community‑wide phenomenon. What begins as a desperate attempt to feel seen evolves into a moral knot that forces Evan - and everyone around him - to confront grief, loneliness, and the universal hunger for connection.

The Murphys are drawn into Evan’s story with a fragile mix of hope and heartbreak, briefly finding in him an echo of the son they lost. His presence momentarily pulls their shattered family together, even as the truth threatens to reopen long‑buried wounds. The family’s grief feels immediate, Evan’s anxiety is rendered with nuance, and the show’s viral‑culture elements land with a more human, grounded weight.

While the video projections are deployed with striking precision that greatly assist in the storytelling, Fisch’s staging ultimately leans into the intimacy at the core of the piece. Rather than echoing the Broadway production’s digital spectacle, Paramount foregrounds character, relationships, and the rawness of teenage interior life.

The score - including “Waving Through a Window,” the very powerful and moving “You Will Be Found,” and “For Forever” - lands with the kind of vocal power and clarity that Paramount’s acoustics tend to amplify beautifully. The production highlights the contrast between the soaring, hopeful music and the messy, complicated truth underneath Evan’s choices.

Overall, Paramount’s Dear Evan Hansen becomes less a story about the internet and more a story about the quiet ache of wanting to matter. It’s intimate, empathetic, and emotionally direct - the kind of staging that makes the show feel newly personal.

“Dear Evan Hansen explores the boxes we put ourselves in: the emotional, the metaphorical, and the digital ones we post, like and share,” says Jessica Fisch, making her Paramount Theatre directorial debut with the Chicago Regional Premiere of the Tony Award-winning musical. It features (from left) Devin DeSantis as Larry Murphy, Elaine Watson as Alana, Bri Sudia as Cynthia Murphy, Pablo David Laucerica as Jared and Isabel Kaegi as Zoe.

The cast is exceptional - let’s take a moment to celebrate each of them.

Paramount Theatre’s Dear Evan Hansen finds its emotional center in Cody Combs, whose Evan is tender, tightly wound, and achingly human. Combs, in his Paramount debut, captures Evan’s anxious spirals and fragile hopes with remarkable clarity, pairing superb acting with vocal work that feels both raw and crystalline, grounding the entire production in authenticity. His performance never slips into caricature; instead, he shapes a portrait of a young man straining to breathe in a world that feels unbearably loud.

Evan's mother Heide Hansen is played by Megan McGinnis who brings a beautifully layered warmth to the role. Her scenes with Combs pulse with a lived‑in tension  - the kind of love that’s fierce, imperfect, and stretched thin. McGinnis’s voice carries both exhaustion and devotion, making Heidi’s arc one of the production’s most affecting threads.

As Zoe Murphy, Isabel Kaegi delivers a performance full of quiet strength and emotional transparency. She sidesteps the trope of the unreachable girl, giving Zoe a grounded, searching presence. Her chemistry with Combs feels gentle and believable, especially in the moments when her grief and Evan’s longing quietly intersect.

Jake DiMaggio Lopez makes a striking impression as Connor Murphy, balancing volatility with a haunting vulnerability. We really feel for him. His presence lingers long after he leaves the stage, shaping the show’s emotional landscape in ways that feel honest rather than sensational. Taking on the role of gamer and Evan’s “family friend” Jared Kleinman, Pablo David Laucerica brings sharp comedic timing and unexpected warmth to. His dry wit consistently lands, yet he still reveals the softer insecurities beneath the sarcasm.

Bri Sudia and Devin DeSantis anchor the Murphy household with sharply etched, deeply felt performances. Sudia’s vocally impressive Cynthia Murphy is all open‑hearted ache - a mother clinging to hope with both hands - while DeSantis’s Larry carries a quieter, more guarded grief. Together, they create a portrait of a family fractured not by a single tragedy, but by years of unspoken pain.

Rounding out this wonderful cast, Elaine Watson brings crisp intelligence and real emotional nuance to Alana Beck, capturing her need to matter with disarming sincerity and seeming confidence. She becomes a quiet mirror to Evan - another teen outrunning her own loneliness in a very different way.

This cast moves with remarkable cohesion. Every scene feels interconnected, every emotional beat supported by the ensemble’s shared sense of truth. Combs’s Evan doesn’t exist in isolation; he’s shaped by McGinnis’s tenderness, Kaegi’s resilience, Lopez’s lingering shadow, and the layered grief Sudia and DeSantis bring to the Murphy household. In fact, every character is beautifully shaped. Their performances lock into one another like facets of the same story, creating a production that feels cohesive, intimate, and deeply human.

For a story centered on so‑called “losers,” this production proves itself a winner in every sense. And though the subject matter is heavy, there’s plenty of levity and genuine laugh‑out‑loud moments to keep the balance just right.

With a book by Steven Levenson and music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the musical premiered at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. in July 2015. Since then, it has traveled nationally and internationally - and now Chicago‑area audiences get to experience it in one of the region’s most beautiful venues, the Paramount Theatre.

Highly recommended.

Dear Evan Hansen is being performed at downtown Aurora’s Paramount Theatre through March 22^nd. For tickets and/or show information, visit https://paramountaurora.com/events/dear-evan-hansen/.

This review is proudly shared with our friends at www.TheatreInChicago.com. 

I was eager to see the show but felt really bad as I settled into my seat for the opening night of GODSPELL at The Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire. Pain was shooting through my legs, and my mind was overwhelmed after yet another day of wrangling with difficult business decisions. But by the time I left the theatre I genuinely felt uplifted and renewed by the youthful and fresh energy and the heartfelt message of hope in Jesus that poured out of this production.

The cast could have, and maybe should have, been cast older; except for two token adults most of the cast seemed straight out of high school or college. Their voices were fantastic in the way singers on American Idol are, but as soon as they formed the Tower of Babel as 9 to 5 city workers dressed in black and grey, I thought what do these kids know about how hard the workplace is?  Later during the heavier scenes regarding Jesus’ scourging and crucifixion I thought, what do these kids know about loss? Though one thing this young cast did have was talent – and plenty of it.

Brian Bohr played the role of Jesus.  I was at first shocked and taken aback by a Jesus who resembled a 22 year old, baby-faced, California surfer kid wearing a sky blue preppy polo shirt. But Bohr’s rich, smooth voice and determined lightheartedness eventually won me over. Although I was surprised by Bohr's youthful appearance and super clean cut costume and looks, I grew to enjoy his interpretation of the role because it reflected on just how very strong and happy Jesus must have been during his early ministry before he was attacked and weighed down with betrayal.

Samantha Pauly had the most dynamic voice of the women and did a great job with the humor and tone of “Turn Back O Man”. At the same time, Devin DeSantis who had more of the hippy, wildman look I would have expected from Jesus, also had a great rich voice and made a very sympathetic Judas. The numbers were exciting and colorful, especially “O Bless the Lord My Soul” where golden hula hoops were incorporated into the dance choreography and “Light of the World” that really had the audience toe tapping and nodding their heads to the beat.  

As always I thoroughly enjoyed the use of the intimate space at The Marriott Theatre and all of the colorful ways the entire theatre was decorated with multicolored plastic drinking cups sticking out of fence walls like a rainbow. I noticed that most of the audience seemed to feel the same way, as more people were laughing and chatting after the show rather than stretching and yawning on a weeknight and rushing to get home.

Overall this is a great production that is perfectly suited for everyone. Even the crucifixion scene was exceptionally light and non-violent as Jesus is tied up and crucified with blue and white silks suspended from the ceiling.  I especially recommend this as a children’s theatre production for parents who want to take their children to an adult theatre piece with a great message about Jesus and the Gospel of John and Luke that will be very clean and cheerful all the way through.

GODSPELL is playing at The Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire though August 10^th. For tickets and/or more information, visit www.marriotttheatre.com.