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For any copyright, please send me a message. Patrick MarmionDear Evan Hansen (Noel Coward Theatre, London)Verdict: Newcomer Sam Tutty lights up murky taleRating: Dear Evan Hansen has been a musical sensation ever since it opened on Broadway in 2016, garnering no fewer than six coveted Tony Awards.Now its edgy high school story is aiming to wow us in the West End. And who knows? It might just succeed, thanks to a hugely impressive performance from 21-year-old newcomer Sam Tutty in the demanding title role of a young man who befriends a family whose misfit son has committed suicide.Yes, that's right. A musical about a suicide. No wonder Tutty had to take a lot of last week off with some unspecified lurgy. It's a role that would challenge the most mature of actors (and, indeed, there's an alternate Evan, Marcus Harman, on standby). But to his great credit, Tutty invests the role with levity and emotional sympathy, as the grieving family take him into their hearts, and home, after finding one of his nerdy, self-help letters ('Dear Evan Hansen, turns out this wasn't an amazing day after all...'), on their son's body, and mistaking it for his suicide note.It's obviously tricky territory, which Benj Pasek and Justin Paul navigate with bold, rocky tunes and thoughtful lyrics.The pair are on a roll, having written the music for The Greatest Showman and won an Oscar for their lyrics in the film La La Land. Unfortunately, I didn't find the Dear Evan Hansen music especially memorable — except, perhaps, the big emotional anthem For Forever.Rather than setting toes tapping, the songs guide us through Evan's treacherous emotional straits, including when he woos the suicide's way-out-of-his-league sister.But it's Tutty's Ed Sheeran-like performance that carries the show. From the moment a spotlight lights up on him and he swallows nervously, he exudes vulnerability and warmth. He blinks, he sweats and he twitches through sometimes rambling numbers that see him head to the high notes of doubt and anxiety, before plunging into the low register of bluff and bravado.Running the gamut of teenage neuroses like this eight times a week would do for most of us, but Tutty is helped by a tight supporting cast.As the dead Connor, Doug Colling resurfaces in Evan's conscience to goad him on; while Rebecca McKinnis, as Evan's overworked single mum, turns from saccharine supportiveness to something tougher.Lucy Anderson, who plays the bereaved sister, adds steely scepticism. But my favourite was Jack Loxton as Jared, the cynical 'family friend' who co-writes Evan's fake letters from Connor.Steven Levenson's story, though, is not only about teenage angst, and Connor's parents make an uncomfortable portrait of a marriage in crisis.Rupert Young a
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