Characters / Dear Evan Hansen

---

Evan Hansen

"I wish that everything was different. I wish that I was a part of... something. I wish that, um, anything I said... mattered, to anyone. I mean, face it: would anybody even notice if I just... disappeared tomorrow?"

Portrayed by: Ben Platt (2015-2017, film), Noah Galvin (2017-2018), Taylor Trensch (2018-2019), Andrew Barth Feldman (2019-2020), Jordan Fisher (2020-2022)

♫ Give them no reason to stare.
No slipping up if you slip away.
So I got nothing to share.
No, I got nothing to say. ♫

— "Waving Through a Window"

A high school senior who struggles with intense social anxiety. As a result, he has never really had any friends, only able to find comfort in his hopeless crush on Zoe Murphy. He is assigned by his therapist to write uplifting letters to himself, but when a self-deprecating letter is taken by Connor Murphy and mistaken for Connor's suicide note, Evan is pulled into a lie that eventually spirals out of control.

---

• Adaptation Name Change: The novelization makes Evan as his middle name and says his first name is Mark.
• Amicable Exes: With Zoe after the truth comes out.
• Apologizes a Lot: His social anxiety prompts him to apologize even when he hasn't done anything that merits apologizing.
• Bad Liar: Despite the fact that his whole life comes to revolve around lies, Evan is this — he's hilariously incompetent when he first tries making up the story of his and Connor's friendship for the Murphys, relying heavily on blatant Verbal Backspace and Line Of Sight Names, and Jared has to constantly rein him in to keep the emails he's fabricating between him and Connor halfway realistic. And yet it doesn't seem to matter for a long time, because the passion with which he speaks about the topic totally takes people off guard (see Hidden Depths).
• Becoming the Mask: One of the core themes of the show. The version of himself Evan imagines in his fictitious friendship with Connor is what gives him the strength to become a better person in Real Life.
• Believing Their Own Lies: Evan buys into his own lies for a bit before it bites him back. His imaginary relationship with Connor becomes real enough to him that he actually starts seeing and talking to him.
• BSoD Song: "Words Fail", where Evan reveals his lie to the Murphys and lambasts his brokenness and inability to genuinely communicate with people.
• Bungled Suicide: The truth about how Evan broke his arm, as he chose to jump off a tree, rather than accidentally fall.
• Did Not Get the Girl: Evan and Zoe split after it comes out that Evan was lying about basically everything.
• Friendless Background: He has severe social anxiety and incredibly low self-esteem, so it is extremely difficult for him to make friends.
• Fun with Acronyms: In the novel, he hates how his initials spell "Meh".
• Hidden Depths: When we first see Evan he comes off as a loser with no particular skills to speak of, a Shrinking Violet and Nervous Wreck who's especially hopeless at any task that involves communicating with people. His mother says "You were always a great writer," but it comes off as her just trying to keep his spirits up so he has the confidence to apply for scholarships. But then it turns out that when Evan pushes himself to get past his walls and speak from the heart, he has enormous charisma and a gift with words that can move mountains, represented to the audience by the moment when his dialogue turns into singing. The first story he tells the Murphys about him and Connor ("For Forever") instantly convinces the whole family and moves Mrs. Murphy to tears, and when he loses his notecards at Connor's memorial and begins to speak extemporaneously ("You Will Be Found") the speech goes viral and turns him into a national celebrity, causes Mr. Murphy to finally break down and reconcile with his wife, and is the moment that makes Zoe fall head over heels in love with him.
  • Even though the Murphys don't directly react to his confession in "Words Fail", it's implied it must have had a similar effect — despite the magnitude of the deception Evan has performed on them, they forgive him and fail to out him publicly, even though it would immediately get their army of online harassers off their back and onto his.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: His ultimate goal in this musical, though his extreme lack of self-esteem gets in the way of this.
• I See Dead People: Kind of—in the musical it's somewhat ambiguous on whether Imaginary!Connor is an Imaginary Friend, Spirit Advisor, or perhaps some combination, but in the novel we get some perspective from Connor's ghost, and the only one in the living world who can see him is Evan. In fact, Connor saves Evan's life when he's about to let a truck hit him.
• Middle Name Basis: The novel says Evan is actually his middle name.
• Nature Hero: Evan specifically has an overwhelming interest in trees — he's full of tree facts he's willing to share at a moment's notice, he got a job as a park ranger so he could learn more about them, and climbing trees is his calming activity.
• Nervous Wreck: To the point where just watching him is vicariously cringey for the audience sometimes, especially as played by Ben Platt.
• No Medication for Me: Evan resents the anti-anxiety meds his mother has him taking, possibly because of the side effects — the side effects of a drug like Xanax (difficulty speaking, lack of appetite, muscular twitching) would explain a lot of his behavior in Act 1 — and in Act 2 he's simply stopped taking them, without talking to his mother or his doctor, because his changed situation makes him feel he no longer needs them.
• Shrinking Violet: His social anxiety makes it difficult for him to make friends.
• Tenor Boy: Evan's songs are written in the classic tenor range for a leading man, but Evan subverts this trope in many ways, with his range swinging wildly between low and high notes and — when Ben Platt sings him — his high notes sung in a deliberately strained falsetto to evoke emotional stress, showing how different Evan is from a typical hero.
• The Power of Language: See Hidden Depths above. A major theme of this play is how Evan thinks he has nothing to offer the world, but his words end up making him the most powerful character in the show, for better or for worse. (This is played with from the very beginning, where Evan's letters to himself are joked about as a therapeutic tool and a sad kind of thing to have to do, and yet his one stray letter kicks off the whole plot and ends up changing thousands of lives.)
• Took a Level in Jerkass: By Act Two, Evan has become more obsessed with spending time with the Murphys, to the point where he neglects his mother, his only "family friend" Jared and his responsibilities of the Connor Project, something that irks Alana.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Evan won't admit it but he's just as badly wounded by his father's abandonment as his mother is, and the approval and acceptance he gets from Larry in "To Break In A Glove" affects him deeply. The novelization gives us more detail about this — Evan worked really hard on a seemingly minor project to impress his father, restoring the Welcome sign at Ellison State Park (where he and his father spent time as a child), only for his father to ignore this news and blow him off in favor of announcing he and his wife were having a new baby. This is the event that triggers his suicide attempt.

Heidi Hansen

♫ And I knew there would be moments that I'd miss.
And I knew, there would be space I couldn't fill.
And I knew, I'd come up short a million different ways.
And I did... and I do... and I will. ♫

Portrayed by: Rachel Bay Jones (2015-2018), Lisa Brescia (2018-2019), Jessica Philips (2019-2022), Julianne Moore (film)

Heidi: You know that... if you ever, if you ever want to talk about anything... I realize that lately it must feel like, I’m always working or I’m in class...
Evan: It’s fine.
Heidi: Well, I’m here. And if I’m not here here, I’m a phone call away. Or text. Email. Whatever.

Evan's mother, a nurse's aide who attends law school at night, often leaving Evan on his own as a result. She tries to connect with Evan, but struggles because she doesn't personally understand what he goes through on a daily basis.

---

• Alliterative Name: Heidi Hansen.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Played for drama. Evan is mortified to see her at the Murphys' and to see the way she's acting with them, and she's fully aware of his reaction, which just makes things worse and worse. (It's not just her negative reaction to Evan's relationship to the Murphys but the way she keeps putting her foot in her mouth and showing her relative lack of sophistication and education compared to them, like mistaking Sula for "Sulu".)
• Beware the Nice Ones: Heidi is always sweet and always determined to make her son proud, but becomes livid when she discovers Evan's repeated visits to the Murphys, even though he told her he had been going to Jared's house.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Heidi feeling that the Murphys are pitying her — and treating her as a failure of a parent — is what brings the conflict to a head in Act 2, with her storming out of their house after they offer to give Evan Connor's college fund.
• Good Parents: Despite her insecurity about being a good mother, she's very loving and supportive towards Evan.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Heidi, played by Rachel Bay Jones, is blonde and has a big heart.
• Parents as People: She loves Evan dearly, but is stretched way too thin and often fails to connect with him. But she tries. Oh, how she tries.
• Struggling Single Mother: After her husband left, she acknowledged that there were aspects of parenting she couldn't fulfill that a father could. She's overworked with her two jobs and struggles to connect with her son.

Connor Murphy

Connor Murphy

"You think I'm a freak? I'm not the freak! YOU'RE THE FUCKING FREAK!"

Portrayed by: Mike Faist (2015-2018), Alex Boniello (2018-2020), David Jeffrey (2020-2022), Colton Ryan (film)

Connor: So. What happened to your arm?
Evan: Oh. I, um, I fell out of a tree actually.
Connor: You fell out of a tree? That is the saddest fucking thing I've ever heard. Oh my God.

A high school senior. Connor is a social outcast, much like Evan, though his volatile temper and grim nature have left him more feared than ignored. His suicide sets off the chain of events in the play. His role is given much more expansion in the novel, as he is Barred from the Afterlife until he not only realizes how bad he was but also saves someone from committing suicide like he did.

---

• Ascending to a Higher Plane of Existence: The last line of his narration of the novel "I make my exit" implies he moved on to the afterlife.
• Big Brother Bully: He would lash out at his sister, even threatening to kill her, and snap at their parents.
• Big Brother Instinct: Even though he and Zoe clearly hate each other, he goes ballistic when he thinks that Evan was using her.
• The Bully: He's not well-liked or popular at school, but he still takes the opportunity to persecute other people when he gets the chance, going after easy targets like Evan or, tragically, his own sister.
• Chekhov's Gun: Gets the plot going, first by signing Evan's cast, then, after assuming it's a sick joke on Connor himself, by taking Evan's negative "confidence building" letter. Both these plot points combined lead to Connor's parents believing that Evan was his friend after Connor is Driven to Suicide.
• Disappointing Older Sibling: Due to the impact his drug use, violence, and later suicide has on their family, Zoe’s solos in “Requiem” show her refusing to mourn Connor’s death.
• Driven to Suicide: His death kickstarts the plot.
• Early Personality Signs: Connor has been short-tempered and violent since he was a kid. In elementary school, he once threw a printer at his second grade teacher because he wasn't made the line leader.
• Friendless Background: The sole (arguably) kind thing he does before his death is bond over his and Evan's shared lack of friends by signing Evan's cast, saying that that way, "....we can both pretend we have friends."
  • The fact that Connor apparently genuinely had no friends — which is why there's no real friends who come forward to contest Evan's story that he was Connor's best friend, even after his story goes nationally viral — was a major plot point and source of Angst in the original musical, which is why the character of Miguel, who directly contradicts this, was such a controversial addition to the novelization.
• Heel Realization: He has one of these in the novel upon realizing what a jerk he was in life.
• Hidden Depths: In the last scene, we find out that while most students made a collage of their friends in the school yearbook, Connor instead made a list of his favorite books. (The novelization took this and ran with it, see Wicked Cultured.)
  • In the film, not only do we see that he made a list of his favorite books, but also what books. In addition, we see that Connor was legitimately trying to do better, and he even wrote a song about his attempts at recovery.
• Impersonation-Exclusive Character: With him dying early on in the play, we don't get to learn about the real Connor. The only version we know of him is the one fabricated by Evan.
• Jerkass: Is angry, bitter, and deeply paranoid. In the novel, he gets better.
• Living Prop: Completely intentionally. Connor sets the entire plot in motion by stealing Evan's letter and then killing himself and ultimately everything Evan, Jared, and Alana do throughout the musical is done in his name - and yet, by the end of the show, we know absolutely nothing meaningful about him. The other characters spend so much time making his death about themselves that the only version of him we actually "know" is Evan's fabricated version.
• The Paranoiac: A very earnestly played version of this trope. He's filled with bursts of rage and fear that other people are persecuting him that drive him to irrational violence. In particular, he seems to think Evan is out to mock him and make him look bad, initially shoving him to the ground for thinking he was laughing at Jared's joke about him, then later spinning out some insane theory about how Evan's "creepy letter" about his sister was deliberately planted for him to see to goad him into getting into trouble.
• Pet the Dog: Connor gets one genuine moment of kindness before he dies, when, apparently apologetic for shoving Evan earlier in the day, he offers to sign Evan's cast "so we can pretend we both have friends". This sets off the chain of events that leads to the entire rest of the play.
• Taking the Heat: In the novelization, Connor's Start of Darkness is the result of this — he covers for his friend Miguel when teachers find pot in his locker, causing him to be expelled from his fancy private school, forced to attend rehab and completely derailing his life and beginning his actual history with drug addiction.
• Talking Down the Suicidal: In the novel, while no one does this for him, he does this for Evan.
• Tomato in the Mirror: The book shows his perspective as a ghost and he doesn't realize he's dead until he sees his corpse lying in the hospital bed.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: In the novel, when Evan finally meets Miguel, Miguel says the one word he would use describe Connor is "innocent", too innocent — in direct contrast to how pretty much everyone else sees him.
• Troubled Abuser: Connor is pretty much the textbook example of this trope, although we never find out exactly why he was so troubled. (The novelization goes into more detail on this.)
• Unreliable Narrator: In the novel he's surprised by Zoe's claims that he would scream that he was going to kill her. That said, it's unclear if Zoe was the one being the Unreliable Narrator or if Connor's just downplaying his actions to himself. The fact that novel has him acknowledge some of his more violent actions in life (such as throwing a printer at his teacher in elementary school) kind of suggests the latter.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: When Mrs. Murphy starts reaching for happy memories of Connor, she has to go all the way back to his early childhood, when the family used to picnic at the Autumn's Smile apple orchard. It sounds like this is also the last time Zoe remembers having a happy relationship with him.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Intentionally evoked trope. For those who come in unspoiled on the plot of the show, Connor's death two scenes into the show after being introduced as a major character and Evan's Foil is a massive twist. We then go on to never see him again or learn anything substantial whatsoever about his life, with him replaced by Imaginary Connor, who openly lampshades he's based entirely on Evan's uninformed lies.
• Wicked Cultured: One of the main ways the novelization fleshes out Connor's character is having him be the most erudite character, constantly referencing various writers and philosophers to justify his dark view of life (especially Friedrich Nietzsche).

Imaginary Connor Murphy

"You can get rid of me whenever you want. You can get rid of all of it. The Connor Project. The orchard. But then all you're going to be left with... is you."

Portrayed by: Mike Faist (2015-2018), Alex Boniello (2018-2020), David Jeffrey (2020-2022)

♫ If you can somehow keep them thinking of me,
And make me more than an abandoned memory...
Well, that means we matter too.
It means someone will see that you are there. ♫

— "Disappear"

This imaginary version of Connor takes center stage after the real one commits suicide, and is a mouthpiece for the feelings that Evan Hansen believes that he himself cannot admit or articulate on his own.

---

• Aloof Big Brother: To Zoe, as detailed in "If I Could Tell Her," as a cover for Evan's own romantic feelings towards her.
• Ambiguously Gay: Thanks to Jared insistently throwing in jokes about Evan and Connor being lovers into the emails. But, as Jared points out, the whole idea of a secret friendship Connor refuses to let anyone else know about objectively makes way more sense if they were gay and Connor was in the closet.
• Behind the Black: A literal example — Connor's actor quietly sneaks onto the darkened stage during Evan, Jared and Alana's virtual conversation (represented by tight spotlights on their actor) so that when the lights come up on Evan's room and we get The Reveal of Imaginary Connor he's just standing there like he's been there all along.
• The Corrupter: In hindsight, Imaginary Connor comes off as this, despite him being the "good version" of Connor — it depends on your interpretation of Evan's actions, but he's consistently the voice persuading Evan to continue his lies and justifying them by convincing Evan they're not for his own sake but to keep Connor's memory alive.
• Dead Person Conversation: Evan, Jared, and the Murphys use him as a sounding board.
• Imaginary Friend: To Evan.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Mike Faist's original portrayal of Connor had shoulder-length hair, which came off as him being a Delinquent who was just too lazy to cut it as Real Connor, but transforms into this trope when he's the peppy upbeat Imaginary Connor. The fandom shippers latched hard onto this.
• Motivational Lie: Is one to the entire cast, including Evan.
• Only Friend: To Evan.
• Spirit Advisor: To Evan.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: His personality, influenced by Evan's own Shrinking Violet tendencies and the few interactions Evan has with the real Connor.
• Surrogate Soliloquy: Is aware of his nature as an imaginary friend, but offers a sympathetic ear anyway.
• Tenor Boy: Connor's actor is cast to sing in a much more traditional Tenor Boy voice than Evan, which is a hilarious contrast with the real Connor when we hear him singing in "Sincerely, Me" for the first time and plays into his being Ambiguously Gay.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Motivates Evan to continue with his lies.
• True Companions: The one fact Evan refuses to waver on in his portrayal of his and Connor's relationship is this — Connor was always there for him and would never, ever abandon him.
• Yandere: The fact that the only time Zoe saw Connor and Evan interacting was Connor violently pushing him, combined with Evan's insistence that they were True Companions, makes him come off as this, and makes her start to think Evan may have been a victim of abuse like she was (expanded on greatly in the novelization).
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Convinces Evan that both Evan and the real Connor deserve recognition, acknowledgement and love, so that a tragedy like the one that befell Connor and nearly, Evan will never have to happen again.

Zoe Murphy

"My entire life, everything has always been about Connor. And right now, I just want... I need something that's just for me, okay?

Portrayed by: Laura Dreyfuss (2015-2018), Olivia Puckett (2018), Mallory Bechtel (2018-2019), Gabrielle Carrubba (2019-2022), Kaitlyn Dever (film)

♫ I don't need more reminders of all that's been broken.
I don't need you to fix what I'd rather forget.
Clear the slate and start over,
Try to quiet the noises in your head-
We can't compete with all that. ♫

— "Only Us"

Connor's younger sister and Evan's longtime crush. She was never close to Connor, hated him even, but wishes she had known him better and turns to Evan after he lies and says he was friends with Connor.

---

• Amicable Exes: With Evan after the truth comes out.
• Cain and Abel: Zoe has suffered greatly from being the "good sibling" compared to her brother.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: Refers to Larry by his name in the film despite him raising her since she was a toddler, since he's now her good stepfather rather than biological father.
• Deadpan Snarker: She is one throughout the musical, like when she describes her mother's fad-jumping in two simple sentences:
  "That's just what happens when you're rich and you don't have a job. You go crazy."
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Zoe is not happy when people from her school offer their condolences for her brother's passing.
  "Just because Connor isn't here, trying to punch through my door- screaming at the top of his lungs that he's going to kill me for no reason- THAT DOESN'T MEAN THAT, ALL OF A SUDDEN, WE'RE THE FUCKING BRADY BUNCH."
• Obliviously Beautiful: The way Evan sees her, according to "If I Could Tell Her".
• Singer-Songwriter: Zoe's two songs she takes lead in, "Requiem" and "Only Us", are in the style of '00s female singer-songwriters like Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton, which is according to Word of God the kind of music she listens to. The novelization takes it further, where Zoe actually is a singer-songwriter, and these songs were composed and performed by her in-universe.
• Stuck in Their Shadow: A dark version of this trope — Zoe feels like she's never been noticed by anyone, not because her brother is so much better than her but so much worse, that her life is irrelevant compared to the problems he's caused for everyone.
• Uptown Girl: Coming from a wealthier family, Zoe counts as this for Evan.

Cynthia Murphy

"This is all we have! This is the only thing we have left!"

Portrayed by: Jennifer Laura Thompson (2015-2019), Ann Sanders (2019), Christiane Noll (2019-2022), Amy Adams (film)

♫ Another masterful attempt ends with disaster.
Pour another cup of coffee,
And watch it all crash and burn.
It's a puzzle,
It's a maze.
I try to steer through it a million ways.
But each day’s another wrong turn. ♫

— "Anybody Have a Map?"

Connor and Zoe's stay-at-home mother. She is constantly trying to keep her fragile family from falling apart, but is often unsuccessful. She clings to the memory of Connor, mourning not only his death, but her fading relationship with him as he grew older and his illnesses and addictions intensified. Her relationship with Larry and Zoe suffers because of it.

---

• Doting Parent: She's frantically insistent on trying to see the best in Connor, especially after he dies. Both Larry and Zoe accuse her of making his problems worse by being in denial about his behavior and constantly coddling him.
• Idle Rich: Zoe sees her this way, jumping from fad to fad to stave off boredom.
• Parents as People: She loves her kids a lot, and is devastated when Connor dies, and regrets how she failed to help him when he was alive.
• Slave to PR: Much of the dialogue implies that Cynthia was fixated on her family's image to a fault.

Larry Murphy

"Shaving cream. Rubber bands. Mattress. Repeat. Got it?"

Portrayed by: Michael Park (2015-2019), John Dossett (2016), Ivan Hernandez (2019-2022), Danny Pino (film)

♫ Even when everyone around you thinks you're crazy,
Even when everyone around you lets things go-
Whether you're prepping for some test,
Or you're miles from some goal,
Or you're just trying to do what's best,
For a kid who's lost control,
You do the hard thing-
'Cause that's the right thing,
Yeah, that's the right thing. ♫

— "To Break in a Glove"

Connor and Zoe's busy father, a lawyer. He works hard to give his family a relatively easy life, but he is emotionally distant from all three of them. He becomes close with Evan, who never had a strong father figure, and begins to see Evan as the son Connor never was.

---

• Adaptation Name Change: In the film the character is credited as Larry Mora rather than Larry Murphy, to represent the character's Race Lift and stepfather relationship.
• Breaking Speech: Evan's speech in "You Will Be Found" is this for him, in a positive way — after weeks of steadfastly resisting to show any emotion over Connor's death, Evan's heartfelt tribute to his son finally breaks him, and he collapses into sobbing and embraces his wife, finally opening up to her and saving their marriage.
• Death Glare: After Evan finally confesses to the Murphys his lie, all Larry can do is angrily do this, before walking away.
• Good Stepmother: Good stepfather in the film version. Although his relationship with Connor is still in the pits, Zoe recounts that he "fixed everything" after her biological father died and tells Evan that Larry is the only father she's ever known.
• Race Lift: The original character was played by white men, representing the Murphy family's suburban Nuclear Family ideal. In the film he's visibly a person of color (played by a Cuban-American actor) and made the Murphy siblings' stepfather.
• Related Differently in the Adaptation: The film adaptation makes him Connor and Zoe's stepfather rather than biological father. This adds an extra layer of distance to his already turbulent relationship with Connor, since Cynthia accuses him of letting the fact that Connor wasn't his biological son strain their relationship.
• Resentful Guardian: Larry clearly resents Connor for the impact his drug use, volatile moods, and later suicide has on their family.
• The Stoic: He didn't cry at Connor's funeral, and refuses to let out his grief for his deceased son to Cynthia, when she tried to get him to read the fake emails.
• Tough Love: The theme of "To Break In A Glove"; he didn't show much affection to Connor while he was alive, and it's only via the metaphor of the baseball glove that he's able to tell Evan this was the only way he knew to be a good father to him. Befitting the stereotype of dads vs. moms, he's a major contrast to his wife this way — when Zoe seems to take his side in his fight with Cynthia, she then turns on him suddenly and snaps that him treating his own son as a criminal doesn't make him any better.
• Tranquil Fury: When Evan reveals his lie, all he can do is muster up a Death Glare at Evan and then quietly turn away and leave. The novel adds him telling Evan to “please leave”; Evan notes that it’s the “please” that hurts more than anything else.
• Why Are You Not My Son?: Starts to wish the nicer Evan was his son compared to the volatile and unpleasant Connor.

Jared Kleinman

"Don't contradict. And don’t make shit up. It's foolproof. Literally nothing I tell my parents is true and they have no idea."

Portrayed by: Will Roland (2015-2018), Sky Lakota-Lynch (2018-2019), Jared B. Goldsmith (2019-2022), Nik Dodani (film)

Jared: I can do emails.
Evan: How?
Jared: It’s easy. You make up an account, backdate the emails. There’s a reason I was the only CIT with key card access to the computer cluster this summer: I have skills, son.

One of Evan's classmates; he is the closest thing Evan has ever had to a friend. The son of a family friend of the Hansens, he initially claims he only talks to Evan so that his parents will pay for his car insurance. Evan enlists his help in crafting fake emails from Connor, and slowly becomes a true friend to him.

---

• Adaptation Name Change: In the film, his surname is changed to Kalwani to match his Race Lift.
• Ambiguously Gay: While he claims that he is interested in girls and even claims he "got to second-base-below-the-bra with this girl from Israel who's going to be in the army," he often acts weirdly around the subject of homosexuality. He acts as a Shipper on Deck in regards to Evan and Connor and makes numerous jokes about the subject. There is also the argument that many of his actions and reactions indicate a crush on Evan, but that is never confirmed one way or another. Although Will Roland's playlist for him does leave Evan/Jared shippers hopeful. The film drops all ambiguity when he outright states that he's hooked up with a guy during the opening scene.
• Establishing Character Moment: His first line is a crude joke mocking Evan's injured arm. He then proceeds to act obnoxious and continue mocking Evan, albeit in an affable and familiar way that his target doesn't get too offended by. This then gives the audience the impression the two may be Vitriolic Best Buds, a notion Jared dispels when he rejects Evan labeling them as friends, insisting they're only "family friends" and he just interacts with Evan to please his parents. All this establishes Jared's main role; acting like a Jerkass Plucky Comic Relief.
• Geek Physiques: The actors playing Jared have either been mildly chubby, like Will Roland, or stick-thin, like Sky Lakota-Lynch. (Roland has joked about how the fanart of his character imagines him as the latter despite him having a prominent belly in the tight T-shirt he was put in by the costume department.) The description of Jared in the novelization says he is, in fact, pretty overweight and more sensitive about it than he admits, and Evan is shocked by how much more fit he is when he meets up with him after the Time Skip in the ending (leading to the joke that he's joined the Army).
• Girlfriend in Canada: He keeps talking about an Israeli girlfriend whom he met at camp.
• Hypocrite: He calls Evan out for only talking to him when he needs help with lying to the Murphys... apparently forgetting all about the times he reminded Evan he only talks to him so his parents will pay for his car insurance. (It's implied later that this isn't really the only reason why, but it's still a hell of a mean thing to say.)
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: It's heavily implied that the reason why he's so gregarious in his personality is that he's deliberately covering up his massive self esteem issues, and that his friendship with Evan is really the only one that he truly has. The script outright confirms this, saying that he first enters with "a practiced swagger that only the deeply insecure can pull off".
• Jerkass: While there's hints of depth and sympathy, for the most part, Jared is a pretty big asshole.
• Jewish and Nerdy: Evidently Jewish (mentions reaching second base with a girl about to enter the IDF; invites Evan over to drink some wine that "hasn't been touched since Rosh Hashanah 1997") and also an IT whiz.
• Only Friend: Evan's stories say Connor was this to him, but Jared is actually Evan's only friend, despite the fact that their friendship isn't that emotionally close and involves a lot of put-downs and teasing from Jared (including the Insistent Terminology that they're only "family friends", because their moms are friends). Jared's slow-burning jealousy over this fact comes to a head with "Good For You".
• Plucky Comic Relief: He is the much needed source of comic relief during the show.
• Race Lift: The role of Jared was originated by white actor Will Roland, and the character is depicted as Jewish. In the film, he's played by Indian-American Nik Dodani, with his surname changed to Kalwani to match.
• Shipper on Deck: He frequently implies that Evan made himself sound like lovers with Connor and makes many jokes about it when helping Evan write the fake emails between himself and Connor
• Sad Clown: He constantly makes jokes, often at inappropriate times or about inappropriate things, but this comes off as more of a protection method than a sense of humor. Word of Saint Paul compares him to Will Roland's own tendencies as a kid to use (sometimes mean spirited) humor as a protection method.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Cusses frequently throughout the play. He even has an Atomic F-Bomb at one point.
  Jared: Fuck you, Evan! ASSHOLE!!
• Tsundere: While not necessarily in a romantic way and not in a physical sense, Jared tends to switch between being rather mean to Evan and earnestly supportive of him. He also frequently denies that he is actually friends with Evan, but later refers to himself when he tells Evan to remember who his friends are.
• Waxing Lyrical: In the novel, he suggests one of the emails say "They tried to make me go to rehab but I said no, no, no".
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He and Evan have a falling-out three-quarters of the way into the show. Jared is never seen after this point, leaving it ambiguous if they ever patched things up. They do in the movie, as seen when their mothers take a graduation picture of them.

Alana Beck

"If Connor meant something to you, please re-tweet. Or private message me if you just want to talk. At times like these, we could all use a friend."

Portrayed by: Alexis Molnar (2015), Kristolyn Lloyd (2016-2018), Phoenix Best (2018-2019), Samantha Williams (2019), Phoebe Koyabe (2019-2022), Amandla Stenberg (film)

Alana: Hey. How was your summer?
Evan: My...?
Alana: Mine was productive. I did the three internships and 90 hours of community service. I know: wow.

Evan's precocious and sometimes insufferable classmate. She is constantly looking for academic and extracurricular activities to boost her college résumé. She never knew Connor, but is greatly affected by his death and quickly joins Evan in founding the Connor Project in order to keep Connor's memory alive.

---

• Ascended Extra: Without a doubt the least prominent and developed role in the original show, it's been announced that her role will be built up a bit more in the movie, with Alana getting her own song.
• Black and Nerdy: Alana, played by Kristolyn Lloyd in the original Broadway production, goes above and beyond in her academic ambitions.
• Flat Character: Compared to all the other members of the main cast, Alana really doesn't reveal much about her character through the play and seems to mostly be a device to get the Connor Project established. But see Foil below — her apparent flatness seems to be a commentary on how Evan was so obsessed with his lying narrative about his friendship with Connor he never bothered to reach out to his real friends who are right next to him. This, however, is not the case in the film.
• Foil: In Act Two, she is revealed to be one to Connor. The two know what it's like to be unnoticed by anyone. However, Connor uses his anger to drive people away from him, while Alana conceals her friendless background with her overall cheeriness.
  Evan: Why are you so obsessed with this? I mean, you didn't even know [Connor].
  Alana: Because it's important.
  Evan: Because you were lab partners? Or because, I don't know, maybe because you want another extracurricular for your college applications?
  Alana: Because I know what it's like to feel invisible! Just like Connor! To feel invisible and alone and like nobody would even notice if you vanished into thin air! I bet you used to know what that felt like, too!
  • Also one to Evan: she spends most of the play exaggerating how close she and Connor were, but unlike Evan she never deviates from facts; instead she just puts her own spin on them ("We were acquaintances. Close acquaintances! He was in my chemistry class one year!")
• Go-Getter Girl: To the point where Evan accuses her of trying to take advantage of Connor's suicide to bolster her college applications.
• Motor Mouth: In her introductory scene, Alana is going on about her summer and Evan can't get a word in edgewise. It happens again in the first scene of Act Two, when Evan and Alana announce online the Kickstarter campaign for rebuilding the orchard.
• My God, What Have I Done?: The film shows, in a case of Adaptation Deviation, she almost immediately regrets publishing Connor's "suicide note", and takes it down not long after she posts it upon seeing the damage it has caused. This doesn't stop what's happening, however.
• The Sleepless: In the novel, she's always available for video chats and Evan wonders if she even needs to sleep.
• Stepford Smiler: Implied in the play and novel, confirmed in the movie.
• Token Minority: The only person of color in the original cast. Colorblind Casting later came into play, so depending on the cast, this may not be the case.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Alana causes everything to fall apart in Act 2 by publishing the "Dear Evan Hansen" letter to the Internet, turning the Murphys into a target for mass harassment, even as Evan tearfully begged her not to do it. It's a major What the Hell, Hero? moment, since even if she had no way of knowing what would happen this is an enormous violation of Evan's confidence and Connor's privacy. The film has her feeling incredibly conflicted about her decision and she almost instantly regrets it.
• Wham Line: This is how she reveals that she struggles with depression in the film, while it was only implied in the play.
  Alana: What do you take? Okay, I'll go first. I'm on Lexapro, 10 milligrams.