Does Evan Hansen need a blue polo?

A brand-new production of Dear Evan Hansen is waving through windows across the UK on its first-ever tour and today marks five years after performances started in the West End.

Wearing the cast in the title role is Ryan Kopel, who is joined by Lauren Conroy as love interest Zoe. The two sat down to discuss the emotional weight of the story, connecting with their characters, and the changes that have been made in the non-replica show.

“I knew the songs but I didn’t really know a lot about it,” Kopel starts, as it transpires that neither of them saw the original production. “It was the story, the story drew me toward it,” he continues, “I loved the complexity of the plot and the decisions that he makes, which are not always great decisions but weirdly I understood them…”

A self-confessed “people-pleaser”, Kopel says he could empathise with his character; who following the death of a classmate fabricates a friendship and forges relationships with the deceased’s family. “Morally it’s not the right thing to do, but that he was following his instincts is very interesting.”

“Evan is not worlds away from who I was at 17, I was quite anxious and I cared very much about what people thought,” the actor says, and carrying the weight of Evan’s actions requires discipline. “It’s a very vocally demanding role and the physicality of Evan; he lives in a place of tension and it’s not the most comfortable place to spend three hours.”

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It isn’t “too difficult” to prepare to play Evan each night: “I’ve made a playlist for myself and I’ll stop speaking to people, just to get into that sort of world,” he says, “and then after the show it’s vocal rest and cooldowns.” But it can be hard to turn off: “I find I do take it home with me a little bit, I watch a lot of Real Housewives when I go home because I need some mind-numbingly nothing television! It’s about protecting your psyche.”

Being in a new production, both performers credit director Adam Penford for allowing them to “play” with the script and the songs. His decision to add an ensemble – the first time the show has featured one – “fleshes things out,” says Kopel, “it makes you feel like you’re in a world of people.”

But one thing missing from this production is Evan’s signature blue polo shirt. Worn in the Broadway and West End productions and on promotional materials, it has become something of a motif of the show to fans. As we touched on in our review, the absence of the shirt “goes some way to suggest that anybody could find themselves trapped in a web that spirals before their eyes.” It’s something that the duo were shocked to see so widely spoken about online.

You can watch the two discuss the topic and the impact the decision has had on audiences below:

“I didn’t expect to wear the blue polo,” Kopel explains. With the show being non-replica, he assumed the polo was “of a different world.” However, both of the performers understand the iconic association: “It’s like Elphaba not being green!”

He feels, “there’s a power in us not having the blue polo… when you remove the iconography of the character it makes it more accessible. In a way, it could be anyone.”

Conroy adds, “it’s not just Evan Hansen… you get to look at it fresh as well and maybe get something different out of it, which is a good drama, good writing.”

Tickets to the Dear Evan Hansen tour at select venues are available below.