Discover Top Posts Tagged with #zoe murphy

“Dear Evan Hansen” at Paramount Theatre is a heartfelt, Tony-winning musical about Evan (played by Cody Combs), a lonely high schooler with severe social anxiety whose daily therapeutic letters to himself spark an initially well‑intended lie that spirals out of control when the unexpected happens; Evan gets thrust into viral attention after a classmate’s death forcing him to confront truth, responsibility, and the universal need to feel seen and accepted. Also joining the conversation in their Paramount debuts are Isabel Kaegi (playing Zoe Murphy), Pablo David Laucerica (returning to the role of Jared Kleinman) and the director Jessica Fisch.

—————

Isabel, let’s, let’s come to you and talk about Zoe. Your character is so complex. So Cody told us a bit about the play. Oh, I guess I also said, Pablo is the best family friend. We’ll come back, but, but for you, your character undergoes this incredible metamorphosis. Cody is not exactly who we’d fix you up with at the beginning of the show. So, talk about Isabel’s character, and what, what change she goes through that leads her to find Cody somebody she’s more interested in, given the fact that we’re not talking about the plot point that brings you together. KAEGI: Yeah. Okay. So, I don’t know. I… Zoe… I have always thought — this is going to sound so weird, and Jess and I have talked about this, but — I’ve always thought of her as, like, an egg. Like, you have to, like, chip, like a hardboiled, like you got to just, like, chip away […] I feel like it’s hard for her to open up, um, to anybody. So, the fact — without trying to spoil the plot, the fact that she even, like, lets Evan in even a little bit, um, you kind of see her throughout the show, um, you see her the first time, especially in Requiem, she is just, like, completely guarded. And then as the show goes, you chip, chip, chip, chip, like, just a little bit, and then, um, by the end of this show, you can just see her again just, concave back into herself. I don’t know, it’s been interesting to, like, kind of navigate her path and then also, like, grow with it as the run has gone on, like…

Yeah, because you, right, everything’s kind of, has to change as you go on. I’m gonna actually come back to you, Pablo, for just a moment, because I feel as though you’re playing Jared a bit differently than I did the first time around. This may be because of Jess’s direction. What I’m noticing, and then — but you know, I’m wrong, maybe I’m wrong — uh, but what I’m noticing is that Jared has, has his own issues, and I’m reading those issues more strongly now in this production than I’ve read it before. Before you were the, you know, sidekick, whatever you want to call it, whatever for Cody — not for Cody, but for Evan — and doing what you did. This time around, in this production, I’m connecting with Jared’s having not dissimilar issues to what Evan’s going through. Am I crazy, or do you feel that change in how you’re portraying it? LAUCERICA: You’re not crazy at all. I definitely notice it. I, I attribute it a lot to the way that Jess was able to work on these characters. And again, it’s like one of those things where, Jess was able to both modernize the show and also really focus on the interpersonal dynamics. So when we were doing scene work, obviously it was kind of a last, you know, not a last minute thing, but I joined later in the run, in, not the run itself, but rehearsals. Um, where it, I could attribute most, a lot of things. One, you know, after tak-, taking a pause from the character and coming back to it, it’s definitely refreshing with a new director, and a director that’s willing to, like, hear me out and be like, “This isn’t a version that is set and has been done the same way, although tried and tested for a long time. This is a version that we are making together. So, let’s really focus on what Cody does as Evan that, um, instigates a reaction out of my Jared and what works and stems from that.” So, it’s definitely, there’s a progression there.

—————

You talked about social media, media, Jess and all that, and that’s pretty powerful. Um, and, and Pablo, a good person to come back to, because as you know, Broadway and the national tour, to talk about what the set was in that show when it came to social media, from when you first walked into the theater, you got blasted by screens and all this kind of stuff that never went away. […] Here, th-, we have the social media, it’s there, the screens, it’s not that we’re not getting it, we do, but it is different. You’ve played them both. You, I think you may be the only person here that, that knows exactly what I’m talking about. What is the impact on the show, if any, to that — um, I’ll call it a reduction, but maybe it’s really a modification of the presence of social media. LAUCERICA: I think what we’ve been focusing on here, and Jess can correct me if I’m wrong, is the way that social media and technology in general affects us, is something that is omnipresent. And I think the show, the original production at the time, was… was definitely a very large theatricalization of that. They’re like, let’s just make it a blackbox theater, and have, like, blasting social media posts all over the place. Whereas this, it looks like a school, or it looks like a home. And, but, that looming presence of social media is always there. And whenever I’m ons- — I mean, you remember seeing the show Saturday. Uh, whenever I come in for those web chat scenes, I’m playing a video game. And the — it’s not as simple as just Facebook posts, because we’ve evolved past that. It’s something that is, yes, a minimization, but one is, I think — and it does us justice, as you’ve said — um, focuses on the characters themselves and lets us act with each other. And then whenever those social media moments come in, it’s flooding in. It hits you in a way where it’s like, “Oh, the Internet is in this space.” It, we’re, we’re trying to live our lives, we’re trying to be in the apple orchard, but then the Internet comes in. Those things.

—————

Uh, Pablo, the song Sincerely, Me, um, which is another one it’s tough to get out of your head and all that, but I’m sort of curious, during rehearsals or whatever, in all the time you’ve been with the show, there — did you ever screw around and, like, say lines that aren’t lines in the song, just because they’re so…? [LAUCERICA: Paul…] I could just, I could just see somebody kidding around with that and saying things that aren’t even in the script for fun. LAUCERICA: Oh, I mean, for sure. I mean, listen, I’m gonna — a little behind the scenes moment here. [Please.] Uh, I mess with Cody every night. Like, on stage. Like we, this was, this was true both of the tour and of this version. The, the computer that we are typing on is a working computer with a, like, active Word file that we’re always adding to. [Really!] Um, so, uh, I will just type messages, like, you know, sometimes I don’t see Cody before half hour. So the first time I see him is, like, when we’re both in character. So then I’m typing and I’m like, “Hey man, you’re doing great.” Like, you know, stuff like that. But, uh, other than that, I mean, I definitely — like, two nights ago, especially, I don’t know why, I was feeling very ad libby. So like, I added, like, a word or two to, like, every single line in that scene, which I apologize to Cody for, I was a bad scene partner.

—————

Well, and that, you know, Jess, that was one question — and my partner talked about that with me. He was sort of, you know, he was sort of saying, you know, the notion of Evan Hansen, when you think about it, this character who is lying, uh, and yet we feel for him, we feel sympathy for him, whatever. Did you as a director have a conflict, just an internal conflict, with, “How do I present this character who, we could argue he’s not a good guy and all that, at the same time you feel for him?” Um, yeah, how did you, how did, how did you address that as a director? FISCH: I mean, I think there’s, like, a long tradition in, in the theater — I mean going back to Greek theater — where, like, we have heroes who make tragic mistakes. I think that that is how we, as a community, learn to be better. I think that we want complicated protagonists. We want people who, we understand why they fall. And so I, I think that part of what we talked a lot about in rehearsal is, is re- — I mean, honestly, I think that many of the people that fail Evan Hansen in this process are the grown-ups. You know, there are many moments that he tries to assert that he is lying. He tries to explain the situation. And people imprint onto him what they need. And so I, I don’t actually, I think part of what we’ve really tried to do is, like, I do not think that the blame lies entirely with him. I think there is a lot of need amongst these group of people. Alana, Zoe, all of the grown-ups, Jared, they all need, I mean, Connor, they need him. And, um, and Evan, um, obviously is looking for something, and they offer it to him, and he takes it. And so I, I think that’s what makes the play complicated, and I think that complicated plays lead to people feeling things. And so I, I, I think it’s like, I don’t have any guilt about it. I think — I watch The Traitors, so I think that the more complicated the, the, the protagonist, the better.

—————

And Isabel, I just want to ask you, because, so, the character of Evan — preserving secrecy, but — the character of Evan comes into your life, into your family. So let’s forget about your relationship with him. How does, what — Isabel, talk about Isabel’s sort of rel-, change, modifications dealing with the fact that this guy who is the dork, whatever he is in school to her, is around the house a lot, this modification in your relationship. It’s also about the fact that he’s, he’s entering the family unit. And of course, it’s on a lie, but it, he enters the family unit. How does Isabel address that? KAEGI: Yeah. Um, so a lot of what we talked about in rehearsals is that, like, Zoe’s a glass child of sorts, like, um, obviously not to, like, disability, but definitely to mental illness. Um, I feel like a lot of the time she had to be her own, um, emotional barometer, because her parents weren’t there for her. Um, so I think that, like Jess was saying, a lot of what Zoe has felt this entire time that has bottled up now and has been let out with the death of her brother has, is put on Evan. Like, she’s like, I haven’t had somebody to relate to this whole time. Um, so I guess how I gauged it was, yeah, kind of just thinking about that. I, like… yeah, I don’t know. I, I, I feel like my version of Zoe is, is also very me. Like, kind of like Cody was saying, like, I haven’t really watched any productions of the show, minus probably the same exact bootleg that Cody watched years ago, the really blurry one. Um, but yeah, so I, I really tried to make Zoe my own. And also, I feel like it’s so easy to let her just shut down and be so guarded. So, I really wanted to make sure that there was life in her, um…

And, and you do that. And Pablo — I’m going to wrap with you guys in just a moment, I just want to ask you, Pablo — if you, Pablo, were a counselor to Jared, because as I, as I told you, I, you know, the, what I saw from you was different, in sort of, the Jared role. What advice would you have for Jared, in, in, in, for his life? How he’s handling Evan, but his own things? What — if he came to you and said, “Help me in life,” what would you say to him? What would Pablo say to him? LAUCERICA: What would I say? God. Oh, my God. Um… [You went to Northwestern. You can handle this.] Come on, yeah, right, I’m smart. Um, no, like — you know, I, I think the thing that I’ve especially noticed with this production is, like, if I were to say something to, especially this version of Jared, I’d say, like, “Your relationship with people can be easier than you think it is.” Um, and he is somebody who thinks things need to be an extreme. He needs to either be making fun of somebody and putting them down, or, you know, him bragging about hooking up with people in his, in, on his camp trip from last summer. Like, he — or video games, like, he’s obviously using video games to escape reality, or desensitize himself from some certain overstimulation. Like, I would tell him, like, just the basic of it is, ease up, just relax. But more than that, it would, I would say, like, “You can settle into a conversation more. You don’t need to feel such extremes in every single conversation.” You know, which I think is very prominent right now. I think I will attribute Jess, like, and her direction of this show, setting it in the modern day, and focusing on all the characters especially, cuz all the characters are really just, Evan is just a vessel for all of these characters to, like, explore their characterization. I think Jared’s is one of overstimulation and expecting extremism all the time, and social… By the way, did you bring those one, act one pants from the national tour with you? LAUCERICA: No, but they nailed it. Like, it’s crazy. Like, they… [You know what I’m talking about. It’s like, it’s insane.] The pants. [Yeah.] But like, they added jorts, which I love. I love the, the, the jean shorts. So… [Okay. So you —] So we’re there.

Um, and I, I’m going to have a similar question for you, Cody, as we wrap it. I, Jess, this is something that has been on my mind, is the way I was seeing Cody’s portrayal of this, and, and I, I hope it’s an appropriate question, but it’s almost as though Evan — is Evan intended to be, or given the opportunity to be, appear as though he might just be on the spectrum? I, that’s a sense I got from Evan. [FISCH: Mm. We, um —] And I say that because it’s an interesting question for all that people deal with in life today. I think it’s, it’s fantastic if it is. Or maybe Cody, you can answer that. COMBS: No, I, um… I think Jess can speak more on this, but I, I actually remember in one of our very first rehearsals, we talked about Evan, and, um, what might be different about him, and we kind of came to the conclusion that he is simply different. Um, he’s clearly neurodivergent, uh, in some fashion, but it’s, I think, I mean, they never once — it’s funny, because it’s always, like, plastered like, “Oh, he has, he has anxiety,” but it’s never once directly stated that he’s, has anxiety, it’s kind of intentionally ambiguous. So, it’s like, we kind of decided on our own. And Jess, you may add to that, um, as much as you feel. And that’s why I asked the question too, Jess, because I mean, I didn’t know if it was a directed thing or not. FISCH: I mean, I, you know, I don’t, like — my feeling, what we talked about in rehearsal, I think is right, is that like, to me, Evan feels like a neurodivergent person, a person whose challenge is, in part, his inability to navigate certain social situations and to pick up on the cues in the room. And I think that that, that, to me, just opened up a lot of that scene work, um, and gave us a path to understand, you know, that this was not a malicious choice on his end, and I think you always want to find a way for people to play the positive in a scene. Um, you know, we’re not in the business of diagnosing Evan. And I think part of it is that, like, that is the job of the audience, is to try to understand who this person is, and, and what they need. Um, but I think that, you know, I think a lot of parents who come to see the play will recognize relationships they’re having with their own children now. I think a lot of young people will, will see themselves, see all of these kids as mirrors to themselves. And I, I think that, that was just, like, entirely coming from a place of, like, wanting the play to be a mirror to the moment we’re in right now.

Yeah. Mirror. Oh, that’s a good sign. [FISCH: Lots of mirrors on the set.] Lots of mirrors going on. And finally, Cody, I will ask you, if you, like I asked Pablo, if you could give Evan some advice. I’m gonna — two parts to this question. When would you give it to him, and what would you say? I mean, at what point would you, would you say, “Let me talk to him on the park bench.” Or would it be, “No, I want to talk to him before all this gets underway.” What, when would you speak to him and what advice would you give him? FISCH: His mom tries. Let’s just be clear. His mom tries. COMBS: Yes. Yes. I would tell him, “Do not go to school on the first day of class, to avoid all this.” I’m just kidding. But, um, he, I would tell Evan… Oh, wait. I don’t know when I would tell him. Let me think. I would… I think he would need to go through what he went through. I think that was so necessary for him. Um, so I think I would tell him at the end of the show what his mom told him, but I, like, the year, at the very end of the show it fast forwards a year. I would tell him after that year, like, it, I mean, “Things will change, things will be different, things will get better. Um, you just have to keep going.” And Isabel, for Zoe. [KAEGI: Yeah.] Is Zoe okay when all this is, in, in the future? Is Zoe going to be okay? KAEGI: I think she’s okay. I think that she went — this is another thing we talked about. I think she went through a lot of therapy in the one year that, from when we saw her to when we see her in the last scene. Um, I think she’s going to be okay. I think she’s learned a lot from this.

#zoe murphy

Trending Tags

Recently Viewed Tags

#zoe murphy