In the last entry in this series, we looked at the hardships of the mothers and how Heidi and Cynthia are the most heartbreaking characters. Today, however, we are looking at the two characters in this musical that I can't stand, the fathers. Now, this is interesting in that one of these characters is an off-stage character and is never seen but his presence is felt throughout the whole show. Let's start with the father that is onstage, Larry Murphy.
You'll notice that this entry is titled the Absence of the Fathers and here's the thing, a person does not have to be physically absent from one's life to be absent and that is the impression that I got from both of these fathers. Let's look at how Larry addresses his son during the opening number, Anybody Have a Map.
He doesn't listen. Look at him, he's probably high.
Hmm, I get the disdain as Connor was never the easiest kid to live with but this gives the impression that Larry would rather shrug his son's problems because he can't connect to him. Consider a quote I used from Mike Faist in Connor's entry.
I believe Connor is someone that is filled with a lot of emotions but doesn't know how to express them.
I understand that not all parents may not be able to understand how to reach out if someone in need of help is keeping their emotions bottled up but if we don't make the attempt, things could get worse. And I'm sorry but Larry seems to have shrugged it off and placed the blame of Connor's suicide onto his son. According to the first paragraph on the entry for Larry's character in Through The Window, this is stated.
The cold, stern, stoic-to-a-fault patriarch in Dear Evan Hansen deals with his son's suicide by burying his grief beneath an armor of anger and resentment.
Okay, that is one-hundred percent fair but as the story continues, things with him really get irksome. Let's take a look at what is perhaps the most important song for the Murphy's as a whole, Requiem and like the last two times, we will be focusing on what Larry's set of lines have to say.
I gave you the world, you threw it awa/yLeaving these broken pieces behind you/Everything wasted, nothing to say/So I can sing no requiem
I understand that Larry is going through a lot and I understand that people deal with loss in varying ways but this almost reads like victim-blaming. That may not be the case but I find it hard not to view it that way. It's actually a little annoying. I try to see everything the point-of-view of all the characters in this show but with this character, I find it extremely difficult. The one thing that sells the pain of Larry in this number is the distraught that is heard in Michael Park's voice as he sings these lyrics. I truly feel that without someone of Park's caliber, Larry would come across as uncaring towards his son.
Now, that's not to say that I can't feel for him during the second act when Connor's suicide note is uploaded online. And I'm sorry but I find these words to buy from Larry.
I did the best I could, I tried to help him the only way I knew how and if that's not good enough... And he was failing.
Again, this is just.....
I'll be quite honest and say that Larry's song, To Break in a Glove was the only number that I had not listened to before writing one of these articles. However, I changed that, right before I went to write this entry. And well, I can see what this song is trying to do.
This is the one song that helps to show the human side to Larry as he's relating to Evan in a way that it appears that he never got to do with his own son. I look at these lines specifically and see that.
Or you're miles from some goal/Or you're just trying to do what's best/For a kid who's lost control
Consider the last line there for a moment as that is where Connor was at as he had lost control but it feels as though, Larry didn't take the time to notice that. Well okay, that's Connor's dad. What about Evan's? Well...
Evan's dad does not have a physical presence in the show but there is a strong sense that he's moved on. Let's look at an attempt for interaction that Evan makes with dad in the Novel for a moment.
I used to mail him postcards, hoping we'd become pen pals but the one I received a response it was in Theresa's handwriting. He enjoys hiking, so I suggested we walk the Appalachian Trail together. He seemed to like the idea, but when I reminded him about it this summer, he up with an excuse about how he's already flying east for my graduation in the spring, and now with the baby coming, he can't afford to come twice.
A bit wordy but it does get across the idea that Evan constantly feels let down by his father because while all these may be legitimate excuses, that is all Evan hears from his father. And looking at how, when Evan tried to reach out with a postcard, he got a response in return from his father's second wife is just heartbreaking. Though, I think a lot of the heartbreak that Evan's father has put him through can be traced back to when Evan was a little kid.
Going to do this a little differently as I have two sets of lyrics to look at there. Firstly, there's the opening.
It was a February day/When your dad came by, before going away/A U-Haul truck in the driveway/The day it was suddenly real
Starting here is simple as we hear how this man (I apologize I could not remember his name) stepped out on Heidi and Evan. We don't really get to know Evan's dad but if we take how Heidi feels about him and what we can observe from that quote from the Novel, we have a picture of a man that has moved on and has no interest in being a part of his son's life. In many regards, Evan's father leaving when he was so young did a lot to harm him. And not just in the "he didn't have a good male role model" sense but it seemed to have caused some abandonment issues within Evan. Look at what Little Evan asks of his mom in this song.
That night, I tucked you into bed/I will never forget how you sat up and said"Is there another truck coming to our driveway?/A truck that will take mommy away"
Now, I am not putting the blame completely on Evan's father as Evan did a bad thing later in life but the kid was a bit unstable and to see a young boy have this thought is just heartbreaking. Even more so, when it is shown that Evan's father doesn't want to take the time to get to know the man that his son has become.
This was the hardest entry to write because like I said, I try to be fair and view what the characters are going through but for these two, that was rather hard. This is our final entry looking at the characters from Dear Evan Hansen and I'm sorry that it had to end on a dour note but I wanted to get this one as next month, I'll be seeing this show at the Kennedy Center.
I might give you a Musical Musings on my thoughts on the show after I see it but that might not be for a while as I think after that, I think I may want to take a break from this show. Peace!
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