Dear Evan Hansen Stories - Putting You In A DEH Scenario

WOAH...Ben Platt Is Right. Next. To. You. (Pt 1)

May 20, 2018

Section: Orchestra.

Row: F.

Seat 112.

The little dings of the status updates and rings coming from the stage are barely audible over the constant drone of voices from the audience. You're on your phone; the usual. Scrolling through your instagram feed, you barely hear the gasps starting to come from the audience as someone walks into the theatre. Finally, finishing up one of your conversations with a Dear Evan Hansen obsessed internet friend, you look up to see Ben Platt walking down the aisle closest to you. It's unbelievable, insane, unreal. People start pulling out their phones, taking pictures and videos. Their screens all turn to the Instagram homepage as they post about the exciting news. You, however, are having trouble breathing. Ben Platt has stopped in your aisle and is sitting down...right next to you. He's dressed casual, jeans and a dark blue shirt and a red collar. Calm and collected; almost oblivious to the whispers and phones directed to him. You glance sideways at him and see he opens his program but you reckon he's just doing it to distract himself. The phone in your lap keeps lighting up but you barely notice it until you spot your best friend's account sending you messages in all caps. Numbly, you enter Instagram and are greeted with ten messages. All of them are saying the same thing: "OMG YOU'RE SEEING DEAR EVAN HANSEN, RIGHT? BEN'S THERE, DO YOU SEE HIM?" You sarcastically mutter that of course you can see him and open your story. Slanting the phone to face the left, you take a picture of Ben and comment on the story "Speechless...someone help me" As soon as it posts, you turn your phone to airplane mode and power it off.

The lights begin to dim as a virtual phone starts ringing and voices start talking all overlapping each other. It all sounds like gibberish and you just try to calm yourself before Taylor Trensch is lit up onstage. One last glance towards the incredible human sitting off to your left before you focus your eyes and attention to the stage. Taylor starts the opening monologue and you are soon swept off into the sweaty-hands-zoe-murphy-be-yourself side of Evan Hansen's mind. When Rachel comes in, Ben sits up a little bit, readjusting in his seat. You can tell that he wants to clap, long and loudly, but knows that it wouldn't be appropriate. Halfway through the first number, another disk is slid in and you are introduced to the Murphy family; a normal breakfast for them. The dinner room table a bit of a mess, backpacks and briefcases strewn across the floor, the top of the table scattered with plates and glasses. Most of the audience is fully aware that it is Laura Dreyfuss' last day so a loud roar ripples through the audience. Ben's face lights up when he sees Laura and within that expression you can see you misses his old Dear Evan Hansen family. During Waving Through A Window, you can tell Ben is critiquing - almost involuntarily - Taylor's performance. Not even in a bad way, just...comparing. Act I goes by quickly. Too quickly. Almost right after you witness the scene, it's lost within the maze of memories your brain holds. For Forever was beautiful. Laura was visibly on the verge of tears, her last show finally sinking in. Taylor look totally captivated by the looks on the Murphy's faces and his energy grew and grew as he kept singing. Sincerely, Me, always a crowd pleaser, had Ben laughing when Will forgot one of his lines. You could see Ben was subtly dancing along, his feet moving around and head shaking along to the beat. Requiem. That was the one song that stuck out to you. You had read in a playbill article that Ben used to watch Laura perform Requiem from the wings, and she apparently watched him watch her. Trying to watch Laura perform but also desperate to see Ben's reactions, your eyes moved around like a very epic ping pong game was in session. He was enthralled by her performance. Nothing could've snapped him out of the daze he was in while watching her. "An incredible empowerment" Yeah, that's what he had said about her performing. "Never wanted to miss it" and you wonder what it was like not seeing her perform it every night. Laura's performance was in one word, stunning. Her voice just kept building and building though the song until the strength finally broke after "You were not the monster that I knew." If I Could Tell Her has always been your favorite song. Full of lies, a beautifully tragic song about a boy who loves a girl and has no idea how to tell her. So seizing her recently dead brother as a shield, he confesses everything he had ever wanted to tell her. Lying. Tragic. Anyway, as Disappear comes on, you're very sad that the first act is about to end. You notice that when Evan, Jared and Alana are all presenting the idea of the Connor Project to the Murphy's, Evan pushes Jared aside to give pamphlets to the family. The push isn't that obvious, but if you pay attention it's easy to catch. Taylor's portrayal of Evan's breakdown in You Will Be Found leaves the audience silent. A pin dropping in the mezzanine could be heard from downstairs. You almost start laughing at the silence, it's just so weird that a show could bring about such a loud silence. The usually dark, see through, almost, screens on stage light up during You Will Be Found with different fan submitted videos splattering them. You spot yourself on one of them, with the hashtag you will be found written in large, black, slanted letters. By the end of the first act, everyone's eyes look like they had just worked out. You, yourself are emotionally tired. From sitting next to Ben Platt, to realizing it's Laura's last day to crying your eyes out...you're a mess. The lights slowly flicker on and everyone seems to come back from a trance, getting out of their seats to get merch or water or go to the bathroom. It doesn't take you long to realize that Ben Platt has no intention of getting up, so you must ask him to move to get out of the aisle. Wow, everything happens to me. 

Hi guys! I hoped you enjoyed this weird little story I put together. I'm still finishing the rest of the story, but I know a lot of people from my fan account wanted to read this. Sorry if their are grammatical errors, I'm not really an invested fan fiction writer and just needed somewhere to put my writing. (Instagram: onllyus)