Dear Evan Hansen****: show-stoppers and a mesmerising lead role

The digital generation that is more connected than any other is also the most isolated in so many ways as its searches to find its own identity and place in the world. Dear Evan Hansen speaks to them across a host of hefty topics - suicide, mental health, anxiety and grief - in a lengthy show which delivers on every count.

This tenth anniversary show concludes its first ever UK tour at the Playhouse Theatre and is absolutely worth catching.

It tells the story of Evan who is urged by his therapist to write letters to himself explaining why today is going to be a good day. One of them is pinched by a fellow, and equally troubled student, who then takes his own life, and amid a maelstrom of grief, the words are misinterpreted as a close friendship. Evan, a kid with no friends, embellishes it, getting deeper and deeper into a mess that spirals out of control.

Kirriemuir actor Ryan Kopel is simply mesmerising as Evan. From start to finish this is his show - he is front and centre of the story, and delivers some stunning numbers too. Words Fail was a genuine show-stopper.

There are also superb performances from Killian Thomas Lefevre as Connor who returns in ghost form as Connor, throughout the show, and Glenrothes actor Lauren Conroy who plays his sister who is the first to question Evan’s web of well intentioned tales as their family is torn apart by grief.

It’s a story for our times but one with universal themes - and this production is fabulous. The closing number of the first act, You Will Be Found, is simply stunning. Don’t expect the almost obligatory musical mega-mix at the end - this is a ‘way more serious show, but one that is also funny, moving and uplifting. Forget the film version, which really didn’t work, and treat yourself to this glorious stage version.