Dear Evan Hansen is a contemporary musical with an eager young fanbase, whose hunger for the story and songs was largely unsatisfied by the uninspired big-screen version released in 2021.

This Australian premiere staging, directed by Dean Bryant, should satisfy the cravings, thanks to its sharp visuals, persuasive cast, and vivid portrayal of the pains of youth in the digital age.

It’s also a billboard-sized calling card for its star, Beau Woodbridge, who, at 22 and playing his first lead role, simply is Evan, an anxiety-ridden high school student whose white lie about a non-existent friendship goes viral.

Beau Woodbridge in Dear Evan Hansen. Photo © Daniel Boud

Dear Evan Hansen is a chamber musical at heart, mostly composed of two or three-handed scenes. Bryant, along with set designer Jeremy Allen, lighting designer Matt Scott, and video designer David Bergman, has cleverly scaled the piece to fit the Roslyn Packer Theatre without sacrificing the intimacy essential to a drama about loneliness, grief, and healing.

Bergman’s video content, projected onto full-width, full-height scrims, provides a powerful sense of the switchback unpredictability of the social media universe in which the story’s young characters also live.

The...