[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
the first lie I can remember telling I
was seven years old standing on a
playground I told my friends that my dad
had a heart attack in sixth grade I lied
and told my teacher that I had a brain
tumor I lied all my way through school
my real name wasn’t Julie I had an
inheritance on the way I had cancer the
lies kept coming and coming
they baffled my teachers my parents and
even myself but I kept on lying I lied
my way into adulthood seeking love and
approval power and control my lies wove
a path of destruction through my life
and through the lives of others
ultimately they drove me into therapy
where I did years of deep work to
dismantle my patterns of deception to
make amends and to live an honest life
so complete was my transformation so
profound that I trained to become a life
coach and I dedicated my life to
supporting other people in releasing
their shame and finding and living their
deepest truth so I became the world’s
leading expert one of the world’s
leading experts on the human shadow the
part of me that had driven me to lie all
along so certainly I had this lying
thing healed
I had it nailed it was handled then I
went to see a little show called dear
Evan Hansen
boy I walked into that show I had no
idea what it was about I’d never heard
of it I didn’t know anything about PASOK
and Paul the lights came up and there
was Evan this nerdy fearful lonely kid
who was just longing to connect and
yearning to belong and to be seen and
heard and to matter
I watched him lie my jaw hit the floor
I watched each of his choices
I felt his desperation his terror his
regret it was astounding I saw myself on
stage I saw my own reflection watching
Evan stand in all of his self-loathing I
leaned out of my seat rooting for him to
recognize his Worth and to finally love
and forgive himself and when I did that
something changed inside of me something
happened a well of compassion opened up
inside of me compassion that flooded
first toward Evan and then toward myself
toward the part of me that I had locked
away that I had handled that I had
healed to a part I was still judging
still hating that I thought of as a
monster
that I could never forgive for the
damage I had done here in this theater
confronted by the part of me I had
struggled with the most in my lifetime
that I had the most shame around dear
Evan Hansen helped me see myself and
understand myself in a new way
I felt compassion for that lost little
girl who always felt on the outside
looking in a girl who thought that she
had to lie in order to be enough and to
be found the show is deeply personal to
me and what’s so extraordinary is that
it’s equally personal to thousands of
other fan scenes who see themselves in
the show as well maybe not in Evin but
in the other characters or in Evans
anxiety the show makes us feel seen
understood and known it’s astounding
again remarkable I’ve been going to the
theater for 35 years going to Broadway
shows for over 35 years
but it was dear Evan Hansen that
introduced me to a new relationship with
theatre one where we are not just
consumers of it but agents of it where
we can look at the characters on stage
for the aspects of ourselves that we
love and for the aspects of ourselves
that we hate and we can use what we find
to illuminate parts of ourselves that
need our attention
dear Evan Hansen has helped all of us do
what I think is the hardest job on the
planet which is to love ourselves more
fully I want to encourage people to
engage with theater in this active way
because
when we love a show when we really love
a show it’s so easy to take all of our
light and put it on the show on the
creators on the musicians on the actors
but we must save some of that light for
ourselves to illuminate the parts of
ourselves that need our love there is no
greater tribute to art that we love than
to allow it not just to inform us or
affect us or entertain us but to allow
it to change us rearrange us and ignite
us so that we can be the best of
Broadway thank you
[Applause] [Music]