Dear Evan Hansen (Choral Highlights): SAB Choral Octavo

Mark Brymer's arrangement captures the intimate, introspective quality of these songs while making them accessible for three-part mixed choirs. These are the emotional anchors of a show that resonates with high school and college singers; your students will connect to the material immediately.

Raw, intimate, searching. These arrangements preserve the confessional tone of the original score, where characters are wrestling with doubt and isolation. Your choir will feel the weight of these moments and deliver performances that move people.

Choirs looking to program contemporary Broadway material that challenges singers musically while offering profound emotional content. This works for high school choirs, college ensembles, and community choirs seeking repertoire that generates genuine engagement from both performers and audiences.

• Honor the conversational quality of the lyrics. These songs work best when singers treat the text like they're confiding in the audience rather than projecting to the back row.
• Balance ensemble moments against moments where individual voices need clarity. The arrangement creates opportunities for soloists to emerge; use rehearsal time to develop confidence in your section leaders.
• Let the accompaniment breathe. Even with digital tracks, singers often rush contemporary material. Work tempos in rehearsal separate from the recording to find the pocket your group needs.
• Pay attention to where the harmony thickens and where it opens up. This arrangement uses space intentionally, and respecting those moments makes the emotional arc more effective.

Feature these selections in a Broadway-focused concert, or thread one or two songs through a program built around contemporary musical theater. The emotional depth makes them work well as programming bridges between contrasting pieces. They also fit naturally into spring concerts where you want to close with something that lingers with your audience.

• Singing contemporary vocal music with speech-like text delivery
• Balancing harmonic complexity in close-voiced writing
• Interpreting emotional subtext and character intention
• Managing dynamics to support lyrical clarity in modern musical theater styles
• Responding to digital accompaniment tracks with ensemble cohesion