Twitter Users Shocked To Discover 'Dear Evan Hansen' Isn't Heartwarming Coming-out Musical About A Gay Teen

It's rare to see a Mandela Effect situation unfold in real-time, but that's exactly what happened yesterday after the trailer for the cinematic adaptation of Tony Award-winning musical Dear Evan Hansen dropped and a sizable chunk of social media was stunned to learn that it is very much not a heartwarming musical about a gay teen coming out.

Instead, Dear Evan Hansen's plot, as many discovered yesterday, is kind of a trip. In the musical, the titular Hansen has a therapy assignment to write letters to himself. These result in a misunderstanding where a boy, Connor, discovers a note Evan has written about Connor's sister Zoe, who Evan has a crush on, and her wealthy family, which Evan despises. Days later, Connor dies by suicide with Evan's note on him, making locals believe the note was a suicide note written by Connor to Evan and that Evan was secretly Connor's best friend and confidant.

This spirals out of control as Evan grows closer to Connor's family and forms a romantic relationship with Zoe as they put together a memorial charity for Connor. Evan spends much of Act 2 grappling with the scope of his lies and wondering if he should come clean as cracks start to form in his lie that's granted him love, connection, and viral fame.

the Wikipedia plot summary of dear evan hansen is probably the longest trip I’ve taken since the pandemic started

— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) May 18, 2021

Yesterday's trailer not only led a good amount of Twitter users to express disgust at the questionable arc of the title character, but also shock at the fact they were certain but completely wrong in thinking that Dear Evan Hansen was a musical about a gay teen coming out.

everyone discovering the plot to dear evan hansen today pic.twitter.com/JEEPhufU0z

— homos against imperialism, JD (they/them) 🏳️‍🌈 (@abrowngaywrites) May 19, 2021

EXCUSE ME? THIS? IS THE PLOT? OF DEAR EVAN HANSEN??? https://t.co/acOG5O5RlJ

— Gita Jackson: know it all (derogatory) (@xoxogossipgita) May 18, 2021

i too thought it was just a musical about being gay

— stasis baby (@HarronWawker) May 18, 2021

No joke, until this morning, I thought Dear Evan Hansen was a musical about…coming out? Or something? Learning what the actual plot of this musical is has been a JOURNEY. https://t.co/3L1G0F6tHA

— Ryan Broderick (@broderick) May 18, 2021

the way our one community brain cell hallucinated a Dear Evan Hansen plot that never existed… what will be exposed as a mirage next ?

— JP (@jpbrammer) May 19, 2021

So, what the heck happened here? Some have guessed that people conflated Dear Evan Hanson with the 2018 romantic comedy film Love, Simon, which is indeed a heartwarming musical about a gay teen coming out.

Now seems like a good time to remind everyone that when my dad and I were going to see Dear Evan Hansen, I asked him if he knew anything about the plot he said “yeah!” and very confidently described the plot of Love, Simon to me https://t.co/uCxHPJuopx

— MP🌤 (@mpawrites) May 19, 2021

i truly thought dear evan hansen was basically like, love simon the musical but i just watched the trailer and learned the real plot and i cannot comprehend what i just saw

— valerie 🎉 @ home (@meireIav) May 18, 2021

So what’s happening is we’ve all been confusing DEAR EVAN HANSEN and LOVE SIMON all these years, yeah?

— Oscar Goff (@TheOscarGoff) May 19, 2021

Dear Evan Hansen will be in theaters September 24th.