Besides, anxiety affects us all – even on an opening night when road works and two football matches resulted in a journey from hell to the Alexandra Theatre. Eventually arriving ten minutes into the new touring production of Dear Evan Hansen, consternation quickly turned to contentment as all the elements of a stunning show presented themselves.

With a book by Steven Levenson and music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul the musical has after all won Olivier, Tony and Grammy-awards. The set, the lighting and sound, the acting and the singing, and the songs and the storyline which you could easily follow in this Nottingham Playhouse and ATG Productions co-production directed by Adam Penford are of the highest quality.

Ryan Kopel plays 17-year-old Evan, a lonely insecure outsider who exploits a tragedy for his own gain in the hope of gaining acceptance before his deceit spirals out of control through social media. With all the mannerisms and awkwardness of a boy with issues, Kopel’s superb performance has you drawn between condemnation for his lies which have relationship consequences and sympathy for not being out of malice.

The other young characters are also fully realised, including Connor (Killian Thomas Lefevre), the drug-addicted bully who takes his own life but becomes a friend to Evan ‘in death’; Zoe (Lauren Conroy), Evan’s love interest unloved by her family; the snide Jared (Tom Dickerson) the only one who knows of Evan’s deceit, and the self-obsessed Alana (Vivian Panka) who launches The Connor Murphy Foundation to Connor’s memory and where Evan’s lies become exposed.

All of them are lonely and insecure too – as a large young audience in the near full house seemed to recognise from the effusive and regular applause. There is also a small ensemble of young actors, chosen for initial auditions through TikTok invitation, including Sonny Monaghan who plays Evan in matinees. They should have appeared in the show more often.

The adults are well drawn characters too: Evan’s mom and busy nurse Heidi played breathlessly by Alice, and Connor’s parents Cynthia (Helen Anker) and Larry (Richard Hurst), all of whom have their own relationship issues and know their children have mental problems but struggle to deal with them.

The action take place on a box-like stage with misted glass panels that slide across for actors and props to come and go, and screens that shows videos of Evan going viral on the internet. It all gives the effect of lives breaking up.

All the soft-rock type songs drive the plot, with the actors leading into them in their conversation. The ballads Words Fail in which Evan muses on his brokenness, and So Big/So Small sung by his mother as she promises to always be there for him, are the most moving. Only Us is also a touching love song sung by Zoe. Other songs, in contrast, such as Sincerely Me are full of humour.

While the subject matter is psychological, the conclusion is more traditional – and without giving away how the show ends, you can be sure that you will not leave the theatre feeling depressed.