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Dear Evan Hansen or Shrek: Which is best?

Something curious came to me the other day. Two musicals which are very rarely compared are Dear Evan Hansen (2015) and Shrek the Musical (2013). On the surface, it does look like these are incomparable, with very different storylines and music. Dear Evan Hansen follows the story of Evan, a boy who always feels like he’s waving through a window, who accidentally gets caught up in a massive lie: changing his life forever. Shrek follows the classic story of Shrek, an ogre who saves Princess Fiona and falls in love, with a few changes from the original source material. Now, that doesn’t sound similar at all… but they do have one thing in common. Both Shrek and Evan sing a song called ‘Words Fail‘ (to be clear, Shrek sings ‘(When) Words Fail’ but the title is identity other than this). Throughout this comparison, I’m going to discuss whose words failed the most: out of curiosity.

What does ‘Words Fail’ mean?

Let’s decipher this phase. We have two words, ‘word’ and ‘fail’. A word is defined as ‘a unit of language, a promise, or a piece of information’ according to the dictionary. Failure is defined as ‘to not succeed in what you are trying to achieve or are expected to do’ according to the dictionary. Using these words together suggests that the meaning of ‘Words Fail’ would be for someone’s words to not work or succeed in the way they intended. 

Shrek’s Context:

Context is important to understand why Shrek is failing. During Act 2, Shrek and Fiona start their relationship off a bit rocky. Fiona was expecting a prince to save her the traditional way: which is definitely not Shrek. However, through a song where they compare their trauma (yep…) which ends with them burping and farting against each other (yep again…), they start to bond. In case you wish to put yourself through that song, here is a link to the song. Just to be clear, it is probably one of the worst songs in Shrek the musical in my own opinion.

After speaking to Donkey, Shrek starts to understand his own feelings towards Fiona. Whilst she is in a cave, Shrek picks a flower to give to Fiona. He practices what he is going to say to her through the song and slowly builds the courage to talk to her. Following this, there is a misunderstanding which leads to another disagreement between Fiona and Shrek. 

Evan’s Context:

Due to the complications of Dear Evan Hansen, the context is extremely important. Evan is a young man who is suffering from bad mental health. In fact, he broke his arm due to attempted suicide. His doctor suggests that he write a letter to himself starting with ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ (that’s where the title of the show comes from). One day, whilst writing a letter to himself, Connor (another boy who goes to his school) takes the letter as it mentions his sister, Zoe. 

The next day, Evan is invited to talk to the Murphy family (Connor and Zoe’s parents). Connor had committed suicide, the Murphy family found the letter, which Evan had wrote, on him when he died. Due to the letter saying ‘Dear Evan Hansen’, the parents assume that Evan was Connor’s friend. This is further pushed onto Evan when the Murphy family sees Connor’s name on Evan’s arm cast. Evan attempts to tell them the truth, but they do not listen, inviting him to dinner. At dinner, the family starts to argue which ends up in Evan lying about knowing Connor, singing ‘For Forever’. This song demonstrates the lies Evan is starting to tell. It is also a fantastic song.

Evan attempts to correct his mistakes a few times but starts to believe his lies are for the best. This is not helped by the song ‘Disappear’, where a figment of Evan’s imagination tells Evan that he should continue. By the time we get to the song we are discussing, Evan’s life is starting to crumble. He has developed a parental bond with the Murphy family, leaked a death note that blames the Murphy family for Connor’s death and has got into an argument with his mother, Heidi. On a side note, a fantastic song called ‘Good For You’ comes from this: probably the second best song in Dear Evan Hansen. Evan then sings ‘Words Fail’ as his life is crumbling around him.

Shrek’s Words Fail:

Shrek sings his song for approximately 3 minutes and 8 seconds about how he loves Fiona. The song is a heartfelt and emotional ballad which conveys Shrek’s own vulnerability about how is feeling. As an individual, Shrek has not experience these feelings before, making the song feel more powerful. The style of the song is soft with a gentle instrumental, giving an acoustic vibe. In the first few lines of the song, Shrek asks the Princess if she is okay; he is unsure how to express himselves. As he practices this, he assumes the Princess will ask him how he is, replying that he is ‘okay’. 

The main passage begins with Shrek telling the Princess how he picked a flower, just over there where it grew. He is still unsure how to express his feelings, struggling with his words as they fail to express his true feelings. He continues to express that ‘I don’t really like it, but it made me think of you’: Shrek is starting to develop his words and express his feelings. This then goes backwards when he then feels the need to explain why it makes him think of Fiona, discussing how it is pretty and so is she. It is key to remember, that this is Shrek practicing his words to Fiona so his words failing him is reasonable. Shrek continues with his flower metaphor into the next passage. He asks if Fiona will accept the flower, which represent his feelings. This is a really good subversion from earlier in the show. For context, when Shrek saves Fiona, she offers him a napkin as a token of her gratitude. Shrek is now doing the same to express his feelings, potentially because he feels that this is the best way to do so. Shrek continues to say that the flower will help to explain how he feels… before stopping and saying how is ‘in trouble’. Shrek the musical is comedic in tone, which allows multiple jokes throughout their songs: even in their heartfelt ones. 

Continuing into the first chorus, Shrek expresses what it means for him if his ‘words fail’ him. He is distressed that if he is unable to express his feelings, how will Fiona know how he feels about her. This chorus repeats 3 times throughout the song. It is a moment which allows Shrek to sing more powerfully, expressing how he truly feels about his love for Fiona. He is actually using his words pretty well throughout this song, not really ‘failing’. 

Leading into the second passage, Shrek attempts to talk to Princess Fiona in a different way. He starts with a simple ‘hello’ and asks Fiona to look at the moon. However, this then goes wrong for him when his words fail: saying that the moon reminds him of Fiona because it’s ‘big and bright’. Shrek quickly tries to save his chat with Fiona by saying that he doesn’t mean ‘chubby’, instead he was referring to how Fiona has a biggish personality. During this time, Shrek’s words are failing him as he stumbles over each word he is singing. Whilst he has a short break, Shrek thinks about what he has just said. He tries to apologise again by mentioning that he didn’t mean ‘fat’. His words then fail again by discussing how he is actually on the ‘hefty’ side himself: not really expressing how he feels. Somehow, this then takes him into talking about how it reminds of something. Before continuing, Shrek regains his words and questions where he was even going with this proposal. The second passage is a lot better in terms of ‘words failing’. Shrek stumbles over each word and it shows how nervous he feels about Fiona and the feelings developing for her. This leads into the second chorus which is the same as the first.

The final passage continues with Shrek really doubting that he can express himself. He asks if there is even a ‘snowball’s chance’ that this will work out for him: wondering if his prospects are just too ‘grim’. His doubts continue into a final chorus where he ends with the confidence that Fiona will understand how he feels: leading to him having the confidence to tell her how he feels. In terms of our comparison, it is clear that Shrek’s words did fail throughout the song. He goes off on a tangent multiple times and can’t seem to express himself clearly.

Evan’s Words Fail:

Evan sings his song for around 5 minutes and 51 seconds: significantly longer than Shrek’s version. Evan’s song is powerful and emotionally charged as this is where everything goes wrong. The song is more stripped back, allowing for a raw feeling of emotions as Evan attempts to express his words without them failing. Throughout the song, Evan is vulnerable as he sings to the Murphy family and tells them the truth behind his continually lies. Similarly, being so raw allows for us to see the guilt and shame that Evan feels from his lies.

After a long period of silence, a piano kicks in allowing Evan to sing. Evan stands up in front of the Murphy family and explain that he ’never meant to make it such a mess’. He explains that he didn’t want it to go this far and has no idea how it has. He attempts to say sorry and gain the words to explain why he has done what he has done. However, unsurprisingly for this blog, his words do in fact fail him. Whilst trying to search for the words he can use to explain himself, Evan stands up and sings ‘words fail’ whilst crying: showing lots of vulnerability. I think it can interrupted that this part is internally in Evan, as he is trying to give himself the strength to explain himself but struggling to do so. He finishes this inner monologue by saying that ‘there’s nothing I can say’, showing how he doesn’t know what words to use.

After this inner monologue, Evan is able to explain to the Murphy family why he lied. He expresses how he wanted to part of a family which cared for him as he has never had ‘this kind of thing before’. He tells Zoe now he never had the perfect girl, explaining that’s part of the reason he kept the lie going. He then continues to explain to the Murphy parents that he never had a loving dad or a mum who was available. For context, Heidi (Evan’s mum) is a nurse/doctor so is unavailable most of the time for Evan. Evan is able to use his words to explain how he feels during this passage. An argument could be made that he is starting to allow his words to ‘run away’ with him as he starts spiralling out of control.

Evan then realised that this is not a good explanation, expressing that no matter what he says it will not make sense of the lies he has told. At this point, Evan is struggling to have his words make sense and starts to find it difficult to talk to the Murphy’s. He then continues to sing ‘words fail’ again, questionably to himself. Evan tries to save himself by explaining that sometimes you make things up because you see something you want. Again, this shows that Evan is failing at using his words as he starts to just to justifiable himself in his convoluted plot. When Evan sings ‘right there’, he starts to build it up as a way to express himself and justify his actions. Unfortunately, Evan continues to spiral out of control. He discusses how everyone wants it to be true so he made it true. This is technically correct as Evan did try to stop the lie but he continues to say that everybody wants the lie: which is not true.

At this point in the show, the Murphy family have left the stage and Evan is standing by himself. He is crying to himself whilst singing the song, attempting to say that this was not real. Evan tries to justify himself with his words but these are failing him. He continues to spiral out of control, discussing how he is a mess and that no one should be with him or around him. At one point, he mentions that he will ‘pretend I’m something other than this mess’: following this by saying that no one will have to see him. Whilst his words are failing here as he spirals, this links back to an earlier part of the show. In ‘Waving Through a Window’, Evan expresses how he wants to be seen. Now he is saying the opposite due to his lies. 

As we head towards the end of the song, Evan reprises a part of ‘Waving Through a Window’. He questions what if everyone knows what happened, how will they look at him and how will he continue to live. Thankfully, this ends with Evan suggesting he should set into the sun: trying to start over and move on with his life. This last part of the song is the most charged, with Evan losing control over his words.

Comparing ‘Words Fail’:

No argument could be made to suggest that Shrek and Evan’s words do not fail. Both songs are able to convey the meaning of this phase perfectly well in their own unique way. One similarlity is the emotional reflection of each song. Shrek is tender and nervous as he attempts to discuss his love. On the other hand, Evan is more intense and raw with his feeling: ending in an internal crisis. Arguably, Evan is feeling more through his words and the longer song allows for him to fully explain himself.

Both Shrek and Evan use the phase ‘word fail’ throughout their song. Evan words fail him because of his guilt, shame and emotional overwhelming feelings towards the situation. On the other hand, Shrek’s words fail due to his inexperience of love and a nervousness to be vulnerable. Similarly, both songs serve a different narrative function. Shrek’s song allows for an awakwardness of love in the early part of the second Act, allowing for more conflict to come. In comparison, Evan’s song underscores the entire show by being one of the final songs: allowing him to admit guilt due to his actions.

Conclusion:

Overall, both songs use the phase ‘Words Fail’ to explore and deepen their main character development. Shrek’s is used as a heartfelt and comedic symbol of his innocence and emotional inexperience as he attempts to find the words to express his true feelings. Evan’s are instead a reflection of his inner feelings and the chaos which has surrounded his due to his lies. I think it is hard to define which one deserves the title of the true ‘Words Fail’, as both songs display their characters perfectly well. I think for me personally, it would depend on the mood I am in. Evan’s song is powerful and enjoyable to sing if you want a ballad. Shrek’s is more upbeat and fun. Personally I believe Evan’s words fail more due to his intense vulnerability. Either choice is great though!

Max

References:

Shrek the musical (2013). Available at: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrek_the_Musical (Accessed: 02/08/2025)

Dear Evan Hansen (2015). Available at: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dear_Evan_Hansen (Accessed: 02/08/2025)