The Dear Evan Hansen West End cast – including our beloved Rupert – is part of this socially distanced concert on thespie.com. Global digital tickets are available to buy online, which give you access for 7 days.
There is a brief clip of Rupert talking with castmate Jack Loxton, saying he’s looking forward to seeing people again without it being… strange. Then the DEH cast sing “Merry Christmas, Everyone”.
Thanks to Bunnysworld for the heads-up! ♥
Screen captures shared with the greatest respect but without permission.
Rupert, along with other members of the Dear Evan Hansen family, took part in this video supporting Mental Health Awareness Month.
There is also a link to an open letter you can sign, which asks world leaders to “protect and scale up mental health support in all COVID-19 responses”.
— Dear Evan Hansen – West End (@DEHWestEnd) May 14, 2020
Rupert’s part in the script is: “Our world is not equipped to respond to this global mental health crisis. It wasn’t before the pandemic, and it isn’t now.”
Our awesome King Arthur, Bradley James, hosted an online Merlin quiz – partly to help entertain us during the COVID-19 quarantine and partly to help raise money for a noble cause. He invited the Knights of the Round Table to participate, so we ended up blessed with a mini online convention, with special guests Rupert (Sir Leon), Tom Hopper (Sir Percival), Tomiwa Edun (Sir Elyan) and Eoin Macken (Sir Gwaine).
The chosen charity was Redemption Paws@RedemptionPaws, a Toronto-based non-profit organisation focused on helping dogs in disaster situations. We raised over $15,000 (Canadian) for them, which is utterly awesome!
Bradley kindly uploaded a recording of the quiz to his YouTube channel, which was such a relief to people like me who regretted missing out on the fun! (I live in Australia, and I unwisely let the 4 a.m. start time dissuade me from participating.) Here’s the link:
Rupert was, of course, his usual funny and charming self, and proved himself delightfully human to boot! I mean to say… drinking what appeared to be a beer, saying “fuck”, and announcing he was off to have a wee. You’d be forgiven for thinking he isn’t a minor deity after all! I love the quarantine beard, but his lovely hair is still short, as contractually required by Dear Evan Hansen.
It was a joy to see all the knights gathered together once more, and to see them enjoying not only their own company but also ours. Tomiwa used a few Merlin and location photos as his background. Rupert changed his shirt a few times, as did Bradley – and Eoin gradually stripped away layers to reveal something pink and sultry… Oh my. The Merlin Family Rules!
The quiz had some easy questions, but also some harder ones. I think I would have got all but 2 or 3 – but who knows what silly choices I might have made at that time of the morning! Most people did very well, with only a handful of questions attracting a number of “alternate” choices.
I’ve included some screen captures below, but of course please do yourself the proverbial favour and watch the video itself.
Thank you, everyone, for taking part!
Rupert, soon after he was introduced, and still making sure his settings were right.One by one the Knights arrive – and change shirts and beanies…
Rupert appeared in the 20th Annual WhatsOnStage Awards Concert on Sunday 1 March 2020, along with the rest of the DEH West End cast, performing the song “You Will Be Found”. More info: article with link to ticket sales
Be still my heart! Rupert and the rest of the West End cast of Dear Evan Hansen appeared on BBC’s The One Show on 29 November, and performed the song “You Will Be Found”.
Those with access to BBC iPlayer can watch the full show there, and the rest of us can see / hear the performance via YouTube (embedded below).
The Museum of Lost and Found Potential is a pop-up museum “showing the hopes and dreams lost to neglected mental health and suicide across the world”. It is open free to the public in London for five days in October, and then will tour the world.
The museum was launched on World Mental Health Day (10 October), with the London cast of Dear Evan Hansen performing the song “You Will Be Found”. They were involved because “The Tony Award-winning musical explores teenage mental health and suicide”.
There is a press release from the museum here, from which the above quotes were taken, and they also shared the photo below of the cast (photographer unknown).
The London cast of Dear Evan Hansen perform at the launch of The Museum of Lost and Found Potential. (photographer unknown)
Rupert was a guest at the convention German Castle Con in Solingen, Germany on 24-25 August 2019.
My fellow fan bunnysworld attended, and had a marvellous time. She was kind enough to share her photos of Rupert with me. You can see one in the banner of this post, and I’ve posted more to a gallery. ♥
You’ll see that on the Sunday he wears a baseball hat with an Ottilie Seed badge. Off I popped to Google, to discover that Ottlie Seed is a seed farm in Iowa. How random is that…?
You can also find a video of Rupert’s Q&A on the Saturday on YouTube (embedded below). He’s such a lovely guy!
… and I have to add that his bare ankles are delightfully distracting!
BBC Merlin was well represented at the MCM Comic Con, held in Birmingham on 23-24 March 2019. Guests included Asa Butterfield (young Mordred), Tom Hopper (Percival), Alex Vlahos (older Mordred) and our own Rupert Young.
Unfortunately I couldn’t attend the con (having been exiled to the Antipodes) but my mate Shell did, along with her lovely family. They asked Rupert ♥ for an autograph for me, which was awesome! Thanks to my friends, I was definitely there in spirit.
Shell blogged about the day on her site The Copper River. This includes photos, and a link to the official live stream so that we can all enjoy the panel held on Saturday.
