YOUNGSTOWN — Considering how emotionally draining it is as an audience member, it’s hard to imagine how difficult it must be for the cast of Millennial Theatre Company’s “Dear Evan Hansen” to do six performances.

The Benj Pasek/Justin Paul/Steven Levenson musical won six Tony Awards, including best musical, in 2017, and it’s easily the best and the most serious of the teen-centric, social-media-focused musicals in recent years, and the talented cast assembled by director Joe Asente is more than capable of handling its challenges. MTC built a reputation locally for polished, professional productions on a community theater budget, and “Dear Evan Hansen” further cements that status.

The musical has an ensemble that plays a prominent role in a couple of numbers, and there is some lively, endearingly goofy choreography on “Sincerely, Me,” but this isn’t a traditional musical with a big ensemble and flashy dance numbers.

The focus is on eight characters, particularly Evan Hansen (Tom Millsap-Kijauskas), a teen with a financially stressed mother (Brandy Johanntges), no real friends and enough emotional issues that he has a therapist and a prescription to help deal with them. One of his assignments from the therapist is to write motivational letters to himself, starting “Dear Evan Hansen …,” about why today will be great.

One of the letters is taken from him by Connor Murphy (Andrew Baumeier), an angry loner who also is the older brother of Evan’s secret crush, Zoe (Natalia Kazimir). When Connor dies the next day, the note found on him is mistaken for a suicide note written to his friend, “Dear Evan Hansen.”

Connor’s parents (Kali Davies-Anderson and Brendan Boyle), struggling for answers, reach out to Evan, giving him the attention for which he’s starved and bringing him closer to Zoe. Being perceived as a friend of the dead kid increases Evan’s social standing, both at school and beyond, when his speech at a memorial service goes viral.

Ben Doss as a family friend who helps Evan build the paper trail to support his lies, and Karina Morgan as a teen who more cravenly uses Connor’s death to increase her social standing, round out the core cast.

Millsap-Kijauskas plays Evan like a walking open wound, a teen terrified by social interaction and fear of rejection. His performance makes the audience feel his inner pain and his vocals deserved the multiple mid-show ovations he received on Saturday.

Kazimir has played female leads in many MTC musicals, including “Heathers” and “Mean Girls,” and always impresses, but her vocals on “Requiem” and “Only Us” reached a new level.

Connor’s suicide happens early, but Baumeier remains a welcome presence throughout the show adding some much-needed levity. His teaming with Doss and Millsap-Kijauskas on “Sincerely, Me” was a standout.

One of the strengths of “Dear Evan Hansen” is it treats the parents with as much depth and sensitivity as the teens, and Johanntges, Davies-Anderson and Boyle make the audience feel their helplessness in dealing with their children’s issues. Johanntges and Davies-Anderson have several stellar vocal showcases, and Boyle’s “To Break in a Glove” will resonate with all of the fathers in the audience.

This is heavy material, but Asente and the cast never make it feel like a slog. There’s sadness, but there’s also catharsis, and Asente skillfully modulates the action between those extremes.

Perhaps the best choice made for this production was having a live band, conducted by music director Joe Spurio.

Sometimes, even a live orchestra can feel like nothing more than a backing track for the action on stage. That isn’t the case here. At many points during Saturday’s performance, the actors and the musicians interacted as a cohesive unit. It felt like the vocal choices were influencing the instrumental accompaniment and vice versa.

Asente’s set design effectively copies the look of the Broadway production with minimal set pieces and a collage of television monitors and scrims frequently filled with social media posts and stats.

I reviewed the national tour of “Dear Evan Hansen” when it played Cleveland in 2019. MTC’s production is every bit as satisfying, and the most expensive seats at the Playhouse are at least $100 cheaper than the orchestra seats were for that tour. Don’t miss it.