Writer-Producer
“Dear Evan Hansen,” an affecting new musical set at a high school, is making a quick transfer to Broadway this fall.
The musical, about a teenager with social anxiety whose stature is transformed when the school bully kills himself, on Sunday will end a sold-out Off Broadway run, at Second Stage, which began March 26. The show has won strong reviews and this week its creative team won an Obie (the big award for Off Broadway shows) for musical theater while its star, Ben Platt, 22, won an Obie for his performance.
The show is striking for its moral complexity as well as its musical ambition, as it explores how a ballooning lie, amplified by the connective tissue of social media, reorders familial and peer relationships in a small community responding to an unexpected tragedy. Mr. Platt, who is best known for his work in the “Pitch Perfect” films, gives a moving performance as the title character, while Rachel Bay Jones is winning plaudits for her poignant portrayal of his single mother.
“Dear Evan Hansen” features music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who previously collaborated on Broadway’s “A Christmas Story,” and a book by the playwright Steven Levenson. The show, which had a production last year at Arena Stage in Washington, is directed by Michael Greif, who is no stranger to the art of musicalizing adolescent darkness — Mr. Greif directed “Next to Normal,” as well as “Rent.”
The Broadway production of “Dear Evan Hansen” will be produced by Stacey Mindich, and is scheduled to begin performances in November at an unspecified Shubert Theater.
BOOK BY
STEVEN LEVENSON
MUSIC AND LYRICS BY
BENJ PASEK & JUSTIN PAUL
CHOREOGRAPHY BY
DANNY MEFFORD
DIRECTED BY
MICHAEL GREIF
All his life Evan Hansen has felt invisible. To his peers, to the girl he loves, sometimes even to his own mother. But that was before he wrote the letter – that led to the incident- that started the lie – that ignited a movement – that inspired a community – and changed Evan’s status from the ultimate outsider into the somebody everyone wants to know. But how long can Evan keep his secret? And at what price?
Dear Evan Hansen is the original new musical making its New York premiere this spring at Second Stage Theatre, following a sold-out run in Washington, D.C., whereThe Washington Post hailed it as “entertainingly smart and radiating charm, wit and humor.” The musical unites the award-winning creators behind some of Second Stage’s most celebrated productions. A brand new score features the talents of the Tony-nominated composing team Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (A Christmas Story,Dogfight and NBC’s “Smash”). Directed by three-time Tony nominee Michael Greif(Rent, Next to Normal, Grey Gardens) and written by Steven Levenson (Showtime’s “Masters of Sex”).
A tribute to the outsider in us all, Dear Evan Hansen is about someone you know, maybe even someone you are, but more than anything, it’s about discovering the person we all long to be – ourselves.
