DEAR EVAN HANSEN's Ben Platt and More to Appear on This Week's THEATER TALK

This week's THEATER TALK welcomes three of the cast members of the new, thoroughly original Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen - Ben Platt (Evan Hansen), Rachel Bay Jones (Heidi Hansen, Evan's single mother), and Jennifer Laura Thompson (Cynthia Murphy, another key character).

The acclaimed musical's libretto is by Steven Levenson, with songs by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (recent Oscar winners for "City of Stars" from the movie La La Land), with direction by Michael Greif. The episode is co-hosted by THEATER TALK producer Susan Haskins and substitute co-host Jesse Green, at the time of taping the drama critic for New York Magazine, and recently named Co-Chief Theater Critic for The New York Times.

The show centers around Evan, a profoundly lonely 17-year-old who fabricates a prior friendship with a classmate who has just committed suicide. The story charts his acceptance into the boy's grieving family (Thompson portrays the deceased's mother) and the heartbreaking truths that emerge as Evan's DECEPTION becomes more elaborate.

Set within a universe ruled by social media, Dear Evan Hansen's design is a cacophony of projected images, words and sounds - a production that, according to Jones, can sometimes be almost "physically overwhelming" to the actors onstage. The guests all agree that joking and laughter backstage are necessary to counter the extreme emotional demands placed on the actors by the script.

Platt, who is onstage singing for almost the entire show, shares the weekly regimen that keeps him fit, which includes daily physical therapy and a gluten/dairy-free diet. The panel jokes about a "brand extension" called "The Evan Hansen Diet," and Jones counters that her character's diet is, "all cookies."

The Dear Evan Hansen cast edition of THEATER TALK premieres in the New York City metropolitan area Friday, March 31 (2017) on PBS station Thirteen/WNET at 1:30 AM (early Saturday morning) and repeats there on Sunday 4/2 at 11:30 AM; it re- airs on CUNY TV* Saturday 4/1 at 8:30 PM, Sunday 4/2 at 12:30 PM, and Monday 4/3 at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 7:30 PM; and also airs on WLIW/21 on Monday 4/3 at 5:30 PM and on NYCLife on Thursday 4/6 at 11 PM.

THEATER TALK is jointly produced by the not-for-profits Theater Talk Productions and CUNY TV. The program is taped in the Himan Brown TV and Radio Studios at The City University of New York (CUNY) TV in Manhattan, and is distributed to 100+ participating public television stations nationwide. THEATER TALK is made possible in part by The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The CUNY TV Foundation, and The Friends of THEATER TALK.

*CUNY TV, the City University of New York television station, is broadcast in the NYC metropolitan area on digital Ch. 25.3 and cablecast in the city's five boroughs on Ch. 75 (Spectrum & Optimum/Brooklyn), Ch. 77 (RCN), and Ch. 30 (Verizon FiOS). THEATER TALK episodes are available online anytime at www.cuny.tv and www.theatertalk.org and via iTunes.

Pictured: Jennifer Laura Thompson, Ben Platt and Rachel Bay Jones on THEATER TALK. (Image courtesy of Theater Talk Productions Inc. & CUNY TV.)