VIDEO: DEAR EVAN HANSEN Cast Talks The Show's Ever-Important Message About Mental Illness

The cast and creatives of Dear Evan Hansen sat down with CBS recently to talk about the show's ever-important message surrounding mental illness, depression, and suicide.

"What the audience found in this show and appreciated was a sense of authenticity," said playwright Steven Levenson. "I think it's about empowering people and letting them know that there is help, and that there are people that are there to listen. And as cheesy as that sounds, it's true."

The cast is finding increasing meaning in the show after the recent suicides of people in the public eye.

"There's a lyric that my character sings and it's, 'If you never get around to doing some remarkable thing, that doesn't mean that you're not worth remembering,'" Alex Boniello, who plays Connor Murphy, said. "When we look at someone like Anthony Bourdain or Kate Spade, these are people who've changed millions of lives and it still can't always fix or change whatever's going on that's causing the terrible issues for you. But to know that you're not alone, and that your life is worth something always."

"We had no idea that the show would start the conversations that it started ... and we're not experts. We quickly learned from the experts what to say and where to guide people and how to get people to the right places if they needed help," Levenson said. "Those early moves to kind of partner with those people and to get that conversation started were very beneficial to the show and kept us honest. And kept us knowing the responsibility that we had."

Watch the full segment below.

The winner of six 2017 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Dear Evan Hansen features a book by Tony Award-winner Steven Levenson, a score by Academy Award and Tony winning composers Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, and direction by 4-time Tony® Award nominee Michael Greif. The Original Broadway Cast Recording of Dear Evan Hansen, produced by Atlantic Records, was released in February 2017, making an extraordinary debut on the Billboard 200 and entering the chart at #8 - the highest charting debut position for an original cast album since 1961.

Dear Evan Hansen opened at the Music Box Theatre to rave reviews on December 4, 2016, where it's broken all box office records and has struck a chord with critics and audiences alike.

In addition to winning six Tony awards, Dear Evan Hansen has won numerous other awards, including the 2017 Drama League Award for Outstanding Musical Production and for the off-Broadway production, two Obie Awards, a Drama Desk Award, and two Outer Critics Circle Awards and two Helen Hayes Awards.