Everything You Need to Know About the DEAR EVAN HANSEN Movie

The Tony Award-winning Best Musical "Dear Evan Hansen" is getting the movie musical treatment! BroadwayWorld collected all the information we could about the upcoming film - including who's starring, what roles haven't yet been cast, and what will change from stage to screen.

Dear Evan Hansen is the deeply personal, and profoundly contemporary, musical about what happens when we let a lie consume us. This groundbreaking musical - featuring a book by Tony-winner Steven Levenson and a score by the Grammy, Tony and Academy Award winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul - examines what it means to be alive.

Find out what we know about the Dear Evan Hansen movie below!

---

Who's in the cast of the Dear Evan Hansen movie?

The cast of the upcoming movie musical is - in a word - star-studded. Broadway originator Ben Platt will return to play Evan Hansen, a high school senior with social anxiety who writes himself letters every morning.

Platt won a Grammy, Emmy, and a Tony Award for his portrayal of Evan Hansen. Could he also take home an Academy Award for the film version?

Many Hollywood A-listers have also signed on to the project, including Amy Adams, Julianne Moore, Amandla Stenberg, Kaitlyn Dever, and Danny Pino.

Adams plays Cynthia Murphy, Connor (Colton Ryan) and Zoe (Dever)'s mother; Moore will play Heidi Hansen, mother of Evan. Pino joins the cast in a reimagined role as Larry Murphy, Connor's stepfather, where Stenberg's role of Alana Beck will also be expanded.

Ryan plays Connor Murphy, the high school senior whose suicide sparks the events of the story. Nik Dodani also stars as Evan's friend Jared Kleinman.

Broadway star-on-the-rise Isaac Powell (West Side Story) recently joined the cast of the film. He will play Rhys, the school jock. Additional cast members include Broadway's DeMarius Copes, Gerald Caesar, and Liz Kate.

Platt received a Grammy Award for his role on the DEAR EVAN HANSEN (ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST RECORDING), as well as a 2018 Daytime Emmy Award for his part in the cast's powerful performance of "You Will Be Found" on NBC's TODAY. His rapidly growing body of work also includes memorable roles in the Tony Award-winning original Broadway production of The Book of Mormon and the blockbuster films, Pitch Perfect and Pitch Perfect 2, amongst many others. Platt stars on The Politician, produced by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan (Glee) and co-starring Jessica Lange, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Zoey Deutch.

Adams is a six-time Academy Award-nominated actor known for roles in "Arrival," "American Hustle," and "Big Eyes." She sang as the leads in in "Enchanted" and "The Muppets," and she played the Baker's Wife in The Public Theater's 2012 production of "Into the Woods."

Moore is an Academy Award and Emmy winning actor, and the first AMERICAN WOMAN to be awarded top acting prizes at the Cannes, Berlin, and Venice film festivals. Julianne has recently starred in The Woman in the Window (2020), The Glorias (2020), the Apple series Lisey's Story (2020), and Mothertrucker (2021).

Stenberg made her acting debut with the film Colombiana (2011), and had her breakthrough starring as Rue in the film The Hunger Games (2012), for which her performance was praised. She has since starred as Madeline Whittier in the film Everything, Everything (2017), and Starr Carter in the film The Hate U Give (2018), both of which she received critical acclaim for her performances, earning her several awards and nominations.

Dever is best known for starring opposite Beanie Feldstein in the Olivia Wilde-directed Booksmart and for her Golden Globe-nominated role in Unbelievable. She has also had roles in Short Term 12, Men Women and Children, Laggies, Detroit, Outside In, and Them That Follow, and the FX drama Justified.

Pino is best known for his role on "Mayans." He's also starred in "Across The Hall" and "The Burning Plain."

Powell is a 2017 graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He starred as Tony in the 2019 Broadway revival of "West Side Story," and as Daniel in the 2017 revival of "Once on This Island."

What roles haven't yet been cast in the Dear Evan Hansen movie?

It seems that all of the major roles in the "Dear Evan Hansen movie have been cast, but new characters - including the ones played by Isaac Powell and Liz Kate - have been added to the roster.

Who's directing the Dear Evan Hansen movie?

Novelist and screenwriter Stephen Chbosky ("The Perks of Being a Wallflower") will direct the film. He's also known for writing musical screenplays for the 2005 "Rent" film, and for the 2017 live adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast."

Who wrote the Dear Evan Hansen movie?

Bookwriter Steven Levenson returns to write the screenplay. The original music, from Academy Award-winners Benj Pasel and Justin Paul, will appear in the film.

Steven Levenson's plays include The Unavoidable Disappearance Of Tom Durnin (Roundabout Theatre Company, Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award), Core Values (Ars Nova, Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Play), The Language of Trees (Roundabout), Seven Minutes In Heaven (Colt Coeur; Emerging America Festival/Huntington Theater Company), and the book for Dear Evan Hansen, with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Second Stage, OBIE Award for Musical Theatre, Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Book and Best Off-Broadway Musical, Drama League Nomination for Best Musical; Arena Stage, Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Musical).

As a songwriting duo, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul have won an Academy Award ("La La Land"), a Tony Award, a Grammy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards. In addition to Dear Evan Hansen, the pair's musical theatre catalogue includes Dogfight, James and the Giant Peach, and A Christmas Story: The Musical. They also wrote the songs for "The Greatest Showman."

What's different about the movie?

Danny Pino's character, Larry Murphy, has been "conceived specifically for the film" to "highlight the already diverse cast," according to Deadline. So far, all we know is Larry is Connor Murphy's stepfather in this iteration. In the stage show, Larry is Connor's father.

Similarly, Stenberg's role of Alana has been expanded for the upcoming film. According to Billboard, the film Alana is "a high school senior whose cheery facade and social-media savvy mask a deeper loneliness and isolation, and whose response to the death of a classmate ignites a movement."

Roles played by Powell, Kate, Copes, and more do not appear in the stage musical.

When does filming start?

There is no word yet on when filming will commence on the film.

---

BroadwayWorld will be sure to fill you in on additional changes and updates as we hear about them!