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.
A letter that was never meant to be seen, a lie that was never meant to be told, a life he never dreamed he could have. Evan Hansen is about to get the one thing he’s always wanted: a chance to finally fit in.
What does it look like when a star is born? In the case of Ben Platt, the astonishing young actor who plays the title role in Dear Evan Hansen, it's a bit like an actual birth: beautiful but strange and wet, tinged with confusion and danger. Evan is painfully introverted; he has no friends in high school, and even the thought of talking to a girl he likes, Zoe (the poignantly unaffected Laura Dreyfuss), makes his palms perspire. Platt's performance extends that to his whole body; when he sings, his face often gleams with sweat. Yet the effect is not off-putting; Evan is immensely lovable, even when he makes terrible mistakes. He speaks in rushes of instant regret, as though frantically digging a hole to bury himself in, and his intense awkwardness is filtered through first-rate comic timing, high-wire dramatic acting and a gorgeously expressive tenor voice.
The show was already impressive in its lauded off-Broadway premiere at Second Stage Theatre earlier this year, directed with as much vitality as sensitivity by Michael Greif. But the characterizations now seem even more fully lived-in and the connective tissue among the ensemble - whether playing biological or adoptive family, young lovers or high school acquaintances thrust into an uneasy friendship of convenience - has genuine sparks. The entire cast of that earlier production returns minus one, with Michael Park reprising the role he originated in 2015 at Arena Stage in D.C.
2015 | Washington, DC (Regional) |
Arena Stage World Premiere Production Washington, DC (Regional) |
2016 | Off-Broadway |
Second Stage Original Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
2016 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2019 | Toronto |
Original Canadian Production Toronto |
2021 | West End |
Original West End Production West End |
2021 | US Tour |
First National Tour US Tour |
2024 | US Tour |
US Tour US Tour |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2017 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Book of a Musical | Steven Levenson |
2017 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Direction of a Musical | Michael Greif |
2017 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Leading Actor in a Musical | Ben Platt |
2017 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Musical | Dear Evan Hansen |
2017 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Orchestrations | Alex Lacamoire |
2017 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Score | Benj Pasek |
2017 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Ben Platt |
2017 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Rachel Bay Jones |
2017 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Broadway of Off-Broadway Musical | Dear Evan Hansen |
2017 | Tony Awards | Best Book of a Musical | Steven Levenson |
2017 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Musical | Michael Greif |
2017 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Musical | Japhy Weideman |
2017 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Musical | Japhy Weideman |
2017 | Tony Awards | Best Orchestrations | Alex Lacamoire |
2017 | Tony Awards | Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre | Benj Pasek |
2017 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical | Mike Faist |
2017 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical | Ben Platt |
2017 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical | Rachel Bay Jones |
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