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.
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.
The big problem in writing great musicals is not the difficulty of writing great songs. The big problem is that the songs, great or not, are cannibals, picking the stories clean and leaving a pile of bones. It's a zero-sum system. In musical dramas the problem is even worse, as innumerable failed adaptations of huge 18th-century novels have proved. (They often seem like Cliffs Notes of Cliffs Notes.) But when a musical drama clicks, an amazing fusion event occurs: The songs and the story enlarge each other in the process of becoming inseparable. Think of Sweeney Todd or, more intimately, Fun Home. And now add to the list Dear Evan Hansen, which opened tonight in a production beautifully directed by Michael Greif. I called the Off Broadway production at Second Stage this May 'the feel-anxious musical of the season.' But it is even better on Broadway, so fine in its craft and rich its gathering of themes that, like the best works of any genre, it rewards being seen again - and again.
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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