Dear Evan Hansen, winner of the 2017 Tony Award for Best Musical, will play its final Broadway performance September 18 at the Music Box Theatre. At closing, the production will have played 1,678 regular performances and 21 previews, making it one of the 50 longest-running shows in Broadway history. The international hit musical also recently surpassed Ira Levin's Deathtrap to become the longest-running show to ever play the Music Box.
To celebrate the musical penned by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, and Steven Levenson and directed by Michael Greif, we look back at the young actors who have played Evan Hansen, the sensitive high school student caught at the center of a story that spirals out of control, full-time on Broadway.
Ben Platt created the title role on Broadway in November 2016 following earlier productions at Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage and Off-Broadway's Second Stage. He subsequently won the 2017 Tony for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical and The Drama League's Distinguished Performance Award for creating the musical’s title role, a part he later reprised on screen.
Best known for his critically acclaimed performance in ABC’s The Real O’Neals, Noah Galvin made his Broadway debut in Dear Evan Hansen, succeeding the show’s Tony-winning originator, on November 21, 2017. Galvin, who later played a limited run in Waitress, donned Evan's striped polo and cast through February 4, 2018.
Following a turn originating the role of Barnaby in the Bette Midler-led revival of Hello, Dolly!, Taylor Trensch began his stint as Evan in January 2018, officially taking over the role February 6, 2018, and staying with the show through January 27, 2019. The actor was last seen on Broadway as Dill Harris in Aaron Sorkin’s stage adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird, and his other Broadway credits include The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Matilda, and Wicked.
In October 2017 Platt teamed up with incoming Evans Galvin and Trensch for a ’70s-inspired music video shot on the streets of New York City. Watch it below.
Andrew Barth Feldman, the winner of the Best Actor Award at the 2018 Jimmy Awards, was the first high school student to play high school student Evan Hansen on Broadway, making his Main Stem debut in January 2019 and continuing in the role through January 2020.
Dancing With the Stars champion Jordan Fisher made his Broadway debut in 2016 as John Laurens/Philip Hamilton in the Pulitzer Prize–winning Hamilton and debuted as Evan Hansen in January 2020 prior to the pandemic-related theatre shutdown. He also reopened Dear Evan Hansen in December 2021.
Ben Levi Ross originated the title role in the national tour of Dear Evan Hansen, subsequently playing the part on Broadway this past spring. He was also seen in the film version of tick, tick… BOOM!
In May Zachary Noah Piser made history becoming the first Asian-American actor to play the role of Evan full-time. Part of the Dear Evan Hansen family since March 2019, he performs the role through August 7.
Stephen Christopher Anthony, recently the lead in the North American tour of Dear Evan Hansen, will join the Broadway company as Evan beginning August 9.
Broadway's final Evan will be Sam Primack, who began his Dear Evan Hansen journey as an understudy on Broadway and then was the alternate Evan on tour. Primack will star in the title role at the Music Box September 6–18.
Dear Evan Hansen began previews at the Music Box November 14, 2016, prior to an official opening December 4. The musical was nominated for nine 2017 Tony Awards, winning six: Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score, Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical (Ben Platt), Best Featured Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical (Rachel Bay Jones), and Best Orchestrations.
