Dear Evan Hansen, winner of the 2017 Tony Award for Best Musical, plays its final Broadway performance September 18 at the Music Box Theatre. At closing, the production will have played 1,678 regular performances and 21 preview performances, making it one of the 50 longest-running shows in Broadway history.
Sam Primack, who began his Dear Evan Hansen journey as an understudy on Broadway and then was the alternate Evan on tour, currently stars in the title role created by Ben Platt, who gave a Tony-winning, star-making performance as the high school student whose single lie takes on a life of its own.
Semester by Semester: A Look Back at the Evans of Broadway's Dear Evan Hansen
The company also currently includes Talia Simone Robinson, who became the first Black actor to play the role of Zoe Murphy beginning May 1; Jessica Phillips, Ann Sanders, Noah Kieserman, Manoel Felciano, Gaten Matarazzo, and Ciara Alyse Harris, along with Mateo Lizcano, Julian Diaz-Granados, Alex Humphreys, Matthew Edward Kemp, Jane Pfitsch, D’Kaylah Unique Whitley, Asa Somers, Josh Strobl, and Nicole Van Giesen.
Dear Evan Hansen features a score by the Tony- and Oscar-winning songwriting team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Dogfight, A Christmas Story), a book by Tony winner Steven Levenson (tick, tick...BOOM! movie), choreography by Danny Mefford (Fun Home), and direction by multiple Tony nominee Michael Greif (Rent, Next to Normal, If/Then).
“From our earliest reading of Dear Evan Hansen in 2011, there have been two great joys that stand out above all the others (and there are many),” said Stacey Mindich, the show’s Tony and Olivier-winning producer, in an earlier statement. “One is the sweeping and soaring show itself, which never fails to make me think, cry, laugh, and try to be a better mother and person. The other is watching the profound change in the audience from when they walk into the theater to when they leave. I feel grateful to have been part of bringing Pasek, Paul, Levenson, and Greif’s original musical to life—which has captured the hearts of so many, impacted millions of audience members across the globe, and literally changed lives with its with its breathtaking score and its vital and universal message.”
Dear Evan Hansen Sets Closing Date in London's West End
The musical also features scenic design by David Korins, projection design by Peter Nigrini, costume design by Emily Rebholz, lighting design by Japhy Weideman, sound design by Nevin Steinberg, and hair design by David Brian Brown. Music supervision, orchestrations, and additional arrangements are by Alex Lacamoire. Ben Cohn is the associate music supervisor. Vocal arrangements and additional arrangements are by Justin Paul. Casting is by Tara Rubin Casting's Kevin Metzger-Timson.
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. The international hit musical reopened its Broadway production December 11, 2021, 21 months after the COVID shutdown.
The London production of Dear Evan Hansen reopened at the Noël Coward Theatre October 26, 2021. The national tour resumed December 7 in Greensboro, North Carolina.
The Dear Evan Hansen film premiered in September 2021. Platt reprised his Tony-winning performance in the title role opposite Julianne Moore, Amy Adams, Danny Pino, Kaitlyn Dever, Amandla Stenberg, Colton Ryan, and Nik Dodani.
