Dear Evan Hansen may have a sad underlining theme about societal pressures on queer teenagers but this multi-Tony Award-winning musical is such a sheer joy to experience. It started out with its origins in an incident that took place during writer Benj Pasek’s high school years and it takes the notion of “teenage Evan Hansen inventing an important role for himself in a tragedy that he did not earn.”
Most importantly the very success of the show has also provided and encouraged open dialogue about its themes of mental illness and youth suicide
Now the show is being adapted for the silver screen and kudos to Universal Pictures for casting the exceptionally talented Ben Platt in the leading role, Platt became the youngest Tony Award Winner ever for being the original Evan on Broadway, and although at 27 on paper he may seem a tad old for playing a schoolboy, it still works for us. The fact that Platt Senior is producing the movie is kind of neat that a father works with his own gay son on such sensitive material.
After Pasek and his (straight) writing partner Justin Paul picked up their awards for the Musical, they then collected an Oscar for writing the Best Song for La La Land. Maybe the Dear Evan movie will land them a second one?
Platt not only picked up seven major awards for his performance, but he also got himself a new boyfriend in the shape of actor/singer Noah Galvin who also took over his role-playing Evan.
The film’s ensemble cast includes Kaitlyn Dever, Amandla Stenberg, Nik Dodani, Colton Ryan, Danny Pino, Julianne Moore and Amy Adams.
It is scheduled to be released on September 24, 2021, by Universal Pictures.
