Dear Evan Hansen: History and Key Facts

Dear Evan Hansen is a stage musical with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, and a book by Steven Levenson. The musical follows Evan Hansen, a high school senior with social anxiety, "who invents an important role for himself in a tragedy that he did not earn".

The show's world premiere was at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. in July 2015. After an Off-Broadway production at Second Stage Theatre from March to May 2016, the musical transferred to Broadway, opening at the Music Box Theatre in December 2016. It closed on September 18, 2022.

The show received critical acclaim; at the 71st Tony Awards, it was nominated for nine awards, winning six, including Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score, Best Actor for Ben Platt, and Best Featured Actress for Rachel Bay Jones.

A film adaptation was directed by Stephen Chbosky and co-produced by Marc Platt, the father of Ben Platt, who reprised his performance in the title role. Released by Universal Pictures on September 24, 2021, it was a box-office disappointment and received negative reviews from critics. This, along with soft ticket sales caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, became the leading factors that would cause both the Broadway and West End productions to close.

Source and attribution

Text excerpted from Dear Evan Hansen by Wikipedia contributors, available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. The extract is abridged and formatting has been adjusted; the adapted text on this page is shared under the same licence. Revision history.