DEAR EVAN HANSEN
Award-winning musical settles into its new home at the Royal Alexandra Theatre,
The grey bricks of the Royal Alexandra Theatre have turned a bright, deep blue, officially transforming it into the home of the first international production of the Tony Awardwinning musical Dear Evan Hansen.
As the theatre prepared to welcome preview audiences for the first time this week, media got a glimpse at the nearly allCanadian cast alongside producers David Mirvish and Stacey Mindich, director Michael Greif, book writer Steven Levenson, and composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.
The musical moved into the Royal Alex just after its previous resident, Come From Away, relocated to the Elgin Theatre: The two shows were competitors at the 2017 Tony Awards, which saw Dear Evan Hansen win Best Musical, Book and Score. But with the rivalry in the past, spirits were high as
Evan Hansen welcomed its first audiences.
“We love that show. We were neighbours in New York and now we get to share Toronto together. So we feel mighty happy to be total followers and follow them up here,” laughed Paul, sitting beside longtime writing partner Pasek, who added, “Come From Away, too, is an example of an original musical, there’s so few, and it is a success on Broadway. And I think that success will just perpetuate more original musicals because people will think, ‘Maybe I’ll take the risk to invest or produce,’ and it’s all good for everyone.”
In a Broadway market saturated with new productions sourced from film, TV and literature, Dear Evan Hansen is the first original concept from the writing duo, who are also known for creating the Oscarwinning music for La La Land, The Greatest Showman and the TV series Smash.
The two formed a creative partnership while studying at the University of Michigan, where they wrote their first project, the song cycle Edges, about young adults in the early days of social media. Around the same time, Pasek got the idea to write about the phenomenon of young people expressing grief online for the deaths of classmates.
But the initial pitch was “hard to make into a musical. It was very cynical and there was not a lot of genuine heart to it,” Paul said.
That’s where playwright Levenson came in, to turn the germ of Pasek and Paul’s idea into a story that resisted the cynicism inherent in the concept of faux-mourning.
“We wanted to understand the human story about people that were so desperate to connect, so desperate to belong, that they would do anything, including lie, about tragedy, to somehow escape that loneliness and feel some sense of belonging,” Levenson said.
The way the musical portrays teenage anxiety, isolation and internet culture has inspired a dedicated following of young musical theatre fans, which has helped fuel the production’s substantial financial success.
“The interesting thing about Evan is he’s not a hero,” Levenson said. “The things he does are not virtuous nor wise or commendable. But I think that’s why people relate to him, especially young people, because he is flawed and, in the end, goes through a tremendous amount of pain and suffering, but is ultimately OK.”
Levenson can relate to young musical theatre fans who find connection in a stage production; for him, that show was Jonathan Larson’s Rent, directed by Michael Greif. And Greif is the director behind Dear Evan Hansen.
“I can really only speak from the American perspective, but we’re in a state in which we’re constantly questioning the truth of our leaders’ statements,” Greif said. “I think we managed to be very emotional and very sincere and very generous in a very cynical time. I think maybe that’s what makes the show so very successful, too.”
Greif says the emotional extremes that the show demands have struck the Canadian cast differently than the American performers. “They joked about how it’s very American of these characters to fly off the handle like this. We don’t generally do that, they say. ‘It’s not very Canadian, but we get it.’ ”
But for Canadian performers like Robert Markus, the opportunity to go to those extremes is worth going beyond the rehearsal room or the stage to prepare.
“I think for me is, what’s almost more important is to make sure I’m emotionally content and happy as a person first so I can bring the best of myself to this role,” said Markus, coming off the Stratford Festival’s Dear Evan Hansen. Rocky Horror Show to take on the infamously difficult role of Evan. “I’ll go home on the weekends (to Stratford), I’ll see my dog and get back to my life.”
Dear Evan Hansenis currently selling tickets until June 30 and Markus is preparing for the long haul. When it officially opens on March 28, it will join Come From Away as one of two productions with open-ended runs in Toronto.