Dear Evan Hansen T.O. cast announced
Roster of performers joining Tony Award-winning musical includes Stratford, Shaw vets
A Stratford Festival favourite, a Torontonian who launched her career in the U.K. and an Ottawa-born country singer and actress are part of the cast of the first international production of Dear Evan Hansen.
Producers David Mirvish and Stacey Mindich announced the roster of Canadian performers joining Robert Markus in the Tony Award-winning musical on Wednesday morning.
It begins performances at the Royal Alexandra Theatre on March 5. Markus, who starred in Stratford Festival hit The Rocky Horror Show over the summer, will play the title role of Evan, it was announced last month.
In the musical by Oscar, Tony, Grammy and Golden Globe winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, with a book by Steven Levenson, Evan accidentally involves himself with the family of a deceased classmate, Connor Murphy, after a letter Evan has written to himself is mistaken for a suicide note from Connor. Believing that the socially anxious Evan was Connor’s best friend, the Murphys and Evan escalate the lie into a national movement.
Evan Buliung, a veteran of both the Stratford and Shaw festivals, joins the cast as Connor’s father, Larry. Buliung recently won a Dora Award for his performance in the Mirvish and Musical Stage Company co-production of Fun Home.
Toronto’s Jessica Sherman is getting her biggest role here at home as Heidi Hansen, Evan’s mother, after launching her career in the U.K. with shows like The Sound of Musicand The Stationmaster. Sherman won hearts in Toronto last year in the Fringe Festival hit musical The Preposterous Predicament of Polly Peel.
Connor will be played by Stratford native Sean Patrick Dolan, who has been seen in TV series like CBC’s Schitt’s Creek and Workin’ Moms. Country singer Steph La Rochelle, who has guest-starred on the CBC family drama Heartland and was runner-up on
the CBC reality competition Over the Rainbow, will play Zoe, Connor’s sister, who forms a romantic connection with Evan after her brother’s death.
P.E.I. native Claire Rankin, known for four seasons at the Stratford Festival and an extensive career in film and TV, including the movie Molly’s Game and the TV series Taken, returns to the stage after more than 20 years as Connor’s mother, Cynthia.
Two more promising local performers are playing classmates of Evan’s and Zoe’s. Alessandro Costantini, who has run independent musical theatre company YES Theatre in Sudbury for 10 years, will play Jared, who knows the truth about Evan.
Shakura Dickson will portray Alana, a key player in the social media movement inspired by Evan and Connor. Dickson has made a splash in Toronto theatre in a relatively short time, since her first appearance in Obsidian Theatre’s Other Side of the Game, followed by parts in Girls Like That and Jerusalem.
Understudies Erin Breen, Malinda Carroll, Jay Davis, Da- vid Jeffery, Laura Mae Nason and Kaitlyn Santa Juana make for a nearly all-Canadian cast, other than New York-based actor Zachary Noah Piser, Markus’s alternate as Evan. Dear Evan Hansen won six Tony Awards for its Broadway run, including Best Musical.
This production, under the direction of Tony nominee Michael Greif, begins rehearsals next week in New York before travelling to Toronto.
Tickets are on sale for performances through June 30. See mirvish.com for details.