The Tony-Award winning musical is making its way to the big screen.
It’s been a bumper year for movie musicals already, what with In the Heights, Annette and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. And next up it’s time for Dear Evan Hansen to take centre stage.
The new film is adapted from the Tony Award-winning stage show of the same name, with songs written by the people behind two of the biggest movie musicals of recent years: La La Land and The Greatest Showman.
The stage musical has already been a huge hit on Broadway and the West End, and quite the cast has been assembled to bring it to the silver screen – with original stage star Ben Platt featuring alongside Hollywood heavyweights such as Julianne Moore and Amy Adams.
Around a month prior to release, Universal released a video in which the stars talked about the significance of the film’s track You Will Be Found, with Platt saying, “I think right now, in an unprecedented way, people are feeling isolated and stuck in their own minds.”
‘There’s a loneliness problem in the world,” adds co-star Nik Dodani. “And I think a song like You Will Be Found hits that note so hard.”
Yiu can check out the clip below to hear the rest of the cast’s views on the relevance of the song, with Julianne Moore, Amy Adams and Danny Pino all having their say.
Read on for everything you need to know about the film, including the release date, what it’s about, and a look at the first trailer.
Dear Evan Hansen release date
Although originally planned for September 2021, it was announced in May that the film will now make its debut in cinemas on Friday 22nd October 2021.
Meanwhile the film’s soundtrack album – which includes the brand new song The Anonymous Ones – will be released on Friday 24th September 2021 – the same day that the film is released in the US.
Dear Evan Hansen trailer
You can get a first look at the film by checking out the Dear Evan Hansen trailer below, which includes the track You Will Be Found.
Dear Evan Hansen cast
The lead role of Evan Hansen is played by the same actor who originated the role on stage, Ben Platt – whose previous screen credits include Benji Applebaum in the Pitch Perfect film series and the lead role of Payton Hobart in Netflix series The Politician.
Platt isn’t the only member of the original cast who appears in the film – the role of Connor, the student whose death acts as a catalyst for the events of the film, will be played by Colton Ryan, who was the understudy on Broadway.
The cast also includes Julianne Moore as Evan’s mother Heidi, while Connor’s family members are played by Amy Adams (The Woman in the Window), Danny Pino (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) and Kaitlyn Denver (Booksmart).
Supporting stars include Amandla Stenberg (The Eddy) as Alana Beck, Nik Dodani (Atypical) as Jared Kleinman, Liz Kate as Gemma and Isaac Cole Powell as Rhys.
There’s some impressive talent behind the camera as well: The Perks of Being a Wallflower filmmaker Stephen Chbosky directs, while the writer of the original musical Steven Levenson has penned the script.
The Grammy winning songs – all of which also featured in the stage musical – include You Will Be Found, Waving Through a Window, For Forever and Words Fail, and were all written by the Oscar, Grammy and Tony-winning songwriting team of Benj Pasek & Justin Paul.
Dear Evan Hansen plot
The film tells the story of the titular Evan Hansen, who is struggling through high school with social anxiety disorder.
During the film, he takes advantage of the suicide of a classmate to get closer to the classmate’s family, by pretending that he was good friends with their son.
He even goes so far as to create fake emails and letters that he pretends were sent to him by the dead student while he was still alive, and he soon inadvertently finds himself at the forefront of a viral video.
According to Universal Studios, the film tells the story of “an anxious, isolated high schooler aching for understanding and belonging amid the chaos and cruelty of the social-media age.”
Dear Evan Hansen will be released in cinemas on Friday 22nd October 2021. Looking for something else to watch? Check out our TV Guide. Visit our Movies hub for all the latest news.