Winner of the 2017 Tony Award for Best Musical
“Dear Evan Hansen lodges in your head long after you’ve seen it or heard it or read it. It feels like a pure expression from young writers at a crossroad of coming to terms with who they are and what they want to say about the world. Its honesty and truths haunt and ultimately open us up to ask the same question, no matter what our age or crossroad: What are the lies we tell ourselves?” –James Lapine (from the Foreword)
A letter that was never meant to be seen, a lie that was never meant to be told, a life he never dreamed could be his. Evan Hansen is about to get the one thing he’s always wanted: a chance to belong. Deeply personal and profoundly universal, Dear Evan Hansen is a groundbreaking American musical about truth, fiction, and the price we’re willing to pay for the possibility to connect.
*This publication includes the book and lyrics to the musical, as well as a foreword by James Lapine. Please note that it does not include the musical score.*
Steven Levenson is the book writer for Dear Evan Hansen. His plays include If I Forget, The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin, Core Values, The Language of Trees, and Seven Minutes in Heaven. A graduate of Brown University, he served for three seasons as a writer and producer on Showtime’s Master of Sex.
Benj Pasek & Justin Paul are the song-writing team behind Dear Evan Hansen. Previous musicals include A Christmas Story: The Musical, Dogfight, James and the Giant Peach, and Edges. Their film projects include La La Land (for which they won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “City of Stars,” with composer Justin Hurwitz), Trolls, Snow White, and The Greatest Showman. Their television credits include The Flash, Smash, and Johnny and the Sprites. Both are graduates of the University of Michigan Musical Theatre Program and members of the Dramatists Guild of America, Inc.
Steven Levenson’s plays include The Unavoidable Disappearance Of Tom Durnin (Roundabout Theatre Company, Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Memorial Playwriting Award), Core Values (Ars Nova, Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Play), The Language of Trees (Roundabout), Seven Minutes In Heaven (Colt Coeur; Emerging America Festival/Huntington Theater Company), and the book for Dear Evan Hansen, with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Second Stage, OBIE Award for Musical Theatre, Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Book and Best Off-Broadway Musical, Drama League Nomination for Best Musical; Arena Stage, Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Musical). His play, If I Forget, will premiere at Roundabout in Spring, 2017. His plays are published by Dramatists Play Service and Playscripts. A graduate of Brown University and former Artist in Residence at Ars Nova, he has received new play commissions from Roundabout, Lincoln Center, MCC, and Ars Nova. Currently a writer and producer on Showtime’s Masters Of Sex, he is a founding member of Colt Coeur and an alumnus of MCC’s Playwrights Coalition and Ars Nova’s Play Group.
Benj Pasek & Justin Paul’s musical Dogfight had its world premiere at Second Stage Theatre, where it won the Lortel Award for Best New Musical. Theater credits include A Christmas Story, The Musical on Broadway, which received Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Outstanding New Broadway Musical; James and the Giant Peach; Edges. TV credits include “Smash,” “Sesame Street,” “Johnny and the Sprites.” Pasek and Paul created the song “Unlimited” for Old Navy’s 2014 back-to-school campaign, which earned them a Daytime Emmy Award nomination. Upcoming film projects include La La Land (Lionsgate); The Greatest Showman (FOX); Trolls (Dreamworks Animation); Medusa (Sony Pictures Animation); Tom and Jerry Return to Oz (Warner Bros Animation). Honors: Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre (American Academy of Arts and Letters), ASCAP Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, Jonathan Larson Award. Both are B.F.A. Musical Theatre graduates of the University of Michigan and members of the Dramatists Guild of America, Inc.
