Dear Evan Hansen, the show that won the 2017 Tony Award for Best Musical, will end its six-year Broadway run on Sunday.
The production will close after 1,678 performances at the Music Box Theatre, making it one of the 50 longest running shows in Broadway history. The show, with songs from Oscar winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and a book by Tony winner Steven Levensen, centers around the life of a teenage boy whose want for a sense of belonging causes him to get swept up in a lie. It was nominated for nine Tony Awards in 2017 and won six.
One of those awards went to performer Ben Platt, who won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for originating the role of Evan Hansen. In 2021, Platt returned to the role in Stephen Chbosky‘s Dear Evan Hansen film adaptation. Actor Sam Primack currently portrays the musical’s titular teen, and he will close the show in the role.
“It’s been such an amazing roller coaster of a ride to be a part of for the last 3 1/2 years,” Primack told ABC Audio. “This has been, for me, a gateway into this community that I have dreamed of being a part of for so long.”
According to Primack, the show, which touches on themes of anxiety and depression, has helped audiences know that they are not alone.
“People are coming to the show looking for an outlet to see themselves,” Primack said. “They come with their own problems and their own anxieties and their own depressions. And something that I have been really fortunate enough to be able to tell the audience every night is that you will be found.”
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