The cast for the film adaptation of the musical Dear Evan Hansenis becoming clearer. Stephen Chbosky is directing the film with the help of the duo who wrote the show, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.
Ben Platt will be Evan Hansen
It is none other than Ben Platt who will play the main role on the screen. It was him who first performed of the role on Broadway. For his incredible performance, he won several awards including the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
On Broadway, he played his last performance in February 2017. Since then, we have seen him in Ryan Murphy's series The Politician on Netflix. He also released an album, Sing To Me Instead : a gem!
He was also chosen to play in the film adaptation of Merrily We Roll Along which will be filmed over 20 years!
The actor has confirmed that filming will begin in a few months in Georgia and will appeal to all the fans of the show!
Julianne Moore will play Heidi Hansen
Do we still have to introduce her? Julianne Moore has shown her versatility as an actress more than once on screen. In the independent film Still Alice, she plays a linguistics teacher with Alzheimer's after playing politician Sarah Palin in the film Game Change.
She is one of two actresses to have won the "Best Actress Triple Crown", receiving the award for Best Actress at the Cannes, Venice and Berlin festivals.
Among her most notable performances, we remember Game Change, Far from Heaven, A single man, The Hours, Still Alice, to name a few.
The incredible actress will play the mother of Evan, who in the musical sings the incredible solo "Good For You".
Amy Adams to play Cynthia Murphy
The American actress is no stranger to movies and musicals.
After training in classical dance, Amy Adams went on to do musical theatre. Then 20 years old, she played in a dinner theatre (restaurant that combines meals and theatre) where she was a waitress and danced and sang. There, she appeared in A Chorus Line, Anything Goes,… Then she shot her first film, Drop Dead Gorgeous, and quickly, Hollywood loved her. We have seen her in more than 40 films including Catch Me If You Can, Junebug, Enchanted (in which we could hear her sing!), American Hustle, Sharp Objects...
We can't wait to discover her interpretation of Cynthia Murphy!
Kaitlyn Dever will play Zoe
Kaitlyn Dever is only 23 but she's no stranger to the big and small screen. His first appearance was in the film American Girl in 2009. Two years later, she played in the TV show Justified et Last Man Standing: a turning point for her career. She then appeared in the Hollywood films Bad Teacher, Detroit, Beautiful Boy. In 2019, she holds three important roles in films Them that follow, Booksmart and in the Netflix series Unbelievable.
She conquered our hearts in Booksmart and we are sure she'll do the same in Dear Evan Hansen !
Amandla Stenberg will play Alana
The actress made her debut in the film Columbiana in 2011 and then performed Rue in The Hunger Games the following after. On television she appeared in sitcoms Sleepy Hollow & Mr. Robinson.
In 2016, she appeared in Beyonce's music video, Lemonade (!!!) and in the teen drama Everything, Everything the following year.
Then in 2019, she played in 3 films that changed the course of her career: The Hate U Give, Where Hands Touch and The Darkest Minds.
In 2020, she appears in the musical mini series The Eddy, available on Netflix France!
In short, we are over-excited! A new song is being composed especially for the character!
Nik Dodani will be Jared Kleinman
If Nik Dodani tells you something, it's probably because you saw him in the Netflix series Atypical or in the sitcom Mr. Brown. Besides playing in the movies escape room, Alex Strangelove and Other People, Nik Dodani does stand-up. He made his debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
He studied politics and was involved in Elizabeth Warren's campaign, produced a political comedy tour titled Laughter Trumps Hate and was a communications consultant at RALLY.
Nik Dodani is hilarious and the role of Jared Kleinman will fit him like a glove!
Colton Ryan to play Connor Murphy
For Colton Ryan, playing Connor will be a piece of cake as he has already played the role on Broadway! He made his Broadway debut in Dear Evan Hansen where he was the understudy for Evan, Connor and Jared! He tread the boards again playing in Alice By Heart and Girl from the north country, before the musical was put on hold due to COVID.
Most recently he played in the series Little voice, with music composed by Sara Bareilles.
In the show, Connor only appears 15 minutes in total: we hope to see more of the character in the film!
Danny Pino to play Larry Murphy
Danny Pino is an expert on crime series: Cold Case, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Scandal, Gone,…
He also plays a drug lord in the series The Shield and Mayans MC On the big screen, he starred in Lucy, The Lost City and Flicka.
In the film, he will play Larry Murphy and sing "To Break In A Glove". For the film, the role of Larry was reimagined to be the stepfather of the Murphy children.
DeMarius Cope will play Oliver
Great news ! Steven Levenson, who is adapting the booklet for the big screen, has announced that he has written a new role for the film: Oliver. This character will be a friend of Zoe, Connor's sister, played by Kaitlyn Dever.
It is therefore DeMarius Copes who will play this role on the screen. He knows a thing or two about musicals: he was part of The Prom's world premiere in 2016. Then he played in the American tours of Newsies, Hamilton then Mean Girls. He joined the company of Mean Girls on Broadway in 2018.
The film Dear Evan Hansen has many surprises in store for us! We look forward !
Artistic team
Stephen Chbosky will direct the film Dear Evan Hansen.
The film will still include the music of the duo Pasek & Paul with some additions for the film. The duo is also behind the music for The Greatest Showman and the song "City of Stars" by La La Land.
Steven Levenson adapts his libretto for the movie.
The film is produced by Marc Platt and Adam Siegel under the Universal Studios group.