Producer Stacey Mindich and the cast of Dear Evan Hansen accept the award for Best Musical onstage during the 2017 Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 11, 2017 in New York City.Theo Wargo
Dear Evan Hansen, the smash-hit show that beat Come From Away for the Tony Award for Best Musical last spring, will have its first international production in Toronto in 2019.
New York producer Stacey Mindich and Toronto's David Mirvish announced Thursday that they will partner to present a Canadian production of the musical at the Royal Alexandra Theatre beginning March of next year.
"I first saw Dear Evan Hansen [off-Broadway] at the Second Stage in April, 2016 – my reaction to it was immediate and profound," Mirvish said in a statement. "I am confident Canadian audiences will love the show as much as I do, and will cherish the universal truths it tells."
Dear Evan Hansen is about an anxious teenager named Evan who weaves an intricate web of online lies after a tragedy strikes his high school – and it's become a real phenomenon on Broadway, especially with younger audiences.
It's written and composed by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the songwriting duo who have already won a Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe for their catchy songs that have appeared in films such as La La Land and The Greatest Showman. The book is by Steven Levenson and the musical is directed by Michael Greif of Rent fame.
The news of the Toronto production of Dear Evan Hansen comes the same week that Mirvish Productions opened the Canadian-written Come From Away outside of New York at the Royal Alexandra Theatre – and that the two most successful shows of last Broadway season have chosen Toronto as their next stop seems to signal a resurgence in interest in the city from Broadway producers as a significant market for so-called "sit-down" productions rather than tours.
J. Kelly Nestruck