Dear Evan Hansen, the Tony, Grammy and Olivier Award-winning musical, will play its final Broadway performance on Sunday, September 18, nearly six years after opening at the Music Box Theatre, producers announced today.
At closing, the musical will have played 1,678 regular performances and 21 preview performances, making it one of the 50 longest-running Broadway shows in history.
The closing was announced today by producer Stacey Mindich.
After opening on Broadway on December 4, 2016, Dear Evan Hansen broke multiple box office records at the Music Box and recouped its investment in less than 9 months.
Though once one of Broadway’s hottest tickets, Dear Evan Hansen has seen box office declines since reopening in December following the Covid shutdown. In recent weeks, attendance has often been at 80% of capacity or even lower.
With a book by Steven Levenson , a score by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and direction by Michael Greif, the musical has played to more than 1.5 million audience members at the Music Box, according to producers.
“From our earliest reading of Dear Evan Hansen in 2011, there have been two great joys that stand out above all the others (and there are many),” said Mindich. “One is the sweeping and soaring show itself, which never fails to make me think, cry, laugh and try to be a better mother and person. The other is watching the profound change in the audience from when they walk into the theater to when they leave. I feel grateful to have been part of bringing Pasek, Paul, Levenson and Greif’s original musical to life – which has captured the hearts of so many, impacted millions of audience members across the globe, and literally changed lives with its with its breathtaking score and its vital and universal message.”
Dear Evan Hansen reopened its Broadway production on December 11, 2021, 21 months after the Covid shutdown began on Broadway. It currently has three productions running across the globe, with its Broadway, North American Tour and West End companies playing in tandem. The West End production concludes its Olivier-Award-winning run on October 22, 2022.
The current company of Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway includes Zachary Noah Piser, Talia Simone Robinson, Jessica Phillips, Christiane Noll, David Jeffery, Manoel Felciano, Jared Goldsmith, and Phoebe Koyabe, and Linedy Genao, Nathan Levy, Mateo Lizcano, Dan Macke, Jane Pfitsch, D’Kaylah Unique Whitley, Asa Somers, Josh Strobl, and Nicole Van Giesen. Following Piser’s run as Evan, Stephen Christopher Anthony, who currently plays the lead role on the North American Tour, will join the Broadway company as Evan Hansen for a limited 4-week engagement beginning August 9, 2022. Sam Primack, who made his Broadway debut as an Evan cover, will take over the role from Anthony, beginning in September 6, 2022 through September 18, 2022.
On July 19, 2022, Stranger Things star Gaten Matarazzo joins the company as ‘Jared Kleinman’, alongside returning cast members Ann Sanders as ‘Cynthia Murphy,’ Noah Kieserman as ‘Connor Murphy,’ and Ciara Alyse Harris as ‘Alana Beck.’
The musical was nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning six at the 2017 ceremony, including Best Actor/Musical for Ben Platt, Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score and Best Featured Actress for Rachel Bay Jones.
A 2021 film adaptation starring Platt and co-produced by his father Marc Platt was poorly received critically and at the box office, leading some Broadway insiders to speculate that the film – and controversies prompted by changing attitudes toward bullying – had a negative impact on Broadway attendance.