Dear Evan Hansen movie casts Nik Dodani and Colton Ryan
© Left: Maplegutter / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0), right: David Gordon
Opening to a raft of five-star reviews, two WhatsOnStage Awards and seven Olivier Award nominations, the hit musical follows a teenager, Evan, who pretends to be friends with a deceased pupil to become popular at school. It includes numbers such as "You Will Be Found" and "For Forever".
Joining this week's revealed star Amandla Stenberg will be Nik Dodani (Netflix's Atypical) taking on the role of Jared Kleinman, Evan's family friend.
Colton Ryan (Girl from the North Country) will return to the role of Connor Murphy for the film, which is currently in development with Stephen Chbosky (Wonder) attached to direct. Ryan previously made his Broadway debut in the show as an understudy for Evan, Jared and Connor.
The cast is slowly piecing itself together – Ben Platt is expected to reprise his Tony Award-winning role as Evan, with Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart) in talks to play the role of Zoe Murphy. Dever recently visited the West End production while in London.
Creators Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Steven Levenson recently discussed the eagerly anticipated film version of the hit show, which is currently in development, with WhatsOnStage:
It has words and music by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and is directed by Michael Greif, with choreography by Danny Mefford, design by David Korins, projection design by Peter Nigrini, costume design by Emily Rebholz, lighting design by Japhy Weideman, sound design by Nevin Steinberg and hair design by David Brian Brown. Music supervision, orchestrations and additional arrangements are by Alex Lacamoire. Ben Cohn is the associate music supervisor. Vocal arrangements and additional arrangements are by Paul.
WhatsOnStage said of this five-star show: "Dear Evan Hansen is a desperately powerful exploration of a troubled teen sacrificing the truth for a sense of comfort – startlingly relevant for a world swaddled in screens and fleeting fictions."
