Dear Evan Hansen at Leeds Grand Theatre
Kristy Stott, Theatre Editor
A new production of the Olivier, Tony and Grammy award-winning Best Musical, Dear Evan Hansen is set to tour the UK from autumn 2024. We’re made up that the production (presented by Ambassador Theatre Group Productions and Nottingham Playhouse) will stop off at a number of Northern theatres, including Leeds Grand Theatre (5 – 9 November 2024), Liverpool Empire (12 – 16 November 2024) and Manchester Palace Theatre (18 – 22 February 2025).
Exploring themes around friendship and connection, the fragility of life and grief, and the impact of social media on mental health, it’s a musical that people of all ages can relate to.
Packed with some of the most popular musical theatre songs of the last decade, Dear Evan Hansen tells the story of Evan, a high school student who struggles with social anxiety and just desperately wants to fit in. When Evan becomes entangled in a web of lies following the death of a classmate, he finds himself at the centre of a wave of sympathy and attention. As his social currency skyrockets and events spiral out of control, Evan is compelled to make a decision: will he continue with the fantasy he’s created, or will he bite the bullet of truth and risk losing everything he has ever wanted?
Dear Evan Hansen premiered in 2015 at the Arena Stage in Washington DC, and since then, the musical has pretty much cleared up on the award front, winning a Tony Award for Best Musical, an Olivier Award for Best New Musical and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Score, amongst others. Directed by Adam Penford (Artistic Director at Nottingham Playhouse), with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Oscar-winning composers for The Greatest Showman) and book by Steven Levenson, this brand-new production marks the first time that this Broadway and West End smash-hit tours the UK and Ireland.
Since Dear Evan Hansen premiered in 2015 at the Arena Stage in Washington DC, and since then, the musical has pretty much cleared up on the award front.
Of this new production, director Adam Penford told us, “Dear Evan Hansen has thrilled audiences on both sides of the Atlantic since it first premiered in 2015. Evan’s powerful story grips and moves people, told through a captivating script and musical score. This first, major, new and exciting UK production offers the opportunity to reexamine some of its contemporary themes and present this brand-new version to Nottingham and around the UK.”
Packed with some of the most popular musical theatre hits of the last decade, ‘Waving through a Window’, ‘Words Fail’, ‘Only Us’ and ‘You Will Be Found’, Dear Evan Hansen is a musical for our times. Exploring themes around friendship and connection, the fragility of life and grief, and the impact of social media on mental health, it’s a musical that people of all ages can relate to. Don’t miss it when it comes up North.
