Evan Hansen

Taylor Trensch, Andrew Barth Feldman, Jordan Fisher and Colton Ryan are among those who have played Evan Hansen on Broadway.

On stage, the role of Evan was originated by Ben Platt, beginning with the musical's workshop production in 2014 and performing the role publicly for the first time in Washington, D.C. at the Arena Stage.[10] The overwhelming positive reception toward the production and Platt's performance resulted in the show being transferred to Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theater in 2016 and finally to Broadway at the Music Box Theatre later that year.[11][12] Platt played his final on-stage performance in the role on November 19, 2017.[13] Notable replacements and understudies who have played the role on Broadway include Platt's future partner Noah Galvin, Taylor Trensch, Jordan Fisher, Ben Levi Ross and Colton Ryan, the latter of whom would go on to play Connor Murphy in the 2021 film version. In 2019, history was made when then-16-year-old Andrew Barth Feldman, following his win at the 2018 Jimmy Awards, became the first age-accurate actor to play the role on Broadway. He exited the role on January 26, 2020, prior to Jordan Fisher's run.[14] Serving as Evan alternates for the Broadway production included Michael Lee Brown and Zachary Noah Piser. During the show's US tour, which launched in October 2018 at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts' Buell Theatre and concluded on July 2, 2023 at the Koger Center for the Arts in Columbia, South Carolina, Ben Levi Ross originated the role of Evan, followed by Stephen Christopher Anthony (who served as the tour's first Evan alternate) and Anthony Norman. When Stephen Christopher Anthony assumed the role full-time, the alternate Evan position was later assumed by Sam Primack and Jeffrey Cornelius.[15]

Internationally, Robert Markus originated the role of Evan in the Toronto production at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in 2019, with Piser serving as his alternate.[16] Sam Tutty originated the role of Evan in the West End production at the Noël Coward Theatre in London, which began its run that same year before closing in 2022, with a brief halt in performances from March 2020 to October 26, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. Marcus Harman served as his alternate.[17][18][19] Máximo Meyer currently plays the role in the Argentinian production which opened in May 2023 at the Metropolitan Theatre in Buenos Aires.[20] In the Finnish production, which opened on September 28, 2023, Evan is played by Petja Pulkkinen, with Julius Suominen serving as his alternate.[21]

The musical was adapted into a young adult novel by actor and singer-songwriter Val Emmich, in collaboration with Pasek, Paul, and Levenson. The novel, which features additional material based on scenes and songs cut from the show's development that flesh out and expand upon the story, was released by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers on October 9, 2018. Despite not being entirely canon to the stage version, the novel adds in new scenes and story elements to explore more of Evan's character background, such as his appointments with Dr. Sherman, his family history involving his divorced father, attending Connor's wake and interactions with other characters.[22][1]

Ben Platt, as he appears as Evan in the 2021 film adaptation, for which he received widespread backlash for being allowed, at age 27, to reprise his role on-screen.

Ben Platt reprised the role of Evan in Universal Pictures' 2021 film adaptation of the musical, produced by his father, Marc Platt, and directed by Stephen Chbosky.[23] On his casting, Chbosky explained that the film's main goal was to capture and immortalize Platt's performance, saying that "His understanding of the character is so complete and so profound. I couldn't imagine anybody else playing it. It's his part. I felt very strongly about it. And to me it was never even a consideration."[24] He later explained that this was the reason why the film omitted the musical's opening number, "Anybody Have a Map", saying that "We're really on Evan's journey. It freed us up to meet all the characters through Evan. And it binds the audience to a way in Evan that is so valuable."[25] In the film, Evan's journey remains mostly the same, except for two notable changes: He does not see visions of Connor telling him to push forward with the lies and keep his memory alive (resulting from the cutting of "Disappear") and the story's ending was slightly altered to show him coming clean publicly through a video he posts on social media, followed by getting in touch with those who knew Connor to get to know him better and receiving a video of Connor performing music while in rehab, which he passes along to the Murphys, Alana, and Jared.

In a February 2021 interview with Drew Barrymore on The Drew Barrymore Show, Ben Platt described his experience of recreating his performance as Evan Hansen as "really special" and "bizarre", while also hoping the film will be "a really moving experience for a lot of different ages of people ... I think it's going to be particularly poignant in terms of everybody's inability and ability to reach out, and the ways in which we struggle to do that, and the magic that can happen when you do connect with someone and finally feel seen."[26] On May 13, 2021, Ben Platt admitted he was apprehensive about translating his performance for the screen. "I think I was nervous about having to meet that same level in a medium that I'm not necessarily as instinctually comfortable in, and that doesn't necessarily lend itself to the same kind of fireworks as a live performance." Ultimately, Platt overcame his personal reservations because they felt like "small beer...Having an opportunity to share this story with, like, millions more people is ultimately much more important than my being worried that my performance won't be as good as it was on stage." Platt also confirmed he lost weight and grew his hair out to look "authentic" as a gawky and fresh-faced 17-year-old.[27]

The portrayal of Evan in the 2021 film, however, was widely panned by critics and audiences alike even before it was released, all of whom deemed Ben Platt, at age 27 at the time, too old to play the part, attributing the casting decision to nepotism and the involvement of his father, Marc Platt, as one of the film's lead producers.[40] Adrian Horton of The Guardian, referring to Platt's presentation as a teenager, and the film's treatment of mental health, stated, "The movie asks the audience to not look at two elephants in the room, and unfortunately, no amount of soaring music can relieve that heavy a burden."[41] Nate Jones of Vulture also called out Platt for being too old for the character, adding that his de-aging makeup backfired. He joked, "When he gets up onstage for the second act's big musical number, I wasn't sure if he was going to memorialize his dead classmate or speak on the importance of 401(k) matching."[42] Peter Debruge of Variety, however, liked Platt's acting, but disliked the choice to cast "actors born the previous century" as high school students.[43] On August 8, 2021, in an interview with Zach Sang on his YouTube talk show, Ben Platt said "I think the reaction is largely from people who don't understand the context of the piece — the fact that I created the role and workshopped it for three years ... Were I not to do the movie, it probably wouldn't get made. And so, I think, my defensive response is to want to go onto Twitter and be like, 'F you, guys. You don't even know that this wouldn't exist without me.' Of course, that's not true entirely and not my place to say. All I have to do is let the work speak for itself."[44] His on-screen performance would earn him a nomination for Worst Actor at the 42nd Golden Raspberry Awards in 2022.[45]

The character of Evan Hansen has appeared and been parodied in other projects and media related to musical theater, as well as some related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Notable examples include a sketch during Season 47 of Saturday Night Live, which featured Kyle Mooney costumed in the character's design from the 2021 film version, and a segment of the Off-Broadway show Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation, which parodied the "Waving Through a Window" sequence.[46][47][48]