We're puzzled by the Dear Evan Hansen casting...
Thursday, September 3, 2020 at 10:00AM by Nathaniel R
They could play sisters!
Have you heard the news that Julianne Moore will be play Heidi, the awards-ready role of Evan Hansen's stressed out single mom in the feature adaptation of Dear Evan Hansen? Normally we'd applaud our beloved Julianne getting a juicy part but we find this puzzling given her lack of musical experience. You see there are two mom characters in the melodramatic high school set musical, Heidi and Cynthia, whose children become entangled. The show opens with a duet between them "Anybody Have a Map?" but Cynthia's role recedes thereafter and she never gets a solo while Heidi gets the 11th hour showstopper "So Big / So Small".
Here's the weird part...
In the less important, less musically strenuous role, they've cast Amy Adams, who is a complete natural for movie musicals as was evident in The Muppets and Enchanted. Shouldn't they be in each other's roles?
There's always a possibility they'll add a song for Amy Adams to beef up that part because it's surprising she'd take the part as is... at least considering the genre and her gifts.
The rest of the cast is also signed up. Danny Pino (46) will play Cynthia's husband Larry. Colton Ryan, who was the original understudy for all three crucial male teenage roles on Broadway, will play Conor whose fate in act one kicks the plot into motion. The always excellent Kaitlyn Dever (23) will play Zoe, Conor's sister who Evan Hansen falls for. Amandla Stenberg (22) and Nik Dodani (25) have also been cast in the roles of Alana and Jared, the other key high school students in the show.
Ben Platt, who turns 27 this month, is recreating his Tony-winning role on the film and that's worrisome. Platt is plenty talented but he reads fully as an adult onscreen now. He was 20 when he first started performing the role in workshops and 23 when he won the Tony. But you can't play a teenager forever and the stage is much more forgiving of age discrepancies in casting. What's more Evan's behavior is so troubling -- trust that some critics will tear the movie apart on principle because of the plot and the way it handles issues of consent therein -- that a film version will only work if the audience understands and sympathizes with a troubled teenager who doesn't know any better and is desperate for connection. It will be infinitely harder to forgive and perhaps impossible to root for an adult who is gaslighting grieving people onscreen.
The film version will be directed by Stephen Chbosky of Perks of Being a Wallflower and Wonder fame.
P.S. We've been LOLing over these videos from Katie Jo these past couple of days. Musical theater nerds MUST watch though the rest of you might be mystified.
BREAKING: Alice Ripley has been cast as Evan Hansen in the @DearEvanHansen movie pic.twitter.com/LqAk3hp4lO
— katie jo (@katiejoyofosho) September 1, 2020
BREAKING: @PatinkinMandy cast as Evan Hansen in ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ movie pic.twitter.com/c5Th7zLcLw
— katie jo (@katiejoyofosho) August 31, 2020
Reader Comments (29)
Perfect analysis. They're playing it "safe"--give the bigger role to the Oscar winner, get Platt back--but you succinctly explain why both choices are wrongheaded. This isn't GREASE, and the older the lead, the more problems arise.
It was so freaking weird! Switch the roles now!!!!
The film is produced by Marc Platt - I totally understand that he wants to give his son the role he originated, but it's going to ruin it
This is going to bomb so hard. 20 somethings playing teenagers got out of fashion in the 90s.
Much more excited for the upcoming adaptation of Everybody's Talking About Jamie which has cast a much younger unknown actor to play 16 year old Jamie along with Richard E Grant, Sharon Horgan and Sarah Lancashire in the mothers role which towers over the role of Heidi.
Are the mothers supposed to look alike (kinda)?
At least Moore is still stretching herself,she has never been in a musical.
Ben is too old, he already looked too adult on that terrible netflix show.
Was Dear Evan Hansen a big hit with teens, and did it need to be? I say this because if the crowd they're going after with this isn't teen dependent, but more a prestige/musical lovers crowd, then I think people will be okay with Platt. Most adults are used to seeing adults as teens (e.g., 90210, the WB, etc.).
I saw it on Broadway and Platt is amazing in the role. He also makes a fine teenager/young adult on The Politician. I also think Evan's social anxiety ages him up a bit. It's truly impossible to think about this being made without his talent.
I suspect Amy will get at least one or two original songs. Both for the Oscar, but also to beef up her role. I also think it will be fun to see both of these actresses in these roles.
Re: Adams and Moore, maybe they know the public will be clamoring for a "Woman in the Window" reunion.
Evan Hansen WAS a huge hit with teens, Joe. All those stories about young people—mostly girls—making their moms take them halfway across the country to see it, or the ones closer to New York making their moms take them four times. If they don’t get the teeniebopper crowd, they don’t really maximize their potential.
I am not looking forward to this.
Not that I disagree with the casting but I find the plot of Dear Evan Hansen so confusing I struggle with keeping track of character motivations and tend to lose interest. Am I just being a bit thick?
@Dan, that makes sense. But, aren't those kids mostly in college/the workforce by now? And, isn't part of the draw Ben Platt himself?
I guess I like when Broadway stars, who become huge, get to do the film version of their movie. This is a moment where it makes sense, and where I think it's hard to imagine any unknown/modestly known teen actor nailing the part the way Platt does. But, I could definitely be wrong.
Not good on paper... we will see.
Ben Platt was stupefyingly great onstage in this role...he elevated the show into something artful. I've seen it with other Evans, and it is...a lesser piece by far. Yes he is too old, but what he brings to DEH can't be underestimated, and I think the suspension of disbelief that's necessary will be a small sacrifice to having the overall film soar. DEH isn't an amazing show, it's basically an elevated after-school special, but Platt's immediacy, terror, and despair made it something really special.
Casting of Julianne is super surprising...hope she's starting her vocal coaching now! But I can see her and Platt doing wonderful work together.
And getting hot Danny Pino is an even more welcome surprise.
"You can't play a teenager forever and the stage is much more forgiving of age discrepancies in casting." This coming from the same site that was okay with a 23-year-old Florence Pugh playing a 12-year-old Amy March? Interesting...
Also, Tobey Maguire turned 27 the year the first Spider-Man came out (at which point the character was graduating High School) and most people didn't seem to have a problem with that. Same with most of the cast of Glee, so I feel if it's stylized enough (Dear Evan Hansen is a musical after all), it might work. Some things are easier to accept in the hyper-realist setting of a musical.
I saw a production in the west end and I’m intrigued to see how it will translate to film.
I love Julianne and will gladly die on a hill saying she’s ‘overdue’ for 2 oscars but I keep wondering what Toni Collette would be like in this role - she was in the mix for Chicago & Sweeny Todd if I remember correctly. Musical justice for Toni!
Ben does seem a bit old for the role but holy crap his voice is beautiful.
I co-sign, especially that Amy Adams ought to play Evan's mom. "So Big/So Small" is a heartbreaker that I know Adams would be able to pull off with aplomb--and perhaps win her that elusive Oscar. As for Platt being too old, I agree, but I guess they are going with the marquee name. His boyfriend, Noah Galvin, would be a more plausible teenager or Andrew Barth Feldman who is still a teenager.
Choog -- that's why i said he's plenty talented. His voice is beautiful. But he's 27 years old! How is he going to pull off a fragile teenager that people don't immediately loathe when he gaslights a teenage girl?
There really was no way they were NOT going to have Ben Platt reprise his role. If they hadn't, the fandom backlash would have been too huge and they need that fandom. Then again, that didn't really work with RENT I guess.
@Choog - I think Toni Collette is biding her time for NEXT TO NORMAL. She'd be perfect for that.
Wow, talk about fighting for scraps. Tough times for the former A-list ladies.
They should have cast Jordan Fisher instead! He was phenomenal on Broadway and looks much closer to a teenager than Platt!
look at Zac Efron. He's now an adult. Do you think he could ever play "17 Again? EH has to be a teenager. I saw it with Andrew Barth Feldman and it was totally believable. Ben Platt was great, but you would have to suspend reality for him to continue to be EH.
Maybe if they set some money aside to de-age him like they did for DeNiro and Pacino in THE IRISHMAN...
Isn't Platt a bit old to be in high school?
I'm really ready for this movie...I saw Ben Platt play the lead on the Tonys and applaud the movie coming soon.
It is not curious that many complain that theater actors do not receive the opportunity to reprise their roles when these productions are taken to the cinema.
Here we have the rare case of an actor who will have the opportunity to play the role he did in theater now in cinema and still people complain.
Why they aren’t using everyone’s wish for Adams to win an Oscar and give her the bigger part. But casting of the lead sounds so disastrous I don’t have hope for the film. It will be mentioned in list like WatchMojo of movies that cast adults to play teens and otherwise forgotten, par a miracle.
Whatever issues there are with the source material, Stephen Chbosky will handle it without any problems. Those who've seen Perks and Wonder know that he's a really sensitive and delicate director. No cause for worry at all there.