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