'Dear Evan Hansen' Trailer: Ben Platt Brings The Tony-Winning Musical To The Big Screen

Dear Evan Hansen has made it to the big screen. A musical sensation when it debuted on Broadway in 2015, the Tony-winning musical now gets the feature film treatment with original star Ben Platt back in his blue polo, and looking a little rough for a teenager. Watch the Dear Evan Hansen trailer below.

Directed by Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being A Wallflower, Wonder), Dear Evan Hansen follows a teenage boy with social anxiety (Platt) who is tasked with writing encouraging letters to himself by his therapist. But when one of those letters ends up in the pocket of a fellow student who commits suicide, Evan Hansen ends up caught in a lie that finally affords him all the friends and affection he'd been craving — but at the cost of pretending to be someone he's not.

Dear Evan Hansen was a deeply polarizing musical when it debuted in 2015 for exactly the reasons you probably think, having just read that premise. But despite the criticisms over its story, Dear Evan Hansen went on to win six Tony Awards, including Best Actor for Platt, who reprises the role of the teenaged Evan Hansen at a fresh-faced 27 (please free this man from playing high schoolers for the rest of his life, he got so close with Pitch Perfect). But regardless what you think of the musical, it's undeniably got some good songs, composed by the Tony-winning songwriting team Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, the hit makers behind the songs from La La Land and The Greatest Showman. The Tony-winning writer Steven Levenson also adapts the book for the screen.Dear Evan Hansen stars Amy Adams, Julianne Moore, Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart), Amandla Stenberg (The Hate U Give), Colton Ryan (Apple TV+'s Little Voice), Nik Dodani (Netflix's Atypical), DeMarius Copes (Broadway's Mean Girls), and Danny Pino (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit). It's produced by Marc Platt (La La Land, Into the Woods, Mary Poppins Returns) and Adam Siegel (2 Guns, Drive), and is executive produced by Michael Bederman, Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.

Here is the synopsis for Dear Evan Hansen:

The breathtaking, generation-defining Broadway phenomenon becomes a soaring cinematic event as Tony, Grammy and Emmy Award winner Ben Platt reprises his role as an anxious, isolated high schooler aching for understanding and belonging amid the chaos and cruelty of the social-media age.

Universal has set Dear Evan Hansen to open in theaters September 24, 2021.