Stephen Chbosky on Dear Evan Hansen and Why He Created a New Ending

With Dear Evan Hansen arriving in theaters on September 24th, I recently got to speak with director Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Wonder) about bringing the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical to movie screens. During the wide-ranging interview, he talked about why the film ending is different than the stage version, how they figured it out, why they cut certain songs and added new ones, the way the story deals with mental health, figuring out the three-act structure, and more. In addition, he talked about what it was like watching Ben Platt cry while singing on set and the way he worked with him on finding the right times to film the emotional scenes. If you’re not familiar with Dear Evan Hansen, the high school-set film is written for the screen by the show’s Tony-winning writer Steven Levenson, with music and lyrics by the show’s Oscar, Grammy, and Tony-winning songwriting team of Benj Pasek & Justin Paul. The story is about a high school outsider who gains friendship and fam
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