Dear Evan Hansen, Tony-winning musical, heads to Broadway Sacramento for January dates

The Broadway On Tour presentation of “Dear Evan Hansen,” the award-winning musical, will make a stop at the Memorial Auditorium for a January residency starting Wednesday and wrapping up Jan. 26.

Broadway Sacramento will host the show that nabbed six Tony awards in 2017, including best score and best musical, and a Grammy in 2018 for best musical theater album. A New York Times review called Dear Evan Hansen, “A gut-punching, breathtaking knockout of a musical.”

The coming-of-age story focuses on the titular character, Evan Hansen, portrayed by Stephen Christopher Anthony (“Catch Me If You Can,” and “Book of Mormon”), who describes Hansen as a high school senior crippled by social anxiety and feelings of being misunderstood, which are exacerbated when Hansen finds himself in the midst of a social media snafu.

“From the class president, to the bully, to the nerdy kid and the single mom, every one of these characters is reaching out in their own way, trying to be understood and looking for connections. I think what that means is that every person sitting out in the audience can find themselves somewhere in the show and relate in some way,” Anthony said.

Richard Lewis, president of Broadway Sacramento, cast his lot for Dear Evan Hansen when voting for the 2017 Tonys. Lewis said that the renovations to the auditorium, which concluded in May 2019, enhanced the landmark’s acoustics to accommodate the technical demand of touring Broadway productions.

“A lot of acoustic enhancements have been made that people won’t visibly notice, but I’m sure they will hear the difference. The producer of this show certainly understands about maintaining the same quality on the road as Broadway, and that’s what we’re going to do here. Bringing a big hit like Dear Evan Hansen to Sacramento is always very fulfilling.” Lewis said.

According to Anthony, the show’s themes take a modern stance placing mental health issues and the pitfalls of social media at its forefront, which involves characters both in and out of high school settings.

“I think today, more than ever, with how accessible social media is, it can be easy to think everyone is living this perfect life and that you’re alone and you just need to put on a happy face and present that to the world,” Anthony said. “Evan Hansen says, ‘Hey, it’s okay not to be okay sometimes. It’s okay to struggle and ask out for help, because there is someone else who will understand you, who may have gone through what you’ve gone through.”

If you go

“Dear Evan Hansen”

Dates: Jan. 15 to Jan. 26, with matinees on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays

Price: $48 to $180

Tickets: broadwaysacramento.com

Phone: (916) 557-1999

This story was originally published January 14, 2020 at 1:29 PM.