Pasek & Paul to Perform Tunes from DEAR EVAN HANSEN on THEATER TALK This Week

This week THEATER TALK welcomes the creators of the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen, composer/lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul along with librettist Steven Levenson in Part One of an interview with co-host Susan Haskins and guest co-host Jesse Green of The New York Times.

In addition, Pasek & Paul (who just won an Academy Award for their lyrics for the song "City of Stars" from La La Land) perform four of their compositions from Dear Evan Hansen: "Sincerely, Me," "Waving Through A Window," "So Big/So Small," and "You Will Be Found."

The panel discusses the lengthy process (more than 6 years) of putting the original show together, including their revelation that there was at least one song eliminated for every song currently performed in the show. Librettist Levenson, best-known for the plays The Language of Trees, The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin and the recent If I Forget, talks about the economy of language required when writing a musical that pushes THE STORY forward toward the next song - as opposed to the "luxurious" amount of time a writer has for dialogue in a play.

The Dear Evan Hansen Creatives (Part One) edition of THEATER TALK premieres in the New York City metropolitan area Friday, May 5 (2017) on PBS station Thirteen/WNET at 1:30 AM (early Saturday morning) and repeats there on Sunday 5/7 at 11:30 AM; it re-airs on CUNY TV* Saturday 5/6 at 8:30 PM, Sunday 5/7 at 12:30 PM, and Monday 5/8 at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 7:30 PM; and also airs on WLIW/21 on Monday 5/8 at 5:30 PM and on NYCLife on Thursday 5/11 at 11 PM. Part Two will air next week accompanied by an interview with cast and creatives from Oslo.

THEATER TALK is jointly produced by the not-for-profits Theater Talk Productions and CUNY TV. The program is taped in the Himan Brown TV and Radio Studios at The City University of New York (CUNY) TV in Manhattan, and is distributed to 100+ participating public television stations nationwide. THEATER TALK is made possible in part by The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The CUNY TV Foundation, and The Friends of THEATER TALK.

*CUNY TV, the City University of New York television station, is broadcast in the NYC metropolitan area on digital Ch. 25.3 and cablecast in the city's five boroughs on Ch. 75 (Spectrum & Optimum/Brooklyn), Ch. 77 (RCN), and Ch. 30 (Verizon FiOS). THEATER TALK episodes are available online anytime at www.cuny.tv and www.theatertalk.org and via iTunes.

Pictured: Justin Paul, Benj Pasek, Steven Levenson, Jesse Green & Susan Haskins on THEATER TALK. Image courtesy of Theater Talk Productions Inc. & CUNY TV.