Video: Inside the First High School Production of DEAR EVAN HANSEN with CBS SATURDAY MORNING

This past weekend, CBS Saturday Morning aired a segment dedicated to the development of the new high school edition of Dear Evan Hansen. The segment highlights the pilot production that recently took place at Wauwatosa West High School in Wauwatosa, WI, and features an interview with the lead star and director of the production.

It also breaks down the development of how Broadway musical is adapted for school productions, with EGOT-winning writers Benj Pasek & Justin Paul sharing their vision for this new version. "What we definitely wanted to make sure was that, in the translation, we don't lose any of the authenticity of what the story is about and we don't shy away from the thorny questions that it asks," said Pasek. Watch the broadcast segment and check out the full interview with Pasek and Paul below.

Featuring a Tony Award-winning book by Steven Levenson, Dear Evan Hansen had its world premiere on July 30, 2015, at Washington, DC’s renowned Arena Stage, followed by an Off-Broadway run at Second Stage Theater in the spring of 2016. It opened on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre on December 4th of that same year.

The show follows seventeen-year-old Evan Hansen, who has felt invisible his entire life. After a tragedy shocks his community and thrusts him into the center of a rapidly evolving controversy, Evan is given the opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to be somebody else. As his web of well-intentioned lies begins to unravel, though, Evan is forced to confront the fact that the price of belonging may be far steeper than he bargained for.

The hit musical enjoyed rave reviews and went on to win six Tony Awards, including Best Musical; the Drama League Award for Outstanding Musical Production; two Obie Awards; a Drama Desk Award; two Outer Critics Circle Awards and two Helen Hayes Awards. 

The original Broadway cast recording of Dear Evan Hansen, released by Atlantic Records in 2017, made an extraordinary debut on the Billboard 200, entering the chart at No. 8—the highest charting debut position for an original cast recording since 1961. It later won Best Musical Theater Album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.