BWW Interviews: Dear (Evan Hansen's) Benj Pasek & Justin Paul, How Do Your Musicals Grow?

There are those friendships and collaborations, as Keats might say, that are a "thing of beauty and a joy forever," and college was the nexus of the beauty and joy of the musical theater team of Benj Pasek & Justin Paul. They met at the University of Michigan, both studying musical theater, and began writing musicals together while still students. Their first was a musical called Edges in 2005, and they've been exploring, playing with and developing a style and perspective all their own ever since.

The team was literally "on the move" when I had the chance to chat with them about Dear Evan Hansen, their latest project. DC is fortunate enough to be the host for the world premiere, thanks to Arena Stage's dedication to nurturing new work. Benj and Justin were driving to DC to begin the final stages of preparation for the July 10 first preview of the show, and as it turns out, this was their very first visit to Arena Stage, so there were lots of "firsts" on the agenda.

Pasek and Paul may be young in age, but are veterans of Broadway (A Christmas Story The Musical), Off Broadway (Dogfight), regional (James and the Giant Peach; get a free download of the album here!), and, even the grueling and insane 24-hour Musicals event (an annual benefit for The Orchard Project, chronicled in the documentary One Night Stand in 2014), for which they wrote a 4-song musical in about 12 hours. Side story: I asked if they could tell me the shortest time in which they'd ever written a song, it turns out that when they were auditioning to work on A Christmas Story, they'd been given the wrong date for submissions, only to find out that their work was due the next day. As history has proven, they do pretty good work in a day! The two have had a bit more time to work on Dear Evan Hansen; about three to four years by their estimation, although, as with most working artists, they've been juggling multiple projects on a constant basis for the past several years.

The title character in Evan, (played by Pitch Perfect's Ben Platt), says the show's synopsis, "is about to get everything he's ever wanted: the girl of his dreams, the perfect family he's always longed for and a chance to finally fit in. He just has to hope that his chance to connect isn't blown by the secrets he has to conceal...it's about how we love, feel and survive in the modern world." I wanted to know what was particularly special about this story, this show, and working at Arena for the first time. They both agreed that the most satisfying aspect to this project is the fact that this is the first completely original show they've created together since college, and Edges. Not that they don't enjoy additional collaboration with other artists, but having the freedom to go their own way in style and story, has been freeing, and fun. Both are admirers of the versatility of another successful musical theater team, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, known to DC audiences from the recent world premiere of Little Dancer in 2014. The ability to "shift gears" and "jump around" in the work is something Pasek and Paul are always striving to hone. As Justin said, "we enjoy diving into different worlds!"

And story, they say, is paramount in how they work. Their goal, says Benj, is not to merely serve their own style of music, but rather, to serve the story, i.e., "how does the story sound?," "what is the world in which the music is happening?" These questions were particularly relevant with Dogfight and A Christmas Story, each of which has distinct eras that drive the story (the sixties, and the forties respectively). While they always want to infuse a contemporary element to the music, those stories are strongly set in times that also have a distinct sound. With Evan Hansen, which takes place in current day, those restrictions were lifted; and the two are particularly delighted to be able to be true to what they describe as their contemporary and contemporary pop style that they were able to explore most recently in the work they did for the television show Smash in 2013.

Speaking of musical style, I asked who their musical influences have been. Justin immediately named icons like Billy Joel, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, and even Frank Sinatra. Benj agreed, adding Carol King, and nineties R&B to his list. But central to their calling as musical theater writers/composers were people like Stephen Schwartz, and being part of the Howard Ashman/Alan Menken era of the Disney movie musical. The "musical narrative generation," as they describe it, grew up on classic stories told on screen through song as well as dialogue, embodied in now-beloved Disney tellings of The Little Mermaid, Beauty & The Beast and Aladdin. And then the musical Rent, came along, changing things on stage forever as well. Benj also talked about how the Ashman/Menken works made television shows like Glee and Smash possible, and that there is a resurgence of the popularity of musical theater for a whole new generation now.

I asked what the guys wanted us, as audiences, to know about the world in which they work, and they talked eloquently about how important the audience reaction is in "articulating the show," for them as it's developing. Justin explains, "This is incredibly difficult work, and there are a million ways a show can go wrong; including the smallest of details, so it's an often arduous process. Those that work in the theater, are never out to settle; they want and need 'critical cheerleaders,' who will support the process." A perfect example of this, they offered, was when, in A Christmas Story, they were baffled by a musical moment that kept falling flat on stage; until they discovered that the problem was the position of Ralphie's hat, which was sitting too low on his face for the audience to hear and understand the lyrics of the song.

But back to that all important notion of "story," I asked then, what do Benj and Justin hope audiences will take away from Dear Evan Hansen? Benj answered, "the show is a very contemporary look at society, and how young people relate to family and their community...the need for connection, how they deal with their emotions, and feeling alone." Both feel as if it's important to see the characters react to the intensity of life's circumstances, and how they decide which emotions will be shared with others, and why or why not they choose to share at all.

What will you take away from Dear Evan Hansen? How will you help "articulate the show" for Benj and Justin? Find out at Arena Stage from July 10-August 23, 2015.

Visit Arena's website at http://www.arenastage.org/shows-tickets/the-season/productions/dear-evan-hansen/, for more information and tickets.

And if you're an "Under 30," be sure to check out Arena's Pay Your Age ticket discount program here.