What a Year for ‘Dear Evan Hansen’
Magical efforts helped the Tony-winning musical celebrate its second birthday on Broadway.
By Erik Piepenburg, Features Editor
From a high-tech partnership with Microsoft to being an answer on “Jeopardy,” 2018 was a banner year for Dear Evan Hansen. Here’s a look at some of the captivating events and high-profile partnerships that helped make the show’s second year on Broadway a special one.
Microsoft
In October, our marketing department helped Dear Evan Hansen and Microsoft launch an educational initiative at all of Microsoft’s 81 full-line stores in North America. Timed to the start of the show’s first national tour, the partnership offers an interactive educational workshop, free of charge to students ages 13-18, called “Creating Connections With Dear Evan Hansen.” In this engaging and informative program, students learn how to use technology to create meaningful connections in our hyper-connected world. Microsoft is the first major tech partner to work with a Broadway show on a national educational initiative.
In addition, Microsoft is offering 1,400 students who complete the workshop tickets to the show in their hometown. After launching in New York and continuing in Denver, Los Angeles and San Francisco, the workshops will take place at Microsoft stores in tour stops throughout 2019.
Pantone
In November, Dear Evan Hansen and the Pantone Color Institute unveiled “Dear Evan Hansen Blue,” a radiant and electric shade that, like its namesake show, “conveys a message of hope and optimism.”
“Dear Evan Hansen is a coming of age story, and that is, at its very core, all about youthfulness crossing over into maturity,” said Laurie Pressman, Vice President of the Pantone Color Institute.
Pressman described the color as “not a cool blue,” but as a shade with an “energizing, fresh and modern” appeal. Stacey Mindich, the show’s producer, said Dear Evan Hansen Blue was meaningful to her both professionally and personally.
“We have used the color to really build the show’s identity,” she told Pressman in an interview. “It’s an instinctual reaction such that when people think of Dear Evan Hansen, they think of the blue and vice versa. I’ve seen fans outside the theater see the blue and feel at home. People can relate to this blue, as they do to the show, so the public association is organic and makes perfect sense.”
The Pantone partnership, coordinated by Serino Coyne’s marketing department, is a first for Broadway: no other show has their own color.
National Museum of American History
On Nov. 27, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History received a donation of Dear Evan Hansen objects, including Evan’s signature blue-striped polo shirt and the iconic arm cast with a signature by Connor Murphy, the character who changes the course of Evan’s life. Thanks to the efforts of the show’s press team, the donation was presented on stage after the curtain call during a ceremony at the Music Box Theatre.
Also headed to the museum are a button from The Connor Project — a fictional organization dedicated to the memory of Connor; a printed copy of the letter that begins “Dear Evan Hansen,” written by Connor; and an original piece of sheet music for the number Waving Through a Window, signed by the Oscar, Grammy and Tony Award-winning composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and the Tony and Grammy-winning orchestrator Alex Lacamoire.
These Dear Evan Hansen objects join the museum’s illustrious collection of Broadway artifacts, including costumes from the Broadway productions of Hamilton, Hello, Dolly!, A Chorus Line and Cats.
Jeopardy
November wasn’t done yet. In an effort coordinated by the show’s press team, Dear Evan Hansen entered that rare pantheon of Broadway musicals that were the answer — I mean, question — on Final Jeopardy. The answer was:
Winner of 6 Tonys in 2017, it’s the first Broadway musical to focus on the subject of teens & social media.
Maya Wright, a high school senior from Peachtree City, Ga., became a semi-finalist and won a total of $26,200 on a “Jeopardy” Teen Tournament after she smartly wagered and correctly answered the question — I mean answer.
