Julianne Moore and Amy Adams are teaming up again. The pair recently wrapped the upcoming crime drama
The Woman in the Window, and now they’ve both been hired for the film version of the Tony- and Grammy-winning musical
Dear Evan Hansen.
Deadline announced the news on September 1, revealing that the actors have been cast as the mom figures in the teen drama. The story, for those who aren’t familiar, revolves around a high schooler named Evan Hansen (originated by Ben Platt) who deals with Social Anxiety Disorder. When he gets caught up in a lie about being best friends with classmate Connor Murphy, who takes his own life, Evan winds up getting closer to Connor's sister, aka his crush. Moore will play Evan’s mother Heidi Hansen, and Adams will portray Connor's mom, Cynthia Murphy.In the Broadway musical, the mom characters kick off the show with the musical duet, “
Anybody Have a Map?” but it’s unclear just how closely this adaptation will follow the stage offering. Both the musical and the movie are written by Steven Levenson though, so fans are expecting something fairly similar. Ben Platt (who won a Tony for his portrayal of Evan on stage) is reprising his role for the film and Colton Ryan (who was an understudy for multiple roles in the show, including Connor) will play Connor in the big screen version as well. Kaitlyn Dever (
Unbelievable, Book Smart) is playing Evan’s crush, Zoe Murphy, and Amandla Stenberg (
The Hate U Give) has been hired as Alana Beck—a part that has been expanded from the one in the original play and now includes a new original song. Danny Pino (
Mayans M.C.) and Nik Dodani (
Atypical) also star.[video_embed id='2025717']BEFORE YOU GO: How playing Mulan has been a dream come true for star Liu Yifei [/video_embed]Moore and Platt onscreen together has fans buzzing for sure. In addition to starring in
Evan Hansen, Platt has quite the musical reputation, starring in the
Pitch Perfect movies and even adding somewhat unnecessary musical numbers into the TV show,
The Politician. Broadway fans will probably also recognize him as Elder Cunningham from
The Book of Mormon. As for Moore, she’s been a big screen staple for years, and has four Oscar nominations on her resume. She took home the trophy in 2015 for the film
Still Alice, but she also has some Broadway experience from the 2006 play
The Vertical Hour and sang in the 2018 film,
Bel Canto where she played an opera singer.
Dear Evan Hansen opened in 2016 and before the coronavirus pandemic shut down Broadway for the rest of the year, it was still going strong. Over its run, it has been nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning for Best Musical, Best Original Score, and four others. When Platt left the role in 2017 he was replaced by the likes of Jordan Fisher, Taylor Trensch, Ben Levi Ross, and Platt’s real-life boyfriend, Noah Galvin.The film only began preproduction recently as things around the world start to open back up. So far there are no further production details or potential release date to look forward to, but the fact the film is moving forward is exciting enough for fans who either loved the original show or never got a chance to see it the first time around.[video_embed id='2025738']BEFORE YOU GO: Looking back on our favourite moments with Chadwick Boseman [/video_embed]
