Broadway musical 'Dear Evan Hansen' to come to Seoul in March

Award-winning Broadway hit “Dear Evan Hansen” is slated to come to Seoul in March, according to local musical producing company S&Co on Wednesday.

Korean poster for the licensed production of "Dear Evan Hansen," set to be staged at Chungmu Art Center in Jung District, central Seoul, in March [S&CO]

Award-winning Broadway hit “Dear Evan Hansen” is slated to come to Seoul in March, according to local musical producing company S&Co on Wednesday.

It is the first time for the licensed version of the musical to be staged in Asia. The show will be performed in Korean with Korean actors.

“Dear Evan Hansen” is about the struggles of a lonely high schooler Evan Hansen who gets tangled up in a string of lies while, with decent intentions, pretending to have been friends with a boy in his school who recently committed suicide.

It premiered in Washington, D.C. in 2015 and then on Broadway in 2016. It won six Tony Awards the following year, including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score.

Music and lyrics are by American songwriting duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, best known for work in the movies “La La Land” (2016) and “The Greatest Showman” (2017). The book is written by American playwright and television writer Steven Levenson, and the musical was directed by veteran American director Michael Greif who had taken the helm of big-name musicals like the original productions of “Rent” in 1996 and “Next To Normal” in 2009.

S&Co also announced that it will be staging licensed performances of “Hadestown” in July and “Aladdin” in November next year. The world tour production of “School of Rock,” also brought to Korea by S&Co, is set to open on Jan. 12 next year at the Seoul Arts Center’s Opera House in Seocho District, southern Seoul, and run through March 24. This musical will be performed in English and the tickets are available on the local ticketing platform Interpark.

Korean poster for "School of Rock," slated to open Jan. 12 at the Seoul Arts Center in Seocho District, southern Seoul [S&CO]

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]