Every so often, a smash-hit musical comes along that takes the world by storm, and lives on in perpetual legend within the musical theatre scene for its ability to pull in the crowds, possesses a soundtrack that can be played infinitely on loop, and is almost assured to make a star out of its cast thanks to adoring fans. And that musical happens to be Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s Dear Evan Hansen, which has swept critical and commercial acclaim since its premiere almost a decade ago, and continues to gain traction and maintain its dedicated fandom even today.

For all its success though, it’s surprising that it’s taken till 2024 for the show to finally make its way out of Broadway and West End, and into Asia. For one thing, there is immense pressure that goes into producing such a show, with diehard fans bound to compare it against the original. For another, there is such a specific group of cast members it has to find that gathering the dream team can feel next to impossible. But if it’s one company in Singapore that can do it, it’s Pangdemonium, who has produced one successful musical after another, always finding just the right cast members to hit all the right notes and do justice to the book and music.

And so, making its hotly-anticipated Singapore premiere this year is Pangdemonium’s production of Dear Evan Hansen, opening at the Victoria Theatre next week. Helmed by director Tracie Pang, everything looks set for one of the biggest, most successful productions of 2024. In the making since auditions were held more than a year ago, we sat down with director Tracie, along with cast members Angelo Martinez (in the lead role of Evan Hansen), along with Rebekah Sangeetha Dorai (playing Evan’s mother Heidi), Zachary Pang (Jared Kleinman) and Mia Smith (Alana Beck).

“We were well aware that Dear Evan Hansen came with its share of expectations, but it’s unavoidable,” says Tracie. “This isn’t the first time we’ve had to deal with that – we’ve done Rent and Into The Woods, so as a director and producer, I’ve learnt how to compartmentalise that, otherwise it’ll keep eating away at you of having to make someone else’s version of their favourite musical, when you should be focused on your own vision.”

While they have always been loyal to the script, Pangdemonium productions have always been original stagings of these established scripts, shying away from trying to do a carbon copy of a Broadway or West End production, simply because that would be unfair and impossible to do. To that end, Pangdemonium also hasn’t relied on simply casting actors they already knew and were comfortable working with, but held an open audition for every single role to find the best of the best.

That was also what led them to their Evan Hansen – Angelo Martinez, who says that this was the hardest thing he had ever done. A current Singapore Management University student, and School of the Arts (SOTA) alumnus, Angelo signed up for auditions the moment Pangdemonium opened the call in May 2023, and from that point, began preparing himself for the audition that was held in July. “I was already a fan of Dear Evan Hansen, and loved the soundtrack, but had never studied musical theatre – I actually studied visual art back in SOTA,” says Angelo. “It was quite nervewracking and I tried to rope other friends into it as well, but I focused on how I wanted to bring my A-game and prove that I was among the best that Singapore had to offer.”

“It was scary because my experience mostly lies in being a musician and songwriter over the last few years, but not a musical theatre performer specifically,” he continues. “I started writing music in tribute to my late mother, and I’ve been working with various production houses in Singapore to work on my craft, but this world of musical theatre is very new and exciting for me. I never studied musical theatre myself, but was a big fan of the art form, and I was ready to put in the work, all one and a half years of working up to this one moment, and to devote my entire headspace to that.”

Beyond local auditions, Pangdemonium also received a slew of international applications and self-tapes flooding their inbox, with so many hopefuls vying for a coveted role in the musical. “In casting Evan, we knew it would serve the show best to find an Evan no one knew. Sure if someone did fit the role, by all means, but if we could get someone who had never been seen onstage before, audiences could see the character Evan onstage rather than think about all the other roles this actor had played before, in a similar vein to how Broadway and West End cast their Evans,” says Tracie.

This is nothing new for Pangdemonium, who has had a strong track record of discovering new talent who have since gone on to become industry staples and successful in their own right, such as Frances Lee when she was cast in Fat Pig in 2014. “We do try to cast at least one very fresh person in each show, because we believe in having such a platform for young actors to be seen. Otherwise, it’s going to stay as a closed door industry and no way in for them,” says Tracie. “Then what’s the point of all these schools and colleges for the arts if they don’t get to turn it into a career?”

Perhaps also interesting was how the audition was not the first time Tracie had met Angelo, being very close to her son Xander Pang, as former schoolmates, and who had even been to their house a few times before. “Prior to the audition, I’d never heard Angelo sing before, but Xander told me he had a great voice. And when I saw his name appear I went hang on, this person’s been around my place before!” says Tracie. “The casting however is based entirely on the actor’s technical ability to sing and to perform the role, and Angelo fit that, even bringing all four people in the room to tears when he performed his song. Also important is how well we see them fitting with each other in the group – we’re literally creating a stage family after all, and the last thing you want is someone who doesn’t get on, disrupts the process and everyone ends up walking on eggshells. There is no room for divas in the rehearsal room, and it’s great that we found the right group of people who have chemistry and have mutual respect for each other’s talents.”

Addressing the elephant in the room, Tracie is also keenly aware of how both her sons Xander and Zachary have also been cast in the show, the former as Connor Murphy, and the latter as Jared Kleinman. “I knew how it was going to look, so we were even stricter on the audition process for both of them, putting them through more rounds, and letting our musical director Joanne Ho make the final call on whether their voices fit, before presenting it to the board for approval as well,” says Tracie. “We auditioned almost 170 people, and as we know, we are very aware there are a lot fewer young men in industry than women, which narrows our choices more. But rest assured we went through the choices with a fine toothed comb, and I think we hired the best people for the roles.”

On their own audition processes, Mia and Rebekah also elaborate on how intense it was, and how this was an opportunity they would relish for a long time. “I grew up in Singapore, and after returning from my studies at Leeds Conservatoire, I decided to come back to Singapore to start my adult life here,” says Mia, who has previously worked with Sing’theatre and Universal Studios Singapore. “I love performing, and when I caught wind of the audition for Dear Evan Hansen, all the slots were full, and I asked if there was any chance I could audition. When I got through, I was overjoyed, and Tracie assured me that she wanted me to have fun and be myself in the role.”

“This was one of the hardest auditions I’d ever done, and also because I taught myself to sing, I didn’t actually know how to read music, and had to put scores through music notation software to process it,” says Rebekah, whose last musical role was in Checkpoint Theatre’s Secondary The Musical. “I’d seen the Broadway version with Ben Platt in the lead role before online, and I knew I wanted to be Heidi. I picked the song ‘So Big / So Small’ from the musical so that Pangdemonium would know from the get go I wanted the role, and was so focused on getting the key right, practicing as much as I could.”

“And during the week of the audition, I happened to be sick and my throat closed up, so I was drinking honey water non-stop,” she continues. “I was so stressed, showing up to the audition an hour early, running through my notes and realising I made what people say is an industry faux pas by using a song from the show itself to audition. So when I got the news that I got the role, I was ecstatic and screamed for joy.”

If anything, Tracie and the creative team have well and truly gathered a found family of cast members who have learnt to be comfortable with each other, gelling with each other and understanding how to work together. “We’re telling a story where the songs and music push forward the story, and we do so much deep diving into the character work, and focus on bringing out all those emotions,” says Tracie. “And as the first company to get non-replica rights, we really wanted to get creative and make it our own – this isn’t just the highlights you can find on YouTube or the Broadway/West End version you’re going to see, but a living, breathing musical that is quintessentially Pangdemonium, while still true to the creators.”

“Evan is a victim of mental illness, and you realise that what he does is often a reaction to the issues he faces in his own head. He didn’t ask to be born this way, and what you realise is that you know he’s not coming from a great place at the start, so his desire to connect will bring him to make certain decisions and you empathise with him because that’s just part of the human condition,” says Angelo, on preparing for the role. “I do have anxiety and hypochondriasis, and worked with a therapist for a number of years, and applied some of the experiences I’ve had to my character work. In those moments, I think about how it feels like to have your heart beating so fast, almost coming out of your chest, and the panic that comes with trying to tune out all that noise, and focus on the moment in front of you. I feel it, and talk to Tracie about it, and how we can build that image in my performance.”

“Character work always comes first for me, and initially, we just see Jared as a friend, but not the nicest friend to Evan, and more than a little rude. But beyond that, we also look at what purpose this character serves in this story and how he also doesn’t fit in, with all his actions aligning with Evan’s plans, trying to find ways to be included and part of something he’s not because he wants to feel included,” says Zachary. “That informs how Jared’s interactions are like, and makes our version of it as truthful as possible, which I feel is much more important than to reference from pre-existing productions, as we find our own version of the show.”

“For me, I’ve always been a bit of a perfectionist, like Alana, and focus on getting the song right first so I know the structure and foundation of the journey, then adding my character in there,” says Mia. “There’s a lot of pressure to do well, especially when my friends found out and were wowed, but I’ve been doing a lot of vocal sessions to both get the songs right and also still remain in character, and just try my best for myself and others around me”

“Every show I’ve been in has always bettered me and pushed me to keep growing. There’s a lot to think about when I perform, whether it’s how I sound in the moment or my stage presence. I don’t spend a lot of time onstage, but in between those moments, my character has to go through a lot of invisible, unseen growth and reflection that the audience doesn’t see, then bring it all out when I next come out,” says Rebekah. “It helps that a lot of the songs I sing are actually directed towards Evan, and all three of my songs do trace that trajectory from the start of the school year to the end, so there’s a flow to it.”

“This is honestly a stellar cast. All of us have strong kinship with each other and there’s no real need to manufacture it offstage. What really hit home for me was enjoying the audition with Angelo last year during callbacks, where I never took my eyes off him, and there was this natural camaraderie we felt, when I needed him to listen to me when I sang a song for and to him,” adds Rebekah. “I took a lot of inspiration thinking about how my own mother brought me up, but to perform right there, live, it’s that pure moment that only theatre can give you, and we both felt that, and gave each other a big hug the next day.”

On whether they felt any pressure with the roles, the cast is professional, and says that there is no point worrying, only that they do their best. “There’s been pressure for a while, but there’s really no time to even consider it because we’ve been so swamped with building a whole experience together,” says Angelo. “But so far it’s been a very surreal out of body experience, and when we first did the read together, it was crazy how it all came together.”

“I think it’s fair that people come in with expectations – you’re paying money and it takes up a whole evening, and it’s been hyped up. But most of all, I hope that even with expectations, people come in supportive of the Singapore cast, and I’m just grateful that a Singapore company is doing it – how many people can put Dear Evan Hansen down on their CV?” says Rebekah. “It’s a very hard show to do, but when you’ve got such a great team, it stops feeling like work.”

And as to how relevant the show is today, as much as it’s been given the hype, the entire cast is sure that it will resonate more than ever with audiences of all ages. “I think people will realise that this is something that really could happen, and hopefully, they find resonance in their own lives, realising they’re not alone in this, and their own relation to social media,” says Zachary. 

“Watching this show made me realise that there are so many people going through something similar, and it makes you realise how people always make choices for certain reasons, and can have more empathy for them,” says Mia. “Maybe it’s because of mental illness, maybe it’s just the way they were brought up, but I guess it’s nice to know you’re not alone in all this confusion, and that your mistakes don’t define who you are as a person.”

“From my own experience, teenagers don’t always make the best decisions, and they’re still learning. So we as adults have to cut them some slack, considering how their brains aren’t going to be fully wired for another couple of years, so of course they’re going to do dumb things,” says Tracie, on its relatability and relevance. “But all of them are struggling in their own way, and seeing Evan getting sucked into this situation that’s so much bigger than him, he’s still trying his best to make things right, to fix things once he realises his mistake, and you understand that.”

“When I watched Dear Evan Hansen all those years ago, beyond seeing the younger generation of theatre goers just latch on and feel so connected, I and all the other parents in the audience also felt that emotional attachment too. As a parent, there is always this fear of whether you can manage a child who is struggling. How do I ensure he’s healthy, do I send them to the doctor, how involved do I get, how do I bring up a teenager in a social media-heavy environment?” she concludes. “I think in that show I watched, all the parents cried at some point, and of course, plenty of the teen audience members too. And I realised, this was such an important piece of work, it’s the musical of the decade that speaks to the generation of today and the generation that came before it, and a show that must be watched to be felt.”

Photo Credit: Pangdemonium

Dear Evan Hansen plays from 11th October 2024 at Victoria Theatre. Tickets available here