Career
He is the co-creator, with Benj Pasek of the song cycle Edges . Also with Pasek, he is one of the songwriters for the Disney Channel show Johnny and the Sprites . [2] Pasek and Paul won the Jonathan Larson Award in 2007. [3] [4] He also co-wrote and co-composed the musical Dogfight , which opened Off-Broadway at the Second Stage Theatre in July 2012. [5] He also composed the musical James and the Giant Peach with Benj Pasek.
Pasek and Paul wrote the lyrics for the film musical La La Land . The film was written and directed by Damien Chazelle, and stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. [6] The film was the opening film at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival, on August 31, 2016. [7] The duo won the 2017 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for "City of Stars." [8] The pair received two Best Original Song nominations at the 89th Academy Awards, for "Audition (The Fools Who Dream)" and "City of Stars," alongside composer Justin Hurwitz; [9] the trio won for the latter. [10] The duo earned another Oscar nomination the following year for co-writing the song, "This Is Me", from The Greatest Showman (2017).
Pasek and Paul also wrote the original song "Runnin' Home to You" performed by Grant Gustin for the musical crossover episode of The Flash "Duet" between The Flash and Supergirl . [11]
Most recently, they have created and written the score for the stage musical Dear Evan Hansen which premiered at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. in July 2015. [12] The musical, which has been called "striking for its moral complexity as well as its musical ambition", [13] which opened on Broadway in December 2016. At the 71st Tony Awards, it is nominated for nine awards including Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Actor in a Musical for Platt.
In 2022, they won the Tony Award for Best Musical for serving as producers for the Broadway production of Michael R. Jackson's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical A Strange Loop .
Alan Irwin Menken is an American composer and conductor, best known for his scores and songs for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and Skydance Animation. Menken's contributions to The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and Pocahontas (1995) won him two Academy Awards for each film. He also composed the scores and songs for Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Newsies (1992), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Hercules (1997), Home on the Range (2004), Enchanted (2007), Tangled (2010), and Disenchanted (2022), among others. His accolades include winning eight Academy Awards — becoming the second most prolific Oscar winner in the music categories after Alfred Newman, a Tony Award, eleven Grammy Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards, and a Daytime Emmy Award. Menken is one of twenty-one people to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony.
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, known together as Pasek and Paul, are an American songwriting duo and composing team for musical theater, films and television.
Benj Pasek is an American composer and lyricist best known for writing songs for films such as La La Land (2016) and The Greatest Showman (2017), and the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen, all of which he co-wrote with his songwriting partner, Justin Paul. With Paul, Pasek became the 20th/21st person to win the EGOT, an acronym for the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards.
Michael Greif is an American stage director. He has won three Obie Awards and received five Tony Award nominations, for Rent, Grey Gardens, next to normal (sic), Dear Evan Hansen, and Hell's Kitchen.
Taylor Hunt Trensch is an American stage and film actor.
Benjamin Schiff Platt is an American actor and singer. The son of film and theater producer Marc Platt and philanthropist Julie Platt, he began his acting career in musical theater as a child and appeared in productions of The Sound of Music (2006) and The Book of Mormon (2012–2015), rising to prominence for originating the title role in the Broadway coming-of-age musical Dear Evan Hansen (2015–2017). His performance in the latter earned him multiple accolades, including the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical, a Daytime Emmy, and a Grammy Award. Platt reprised the role of Evan Hansen in the 2021 film adaptation of the musical, produced by his father. He then played Leo Frank in the 2022 New York City Center Gala production of Parade, which transferred to Broadway in 2023 and earned him another Tony nomination and another Grammy nomination.
Dear Evan Hansen is a stage musical with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, and a book by Steven Levenson. The musical follows Evan Hansen, a high school senior with social anxiety, "who invents an important role for himself in a tragedy that he did not earn".
Rachel Bay Jones is an American actress and singer. She has played the roles of Catherine in the 2013 Broadway revival of Pippin and Evan Hansen's mother, Heidi Hansen, in Dear Evan Hansen. The latter earned her an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, and the 2017 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She emerged as one of few artists to have received three of the four major American entertainment awards.
"Audition (The Fools Who Dream)" is a song composed by Justin Hurwitz with lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul for the musical film La La Land (2016). Sung by American actress Emma Stone in her role as Mia, the emotional ballad forms the film's climax. "Audition" sees Mia describing what it means to be someone who seeks a career in the arts; it has overall themes about dreamers and the importance of actors.
Dear Evan Hansen: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album to the 2021 film of the same name, released on September 24, 2021, by Interscope Records. Based on the eponymous stage musical by Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the film is directed by Stephen Chbosky, with Levenson writing the screenplay and stars Ben Platt in the title role, reprising his role from the stage performance.
Dear Evan Hansen: Original Broadway Cast Recording is the cast album to the 2015 musical Dear Evan Hansen, with music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, and a book by Steven Levenson. The recording stars Ben Platt, Rachel Bay Jones, Laura Dreyfuss, Jennifer Laura Thompson, Michael Park, Mike Faist, Will Roland and Kristolyn Lloyd. The album was produced by Alex Lacamoire, Pasek and Paul, and featuring musicians include Rob Jost, Adele Stein, Justin Smith, Ben Cohn, Jamie Eblen, Dillon Kondor, Justin Goldner, Christopher Jahnke and Todd Low. The album was released by Atlantic Records on January 27, 2017, and featured at #8 on the Billboard 200, making the highest debut for a cast album after Camelot (1961). It also topped the Internet Albums chart. It further received the Best Musical Theater Album award at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.
William Frederick Roland is an American actor and singer, best known for originating the role of Jared Kleinman in the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen, for which he received a Grammy and Daytime Emmy Award. On film, he is known for his role in the drama film One Penny. Most recently, he played the lead role of Jeremy Heere in the musical Be More Chill both off-Broadway and on Broadway.
"Waving Through a Window" is the second song from Act 1 of the 2015 musical Dear Evan Hansen, which premiered on Broadway in 2016. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul wrote both the music and lyrics for the song, which serves as the main protagonist Evan Hansen's "I Want" song. It has since become the signature tune of the character, one of the musical's most famous songs and an anthem for those who have felt depressed and alone and show a desire for connection.
"You Will Be Found" is the Act 1 finale of the 2015 musical Dear Evan Hansen, which premiered on Broadway in 2016. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul wrote both the music and lyrics to the song.
Justin Goldner is an American music producer, songwriter, arranger and session musician based in New York City, originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
"Sincerely, Me" is a song from Act 1 of the 2015 musical Dear Evan Hansen, which premiered on Broadway in 2016. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul wrote both the music and lyrics to the song, whose title takes its name from the phrase with which the musical's main protagonist, Evan Hansen, ends his daily letters to himself.
"Only Us" is a song from Act 2 of the 2015 musical Dear Evan Hansen, which premiered on Broadway in 2016. Benj Pasek and Justin Paul wrote both the music and lyrics to the song.
Two soundtrack albums were released for the 2022 Christmas-themed musical comedy film Spirited: an original soundtrack and an original score. Republic Records released both the albums on November 18, 2022, the same day as the film’s release on Apple TV+. The soundtrack features original songs from the film written by the songwriting duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and performed by the ensemble cast members: Will Ferrell, Ryan Reynolds, Octavia Spencer, Sunita Mani, Tracy Morgan and Patrick Page. The second album features the motion picture score composed by Dominic Lewis.
Evan Hansen is the titular character and main protagonist of the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen by Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. A bullied 17-year-old high schooler with social anxiety and depression, who lives with his single mother Heidi Hansen after she divorced from his father Mark Hansen ten years before, he attempts to find the acceptance and love he has been lacking in his life. On his journey to be found, he discovers the consequences of risking it all for the chance to be heard.
