Farmers Alley Theatre's production of "Dear Evan Hansen," marks one of the area's first stagings of the musical since its Broadway run. The show opens Thursday, July 9, and runs through July 26. Director Kathy Mulay and actors Denene Mulay and Danny Gurwin joined Cara Lieurance to talk about the season finale of Farmers Alley Theatre.
Mulay says she has followed the show's Grammy-, Tony-, Emmy- and Oscar-winning songwriting duo Pasek and Paul since they were college sophomores at the University of Michigan, when a former student handed her a cassette of their early work. "These kids are sophomores in college, and they are going to be someone," she recalls thinking. She notes that while a national tour passed through Miller Auditorium, Farmers Alley is among the first regional theaters to secure performance rights, ahead of the wider release now bringing the musical to stages everywhere this summer.
The story follows an anxious teenager whose life is upended after a classmate's suicide leads others to believe he was the boy's closest friend. Mulay highlights the young actor in the title role, Keegan Sells, a recent Boston Conservatory graduate making his professional debut in the part: "There was just nobody that could reach the depth of understanding of this character." She also praises University of Michigan student Braedon Davis, returning after his turn in "Into the Woods," and her granddaughter, Carly Rose Mulay, who plays Zoey Murphy.
Denene Mulay and Gurwin play Cynthia and Larry Murphy, grieving parents processing loss differently. "Cynthia is looking for, to hold on to something wonderful and something bright and fresh about him," Denene Mulay says, while Larry "sort of shut down about the whole thing and doesn't really grieve." The two, longtime friends since playing Tony and Maria together decades ago, say that history gave them instant trust in rehearsal.
Gurwin, who also teaches at Oakland University, encourages newcomers to visit: "If you haven't been to Farmer's Alley, give it a try. It's a beautiful, beautiful space."
Tickets are available at farmersalleytheatre.com or by calling 269-343-2727.
The interview was summarized by Claude AI and edited by the author.
