In 2016, Dear Evan Hansen took Broadway by storm and made its leading man, Ben Platt, a household name. The original musical, with an unforgettable score by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and a book by Steven Levenson, tells the story of socially awkward high school student Evan, who tells a lie that spirals out of control. It won the Tony Award for Best Musical, has spawned several major international productions, and received a blockbuster film adaptation in 2021.
During its run on Broadway, it became a cultural phenomenon and a magnet for A-list celebrities and tastemakers, including President Joe Biden, Beyoncé, and Barbra Streisand. By the time it closed in 2022, it had become the longest-running show in the history of the Music Box Theatre, having played 1,699 performances.
The musical’s success is due in no small part to its supremely talented original Broadway cast, which included Ben Platt, Mike Faist, Rachel Bay Jones, Laura Dreyfuss, Jennifer Laura Thompson and Michael Park. Their renditions of iconic songs like Waving Through a Window, For Forever, and You Will Be Found have been streamed millions of times and helped the cast album reach the top 10 of the Billboard charts and win the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.
So, if you’ve been wondering if ‘anybody has a map’ of what the original Broadway cast of Dear Evan Hansen is doing now, look no further!
Ben Platt (Evan Hansen)
Ben Platt’s career began to take off when he landed the role of Elder Cunningham in the Chicago premiere of The Book of Mormon, a role he later reprised for his Broadway debut in 2014. He also won over audiences with his supporting role in the musical-comedy franchise, Pitch Perfect, alongside stars Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson.
However, it was his superlative performance as Evan Hansen that made him a star on Broadway and beyond. Ben hung up the iconic blue polo shirt and left the Broadway production in November 2017. He soon entered the studio to record his debut album, Sing to Me Instead, which was released in March 2019 and culminated in a special concert at Radio City Music Hall that was released on Netflix. He has since released two further albums, Reverie in 2021 and Honeymind in 2024, the latter of which was promoted with a three-week residency at the Palace Theatre. These concerts marked the first events at the venue since its five-year restoration project concluded.
He has only returned to Broadway once, in a revival of Jason Robert Brown’s Parade. Originally staged as a gala concert presentation at New York City Center, the production garnered such rave reviews that a Broadway transfer was soon announced, which resulted in Ben receiving his second Tony Award nomination for his performance as Leo Frank.
In 2019, Ben secured the lead role in Netflix’s comedy-drama The Politician, which saw him nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Other screen roles include the 2022 comedy The People We Hate at the Wedding; the 2023 mockumentary Theater Camp, which he also wrote and produced; and, of course, the film adaptation of Dear Evan Hansen, in which he reprised his Tony Award-winning performance on screen.
Ben is currently filming the screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, alongside Paul Mescal and Beanie Feldstein, which is being shot over the course of 20 years to mirror the show’s timeline. He also starred in Ryan Murphy’s The Beauty, with fellow Broadway actors Jeremy Pope and Anthony Ramos. In March 2026, he will lead a concert revival of The Last Five Years alongside Rachel Zegler with limited engagements in London, New York, and Los Angeles.
Laura Dreyfuss (Zoe Murphy)
Laura Dreyfuss had two Broadway credits under her belt before wowing audiences with her portrayal of Zoe Murphy. She appeared in both the Broadway and national tour companies of the 2010 revival of Hair, and was a replacement for the lead role of Girl in the musical Once in 2013.
Since leaving Dear Evan Hansen in 2018, she reunited with co-star Ben Platt in The Politician, playing his campaign manager, McAfee Westbrook. She also appeared in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and in Donald Glover’s FX series Atlanta. Outside of her acting work, she has released several original songs, including the EP Sidelines and, most recently, the single Sofia.
Mike Faist (Connor Murphy)
For Mike Faist it seems all it took was “a little reinvention” to become a major movie star in his own right. Since leaving Dear Evan Hansen in 2018, he has starred in two high-profile films that generated significant awards buzz—West Side Story in 2021 and Challengers in 2024.
He received universal acclaim for his portrayal of Riff in Steven Spielberg’s epic adaptation of West Side Story, earning a BAFTA nomination. For his turn as tennis player Art in Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, Faist underwent an intense physical transformation, training for more than three months and consuming up to 10,000 calories daily to gain the required 30 pounds.
On stage, he starred in the world premiere of Steven Levenson’s Days of Rage at Off-Broadway’s Second Stage Theater in 2018, before making his West End debut in the stage adaptation of Brokeback Mountain in 2023. Most recently, he starred in a revival of Eugene O’Neill’s classic play Anna Christie opposite Michelle Williams in late 2025.
Later this year, audiences can catch Mike in the new Netflix adaptation of John Steinbeck’s classic novel East of Eden, alongside a star-studded cast including Florence Pugh, Tracy Letts, and Martha Plimpton.
Rachel Bay Jones (Heidi Hansen)
After winning a Tony Award, Grammy Award, and Daytime Emmy Award during her tenure as Heidi Hansen in Dear Evan Hansen, Rachel Bay Jones might seem to have little left to prove, but she has worked nonstop across stage and screen since leaving the show.
She has guest-starred on hit TV shows including Grey’s Anatomy, Law & Order, and Modern Family, as well as playing main roles in Amazon’s Panic and ABC’s medical drama The Good Doctor. More recently, she played Audrey McAllister in The Big Bang Theory spin-off series Young Sheldon and Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage.
Although Rachel has not returned to Broadway since Dear Evan Hansen, she was part of the world-premiere cast of Stephen Sondheim’s final musical Here We Are at Off-Broadway’s The Shed in 2023. She also led the Kennedy Center’s semi-staged concert production of Next to Normal in 2020, alongside Brandon Victor Dixon.
Kristolyn Lloyd (Alana Beck)
Kristolyn left Dear Evan Hansen in 2018 and jumped straight into several Off-Broadway projects, including Paradise Blue at Signature Theatre, Blue Ridge at Atlantic Theater, and Little Women at Primary Stages.
In 2022, she joined the Broadway revival of 1776, playing John Adams, and continued with the production on its U.S. national tour. In 2023 and 2024, Kristolyn was part of the world premiere casts of two Off-Broadway shows—Millennials Are Killing Musicals and the Public Theater’s Sally & Tom. Most recently, she played Celeste in Bess Wohl’s critically acclaimed play Liberation, which transferred to Broadway’s James Earl Jones Theatre in 2025.
On screen, Kristolyn has appeared in series including NBC’s Chicago Med, CBS’ Blue Bloods and Hulu’s Mr Crocket.
Will Roland (Jared Kleinman)
Will Roland caught the attention of the producers of the hit TV series Billions before he departed the Broadway company of Dear Evan Hansen in 2018, where an initial guest appearance evolved into a recurring role in the show’s third season.
On stage, he played the lead role of Jeremy in both the Off-Broadway and subsequent Broadway transfer of the cult musical Be More Chill. He later portrayed Seymour in a regional production of Little Shop of Horrors before returning to New York for the 2025 Off-Broadway revival of Stephen Schwartz’s musical The Baker’s Wife, which also starred Academy Award winner Ariana DeBose.
Key Broadway replacements for Evan Hansen
Since Ben Platt left the role, the mantle of Evan Hansen has been taken up by a succession of actors who have also gone on to have diverse and successful careers. Noah Galvin was the first to take over the role in 2017 and later starred as Ogie in the Broadway production of Waitress, as well as becoming a series regular on CBS’ The Good Doctor. Noah and Ben Platt decided to say “For Forever” and married in 2024. Taylor Trensch took over the role in 2018 and went on to star in several Broadway productions, including To Kill a Mockingbird, Camelot, and the recent revival of Floyd Collins, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award.
In 2019, Andrew Barth Feldman joined the Broadway company and has since starred opposite Jennifer Lawrence in No Hard Feelings, played Seymour in the Off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors, and most recently briefly took over from Darren Criss in the Tony Award-winning musical Maybe Happy Ending. Jordan Fisher became the first person of color to play Evan Hansen on Broadway in 2020 and has since become a regular fixture on the Great White Way, starring in Sweeney Todd, Hadestown, and most recently Moulin Rouge.
Ben Levi Ross then took over the role and can currently be seen in the Broadway revival of Ragtime at the Vivian Beaumont Theater and in the TV show Elsbeth. In 2022, Zachary Noah Piser became the final Evan Hansen. Following the show’s closure, Zachary starred in two further Broadway productions — KPOP and the Idina Menzel-led Redwood in 2025. It was also recently announced that he will lead a new Heated Rivalry parody musical later this year, capitalizing on the TV show’s unprecedented success.
So there we have it! While we will always sing a “Requiem” that this supremely talented cast is no longer performing together at the Music Box Theatre eight times a week, we can take solace in knowing their performances are immortalized on the original Broadway cast recording, sure to introduce future generations to this life-affirming show. From new Broadway productions and blockbuster films to exciting ventures in music, we’ve loved seeing what each member of the original Broadway cast has gone on to do—and we’ll be following their careers ‘For Forever’.
