Stephen Chbosky on Dear Evan Hansen and Why He Created a New Ending

With Dear Evan Hansen arriving in theaters on September 24th, I recently got to speak with director Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Wonder) about bringing the Tony Awardwinning Broadway musical to movie screens. During the wideranging interview, he talked about why the film ending is different than the stage version, how they figured it out, why they cut certain songs and added new ones, the way the story deals with mental health, figuring out the threeact structure, and more. In addition, he talked about what it was like watching Ben Platt cry while singing on set and the way he worked with him on finding the right times to film the emotional scenes. If youre not familiar with Dear Evan Hansen, the high schoolset film is written for the screen by the shows Tonywinning writer Steven Levenson, with music and lyrics by the shows Oscar, Grammy, and Tonywinning songwriting team of Benj Pasek Justin Paul. The story is about a high school outsider who gains friendship and fam