I woke up recently to a video on Facebook advertising the cast and creative team of a new musical premiering this month at Arena Stage in Washingon, DC.
The musical is called Dear Evan Hansen and is written by the songwriting team Pasek & Paul, along with bookwriter Steven Levenson, and is directed by Michael Greif.
Let me say at the outset – this post is not about these people specifically. I have no personal beef with them. I respect the cast and team immensely and I’m sure the show is fantastic.
I am instead writing about my generation of musical theatre creators at large.
So here’s the video:
My first impression, even before PLAYING the video, was “Wow – look at all those white people.”
Continue reading Race and the New Generation of Musical Theatre Writers