What BSC's Dear Evan Hansen Gets Right About Community Theatre
The original Broadway production of Dear Evan Hansen was designed for a specific scale: the Music Box Theatre, a specific cultural moment, and a set of performers who had lived with the material since workshop. None of those conditions exist at BSC's Summerlin Library & PAC. The question for any subsequent production isn't "can you match what it was?" It's "what can you make it be in your room?"
When the Screen Is the Character: Notes on Video Design in Musical Theatre
From Peter Nigrini's original DEH design to what's happening in regional houses now — how projection design became a dramaturgical tool, not a decoration job.
Read →The BSC Model: How a Community Theatre Co-Produced on Broadway
Broadway Stage Collective's producing credit on How to Dance in Ohio is not a fluke. It's a model — and it's worth understanding how they got there.
Read →Staging for a Room That Doesn't Know the Show Yet
Directors working on highly-known material — casts recordings that audiences know cold — face a specific challenge. What can a production offer that the recording can't?
Read →The original Broadway production of Dear Evan Hansen was calibrated for the Music Box Theatre's intimate space, a specific cultural zeitgeist, and a cast that had deeply ingrained the material through workshops. At BSC's Summerlin Library & PAC, those conditions are absent. The challenge for any revival isn't to replicate the original, but to reimagine it for their unique space.
Broadway Stage Collective's current production opts to swap spectacle for psychological depth. Jeff Bielatowicz's projection design makes this choice clear: instead of amplifying the external world with phones, social media, and strangers' faces, it explores the fragmented texture of memory. The screen functions as an inward-facing window, rather than a outward-looking portal. This approach is a risk, as the show's emotional engine relies on the thrill of going viral – a sensation that's harder to convey as a private, internal collapse.
For the most part, this gamble pays off. The shift in focus from public to private emotional registers requires a more subtle, introspective performance style. This production's success is a testament to the evolution of projection design from decorative element to dramaturgical tool, a trajectory evident in the development from Peter Nigrini's original Dear Evan Hansen design to current regional productions.
Broadway Stage Collective's producing credit on How to Dance in Ohio demonstrates a deliberate approach to storytelling. Their model is worth examining, particularly in how they've adapted Dear Evan Hansen for their space. By prioritizing interiority over spectacle, they've created a production that feels distinctly their own, one that offers a fresh perspective on the material.