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The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) opened doors to a live audience for the first time in two years on Thursday with the world premiere of the musical “Dear Evan Hansen”.
The film, an adaptation of the Broadway production, stars Tony Award winner Ben Platt reprising his role as a high school student with social anxiety who gets caught up in a lie. Julianne Moore, Amy Adams and Kaitlyn Dever are among the cast.
“I love the story very deeply. It’s been very close to my heart for many years so the fact that it’s going so be on such a larger platform and seen by so many is really an exciting gift,” Platt told reporters on the red carpet.
Platt, 27, said he had his own struggles with anxiety and that he had tried to make the character “as human and connected” as possible.
Moore, who plays Evan Hansen’s mother, said she had been a fan of the stage musical for years. “So to suddenly find myself in the middle of this story – how really lucky I was as an actor,” she said.
Other premieres include The Eyes of Tammy Faye, starring Jessica Chastain as the flamboyant US televangelist, documentaries about singers Dionne Warwick and Alanis Morissette, and films starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Keira Knightley and Melissa McCarthy.