Dear Evan Hansen was, from the beginning, the brainchild of commercial producer Stacey Mindich and Pasek and Paul, from whom she wanted to commission a work. Steven Levenson came on next, then Michael Greif. Mindich made arrangements first with Arena, then with Second Stage, but the show was hers from the beginning. That certainly doesn't suggest that those theaters shouldn't be supported, but let's give credit where it is due.
I also saw Red While and Maddox in '69, and happily remember Jay Garner sining "Phooey" but not much else. But by that time I had been going to the theater steadily for seven or eight years. Red White and Maddox was not the top of the heap, but hardly the worst show I saw in that era. |
