Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Ben Platt!
(applause and cheers)
Hi, Drew!
Oh, Ben.
I'm so happy to see you.
I'm so happy to see you too,
and the last time I saw you,
I believe we have a picture here
of the very first time I met you was after a performance
of "Dear Evan Hansen" and we're both-
We're both so puffy.
We're both so puffy and red!
I've never seen a performance like that in my life.
I don't know how you summoned that every day.
And now it's gonna be a film.
It is, it is.
It's very wild.
We just made it this past fall.
And it was my first experience creating something
on stage and then getting the opportunity
to immortalize it on film.
And like you said, alongside monster talents
like Julianne Moore and Amy Adams
and Kaitlyn Dever, Amandla Stenberg, Nik Dodani.
It was really, really special and bizarre
experience for sure.
That "Dear Evan Hansen" was such a phenomenon
in its production design,
in its storytelling, in its acting and performances,
but it's a whole 360 about the way we handle life
and what comes at us and what we are born with
and how families and how we survive school.
It is a survival guide in the most poetic, profound way.
And I'm so glad that it's coming
to theaters because this is not a movie.
This is a hand guide to life
and it's due to you and your performance
at the helm of it, truly.
Thank you so much.
Yeah, I think it's gonna be a really moving experience
for a lot of different ages of people,
for young people for parents.
It's a lot about miscommunication and misconnection.
And I think particularly after this year
of this COVID nightmare of everybody being so isolated,
I think it's gonna be particularly poignant in terms of
everybody's inability and ability to reach out
and the ways in which we struggle to do that.
And the magic that can happen when you do connect
with someone and finally feel seen and can overcome
whatever obstacles you're up against.
For me personally, much like Evan, it's anxiety
and worry, and to be able to move past those things
and be seen by someone is life changing.
And so I think it's gonna be very moving, hopefully
This is such an important, exciting thing to come up
for all of our futures, near futures.
It's design week here at the show.
And we were so curious as to what spoke to you
on a design level.
This is one cool thing with Ben Platt.
(upbeat rock music)
I will share with you this one piece
that I really love.
My boyfriend, Noah Galvin's best friend
is a really talented artist.
Her name is Mai Ohana.
She's on Instagram, it's M-A-I Ohana.
And she makes beautiful woven pieces and rugs
and she made me this for my wall.
(applause) And it's super pretty
little kind of Rocko-ey kind of moment
that really brightens up the space.
And my favorite color is blue
and I wanted to get some blue in here.
And so if you need a piece like that
you need to check on her Instagram.
I love that piece so much.
That is more than I was expecting for one cool thing.
Oh, well, I do what I can.
(laughter)
Now you're such an incredible musician,
multihyphenate, by the way, only an Oscar away
from an EGOT, and I'm pretty sure that's on the horizon
in the near, near future.
What did you think of our wonderful senior friends drumming?
I mean, I was grooving and I think
that I'm gonna be quite distracted
when I'm doing my Peloton workouts from now on.
Would it be okay to use our balls
as percussion instruments?
I'm not sure that would work.
You wanna drum our way out into the commercial
break together, Ben?
Because when we come back,
we're inviting your sister for a really
meaningful conversation that I have been so excited.
You know, maybe you actually can take us out of this.
You guys ready?
All right.
(upbeat music) (drumming)
(laughter)
(upbeat music)