Tuesday, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, and Val Emmich were in conversation with Ari Shapiro from NPR about the novelization of "Dear Evan Hansen". I enjoyed the show tremendously when I saw it at Arena. Certainly it is a show that deals with a tough subject, and also that deals with a lie. Shapiro asked about that, as they discussed wanting to show consequences, and they said, well, yeah, but he pays for the lie. There were some singing breaks, which were great. Shapiro asked if they have ever thought about stepping out onstage, pulling a Bareilles, they said no.
Emmich talked about the challenge of taking this story and expanding it. There was some discussion of the need to handle the subject of suicide carefully, especially when going deeper into additional backstories.
I confess, when movie novelizations were popular, I read a bunch and I would love for this to become a thing with musicals. And, ahem, I feel especially qualified to do so for "Legally Blonde", "Bring it On", and "Moulin Rouge". Oh and "Dave".
Sunday I went to One More Page to see the magic YA panel with Pintip Dunn, ** Sarah Glenn Marsh, and Lisa Maxwell. I was a smidge late (metro) so missed the mad libs but they talked about standalones versus series, and if simplifies were more fun than trilogies since it got rid of the middle book. Also an audience member asked if your book was a knitted object, what would it be which was certainly not a usual question. Maxwell said ski mask which was a fun answer.
