Ben Platt: ‘Evan Hansen is a painful role to live in all the time’

Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Get our Now Hear This email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. open image in gallery Ben Platt performs with the cast of ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ during the Tony Awards on 11 June 2017 in New York City While Platt’s well aware that there can be “no entitlement to anything” in a creative career, he knows how much he contributed to shaping the character of Evan Hansen. Enjoy unlimited access to 100 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 4 month free trial Sign up Enjoy unlimited access to 100 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 4 month free trial Sign up The romance is the inspiration behind Platt’s new song, “Happy To Be Sad”, a bittersweet pop ballad released on Friday. I had never had that experience of finding someone who could make me feel that way And I was like, ‘How lucky is that, that that person now exists?’” open image in gallery Ben Platt’s second album ‘Reverie’ will be released on 13 August “Happy To Be Sad” is from Platt’s upcoming second studio album Reverie, which follows his 2019 debut Sing to Me Instead. Then, in 2015, came Dear Evan Hansen, the acclaimed musical that made Platt – as one New York Times headline put it – “the lying, sobbing, lovesick toast of Broadway”.