Theater News

Dear Evan Hansen Names a New Alana Beck for Broadway

Phoenix Best will play her final performance with the Broadway company this May.

Samantha Williams will make her Broadway debut as Alana Beck in Dear Evan Hansen beginning May 7.
Samantha Williams will make her Broadway debut as Alana Beck in Dear Evan Hansen beginning May 7.
(© Nathan Johnson)

It was announced today that Phoenix Best will play her final performance as Alana Beck in Broadway's Dear Evan Hansen on Sunday, May 5. She began her run on March 13, 2018, replacing original cast member Kristolyn Lloyd.

Samantha Williams will take over the role of Alana in her Broadway debut beginning performances at the Music Box Theatre on Tuesday, May 7. Williams is currently a junior musical theater major at Pace University.

Williams joins a cast that currently features Andrew Barth Feldman as Evan Hansen, Mallory Bechtel as Zoe Murphy, Alex Boniello as Connor Murphy, Lisa Brescia as Heidi Hansen, Sky Lakota-Lynch as Jared Kleinman, Michael Park as Larry Murphy, and Jennifer Laura Thompson as Cynthia Murphy. Michael Lee Brown serves as the Evan Hansen alternate.

With a Tony-winning score by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, and a Tony-winning book by Steven Levenson, Dear Evan Hansen is described as follows: "A letter that was never meant to be seen, a lie that was never meant to be told, a life he never dreamed he could have. Evan Hansen is about to get the one thing he's always wanted: a chance to finally fit in."

Michael Greif directs the production at the Music Box Theatre. In 2017, it earned a total of six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Score, and Best Book.

Featured In This Story