‘Dear Evan Hansen’ star Ben Levi Ross on the challenges of taking the lead in a Tony-winning Broadway show
The 21-year-old actor decided ‘less is more’ when it came to the famously challeging role
Ben Levi Ross wakes up most mornings saddled with an “emotional hangover”, an affliction he typically shakes through meditation and a good stretch. Physically, he recuperates with the help of a personal steamer, plus a soothing ginger and manuka honey beverage of his own making.
Then, after a few hours of resting in solitude, the 21-year-old steps back onstage as the title character in Dear Evan Hansen, taxing his mind and body with a 2½-hour binge of anxiety, panic, grief and guilt.
“It has been really hard,” Ross says. “Your body doesn’t know the difference, in terms of the emotional turmoil you’re experiencing on a night-to-night basis. And your outlook on the world may be a little bit affected by the experience that you had the night before.”
Dear Evan Hansen, the 2017 Tony winner for best musical, focuses on a high school senior with a broken arm who’s yearning for connection. Since September, Ross has shed his upbeat persona night after night while introducing audiences to the troubled teen on the show’s North American tour.
“He has this remarkable ability to step into this role and lose himself in the most beautiful and raw ways,” says Jessica Phillips, who plays Evan’s overworked single mother, Heidi. “He’s not thinking – he’s feeling.”
