2021 is the year full of movie musicals, with Stephen Chbosky’s Dear Evan Hansen being the latest to hit theaters. Original star Ben Platt is back as the title character, and he’s joined by a killer supporting cast including the incomparable Julianne Moore. And as you can see in the video above, Moore recently shared with CinemaBlend which of Pasek & Paul’s songs still resonate with her today.
Justin Paul and Benj Pasek are songwriters known for their acclaimed work on projects like La La Land and The Greatest Showman. But Dear Evan Hansen was their first Broadway musical, and there are a ton of killer songs in the soundtrack. I had the privilege of speaking with Julianne Moore ahead of the movie’s release, where I asked about her favorite tracks. Unsurprisingly her big solo “So Big/So Small” made the list, as she shared:
Well, ‘So Big/So Small,’ talk about an earworm. When you’ve been working on something for the amount of time that I worked on it. It’s like, I would wake up hearing it. I was always in a loop in my head. But I have to say I love that song. I thin it’s so beautifully written and so expressive and so surprising. And so gets inside of a parental experience. So I really do love it.
Julianne Moore’s big vocal solo doesn’t come until late into the runtime of Dear Evan Hansen, but it certainly doesn’t disappoint. Her character Heidi makes an emotional appeal to Ben Platt’s, and it’s a real tear-jerker. Moore understandably has quite the connection with that number after preparing and filming the movie musical.
The Dear Evan Hansen movie was filmed at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the cast was isolated in a bubble when not filming. This experience likely gave Julianne Moore extra time to prep and stress about her big song “So Big/So Small.” And for that reason it’s the biggest earworm that’s stuck with her.
Of course, Julianne Moore didn’t only list her big 11 o’clock number as her only favorite from Dear Evan Hansen. She revealed that the music is something shared with her family, and cited Ben Platt’s sweet love song “If I Could Tell Her” as another favorite. She went on to tell me,
My kids, we listen to them on repeat in the car all the time. It’s so funny because my daughter always responds to, you know, to ‘He said’ the duet Kaitlyn and Ben have. She just loves that one and I think about that one too.
Dear Evan Hansen is definitely one of those shows that leaves audiences humming tunes as they leave the theater. And as Julianne Moore has shared the music with her family, it’s a movie that has the potential to inspire important conversations between the generations. Besides, who doesn’t want to see Moore and Amy Adams belting out some showtunes?
Dear Evan Hansen will hit theaters on September 24th. In the meantime, check out the 2021 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.
