SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Feb. 22, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — The critically acclaimed musical production “Dear Evan Hansen” is coming to the Eccles Theater from Feb. 28 to March 5.
The winner of six Tony Awards, a Grammy Award and the Olivier Award for Best Musical, is known as a deeply personal and profoundly moving contemporary piece about life, and the way we live it.
The New York Times called it “a breathtaking knockout of a musical.”
NBC Nightly News declared it “an anthem resonating on Broadway and beyond.”
I had the chance to speak with one of the tour’s actors, Pablo David Laucerica just ahead of the SLC date. He plays Jared Kleinman, a family friend of the Hansens.
A Miami-born Cuban-American, Laucerica recently graduated from Northwestern University, specializing in vocal performance and musical theatre. His main artistic interests include acting, songwriting, music production and content creation.
Laurecia spoke to us from San Francisco, where the show played for four weeks before stopping in Tucson, then from there will travel to Salt Lake City.
DAISY: Well hi, this is Daisy from Gephardt Daily and today I’m talking to Pablo David Laucerica who plays Jared in the national tour of “Dear Evan Hansen,” and we’re totally looking forward to welcoming you guys to the Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City. You’re coming here February 28 to March 5. And I just wondered Pablo, if you can just tell me first of all what your journey has been into professional theater. How did you get here?
PABLO: Yeah of course, first of all, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate being here. It’s, it’s, I’m excited. But yeah, no, my journey has been a pretty not conventional one. I actually started with opera. That was my degree in school. In high school I knew that I was going to do opera and then I went to Northwestern University in Chicago for voice and opera. While I was there, I did a lot of musicals. And then I joined the musical theater certificate program. And from there, I just kind of realized that like, my passion for storytelling through music, led itself more towards musical theater.
So I started to audition in the Chicago theater world, ended up with an agency and just kind of went from there. I’ve actually auditioned for “Dear Evan Hansen” specifically, like I think like four times. I, first time auditioned for it, I was like a sophomore in college. Yeah. So, it’s very interesting, the journey that a lot of people have. It’s always never where you expect it to go.
DAISY: Yeah. And that’s, it sounds kind of unexpected, because you just said you got into opera in high school. That seems like quite an early age to get into that genre.
PABLO: Yeah, you know, my parents were really they weren’t musicians, but they were very into music. So they taught me how to love music from a very early age. They were very into opera. And I was like, yeah, I could do this as a high schooler. I mean, I couldn’t sing it very well, but…
DAISY: And then what was you said? You auditioned for “Dear Evan Hansen” four times? Can you talk me through like what that process was like to you getting cast?
PABLO: Oh my gosh. So really, I auditioned for it the first time when I was a sophomore; the show had just been running for I think either a year or a little less than a year on Broadway. It was still relatively new. And I they had an open call in New York; just anybody can come in and audition. They were looking for a new Evan. And I was like, great. I’ll go just for the heck of it. And I went in and I auditioned and they called me back in for Jared actually. Even then.
But then nothing really lined up then because you know, it’s always about like, what people are looking for. This is something that I always tell people like up-and-coming actors and stuff like that, but it’s like, you never really know where an audition will take you because I auditioned for it the first time when I was in college, but then I auditioned one more time when I was in college. And then one last time, I guess it was three times, but it was it was all spread out. And one last time, right, like in ’20, the beginning of 2021 or rather the middle of 2021. And then that was finally the time where they asked me to come back into New York came in to see me for Jared and then the rest is history.
DAISY: How long have you been with the show?
PABLO: I’ve been with the show for about seven months now.
DAISY: So most people know, most people are familiar with “Dear Evan Hansen.” But I wondered like, personally, how you would describe the show and also, who do you think should come to the show that maybe has not been before?
PABLO: Yeah. So I’ll answer the first of describing, because although this show can be described many ways, you know, there’s the answer that gives you what you need to have so you can be interested without giving you too much, which is it’s about a high schooler who suffers from depression and anxiety. Who gets caught in a lie that was never meant to be told about a letter that was never meant to be seen, you know? And that’s vague enough for people to be like, ooh, okay, but really, the way that I would love to describe this show is just that this show is about a very modern reflection of what it is like to deal with mental health in many facets of our society, both as a high schooler and as an adult, because there are adults in this show and a lot of folks think that because the show does center on high schoolers, the demographic is high school/ middle school, but I’ve had many adults come. My mom when she first saw the show, she was surprised with how much she related to all of the adults in the show.
Because the show deals with so many things depression, anxiety, grief, all through this lens of hope. And this, this belief that you can work and you can get better and better. And that’s what I believe that the show, the show is about a bunch of people have journeys that they’re trying to overcome, but they are always trying to be better. And that is something that I think is very beautiful.
And to answer the question of who I think should come to see this show I think anybody, but I think even if you are somebody who maybe you haven’t watched a lot of musicals or you haven’t exposed yourself to a lot of musicals, this is actually some like a lot of people’s first step into musicals if it wasn’t already like “Hamilton” or “Cats,” because this is something that isn’t like the showmanship, dancey musical theater that people might be used to, this is more of a sit and sit with feelings and have music that reflect those feelings kind of show. So I would recommend anybody. I don’t want to limit it to anybody specifically.
DAISY: And it sounds like as well it’s probably it can be a great conversation starter too, you know, for some really important conversations.
PABLO: Absolutely. It’s really interesting, not to like take that and run with it, but we’ve had a lot of parents come see the show because their children want to come see the show. And because the show does a very, very good job of depicting what it’s like to be a parent and how it feels like you’re always struggling. Not that I am a parent, I’m not trying to say this from personal perspective. But that like, when parents are like really struggling to really do the best for their children, but maybe it isn’t seen by that child and vice versa. This show does a really good job of bridging that gap and making sure everybody understands what everybody else is going through.
DAISY: And I’m also super curious, I’m always curious about this, but how do you like touring especially with so many young people in the cast? Is it just a blast?
PABLO: Oh my gosh, yeah, no, it’s really fun. This is like a family. I know that, I’m sure you’ve heard that before from like other shows. But this is really like a family because what the beauty of this show is that they were very meticulous about the folks that they hired for the cast. And I think that the thing that connects everybody in this cast is that we all kind of understand this perspective of anxiety and depression and these things that, the story that we’re telling. So we all kind of have this built-in understanding of each other, that it’s like, we’re all just human beings. You know, we’re not trying to like put on this fancy show. We’re just like, people telling a story about mental health. And we just became close because of that mere concept , and being on tour is really fun. You know, you’ve every new city we go to we like to take like the first day and like text the group chat and be like, let’s go explore, whatever we have activities that we plan, so it’s a it’s a, it’s a blast.
DAISY: Yeah, it must be fascinating as well because I saw “Dear Evan Hansen” last time it was here, and just putting a show of that size and with all the technical elements into a different theater every week or two weeks must be exciting and crazy, too, I would imagine.
PABLO: Absolutely. And we have a lot to think for our local and our constant crew, our backstage crew, who, they load all that off the trucks and within 24 hours manage to put up the entire set, and I’m sure as you’ve seen from the show, it’s very elaborate. So a lot of respect and admiration goes to them for that.
DAISY: And correct me if I’m wrong, but you guys are on tour ’til July. Is that right?
PABLO: Yeah. So the beginning of July. I think July 2 is our final performance.
DAISY: So what are your plans after? Are you auditioning yet or you going to wait?
PABLO: Yeah, so I’ve already been auditioning for a few things. Some things are in the works. Like I am, I’m a Chicago-based actor, but I believe that I’m trying to move to New York. You’re now witnessing, like the process of me trying to like figure out what I’m doing, you know, but that’s, you know, a lot of people think that that’s like, kind of a downfall to this, to this industry, right like that, like after each gig, it’s like what am I going to do next, but to me I’m just really excited at the opportunity of anything that comes my way and anything that I reach for and grab, you know.
DAISY: And so what’s on your bucket list? Are there some opera roles you want to play or any particular theater roles that you’re just dying to play?
PABLO: That is a great question. Oh my gosh, I’ve never been asked that. Well, a bucket list of mine is actually to direct opera. I’ve found that opera can be pretty easily inaccessible because a lot of people think it’s like, oh, it’s opera. It’s boring. But you know, opera is where musical theater came from. You know, that’s like the storytelling and the drama is still very there.
But yeah, I you know, I’m an actor, I have a lot of dream roles of musicals that I would love to be in. I’d love to be in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” “Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” “Hunchback,” you know, all the good things.
DAISY: And and I imagined that going on to Broadway might be one of those goals?
PABLO: Yeah, yeah, I suppose you know, if I have the time.
DAISY: Love it. So just to recap, you guys are coming with “Dear Evan Hansen” to the Eccles Theater February 28 to March 5, and I know that people here love this show, so we can’t wait to see you. Tickets are at saltlakecountyarts.org or 801-355-2787. And I really appreciate your time, Pablo. You told me you’re in San Francisco. So have a great rest of the run there. And we’ll see in a couple of weeks.
PABLO: Thank you so much for having me.
DAISY: Thank you so much. Have a good day.
For tickets, click here, and for more information about Laucerica, click here.
