Dear Evan Hansen’s Andrew Barth Feldman on Growing Up with Social Media, Rebooting Smash & More

Andrew Barth Feldman first caught our eye this past June when he stole the show at the Jimmys, or the National High School Musical Theatre Awards, winning Best Actor for his performance as Frank Jr. in Catch Me if You Can. We’re not the only ones who took notice, either. Dear Evan Hansen producer Stacey Mindich and casting director Tara Rubin were in the audience that night, and invited Feldman to audition for the Tony-winning musical. The freshest face to play high schooler Evan (he’s actually 16) talked to Broadway.com about his journey to Broadway, his career as an amateur producer, rebooting Smash and more.

Humble Beginnings
Feldman says he grew up as a shy kid, reluctant to get on stage. "They would have to put a chair on stage for me when everyone else was standing," he says. "I wouldn't do it, I would be so scared." After taking piano lessons for four years, he started performing at age eight. As he gained more confidence and a "big head," he became more entrepreuneurial, casting his friends in made-up musicals. "Like an adaptation of some like Disney Channel TV show or something," he remembers. "It was so stupid! But it was so fun."

A Gender-Bent Last Five Years and a Stripped-Down Seussical
Even though he loved performing in his community theater, Feldman wanted to strike out on his own. Those Disney Channel adaptations grew into more serious stagings when he started his own theater troupe, Zneefrock Productions. "I started having more opinions about the direction that it was taking and the theater that I wanted to do and theater that I wanted to see." The group, which raises money for the charity Next for Autism, has staged a gender-bent The Last Five Years and Be More Chill, "Which now is a very popular thing," Feldman boasts, "But when we started, it wasn't." And don’t forget their stripped-down Seussical, staged with just a ladder and a bed.

On Growing up in the Social Media Era
Feldman is the youngest actor to fill the arm cast and blue polo of Evan Hansen, which he says is an advantage. "I think it helps that I'm 16 right now in the era that Evan is 17, so that I don't have to think of what I was like when I was a teenager and imagine how I would feel in the environment that Evan is in," he says. Unlike other actors who may have caught onto social media at the tail end of their teens, Feldman grew up in it. "Social media really isn't discussed so much in the show, but it's so present, just like it is in our regular lives. It’s just sort of the undercurrent of the show," he explains. "Our whole lives are there. We grew up with that. We were born with that."

#RebootSmash
A short scroll into Feldman’s Twitter will reveal a few things: He loves Disneyworld, Harry Potter and the short-lived NBC musical drama Smash. “I started watching it a few years ago, and I had the same reaction to it that every theater kid has, which is, Is this what Broadway's like?" The young star has recently been live-Tweeting his rewatch of the show's second season, and has come to a conclusion: We need more. "Broadway is a totally different thing now than it was then, and the world is. I think one of the first tweets I made about Smash was like, ‘Imagine a season of Smash that was about the story behind Be More Chill,'" he says. "I am the head of the Reboot Smash Campaign."

Adrenaline Rush
For his first performance as Evan, friends and family of Feldman packed into the Music Box Theatre—all 500 of them. "Like, actually over 500 people," he emphasizes. "They were super vocal and super nice and so present with the show." Despite all the pressure of his first Broadway bow, he wasn’t fazed. "I expected everything to leave my head doing the show, that I would be totally blind. But I was more on everything than I ever was," he says. "I dumped so much adrenaline on that first night that I had no more for the rest of the week. So now, I'm dividing it equally through the shows. I'm learning how to take care of myself."

From Fansen to Hansen
As a theater superfan, Feldman has attended every BroadwayCon, making waves one year by winning a lip sync battle with Hamilton’s "The Schulyer Sisters." Another year, he wore his Dear Evan Hansen baseball tee. "Dear Evan Hansen has been my favorite show, period, since I saw it about two weeks after it opened." So, what’s it like to step into a musical you’re a diehard fan of? "Evan has always been my dream role. And I was like, 'I'll play it when I'm 30, or something!'" he laughs. "And so being here now, I am pinching myself every night looking into Alex Boniello's eyes, or whatever. There's a moment every single night where I'm like, This is actually really happening!"

Grooming: Angella Valentine