2017: The Year of Pasek and Paul
If you still haven’t heard of this talented writing duo, Pasek and Paul may very well be winning in most of the award shows next year.
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are a pair of Tony-nominated 31-year olds who started writing together as freshmen in the University of Michigan. They debuted as songwriters in the 2012 Broadway production of ‘A Christmas Story, the Musical’, which garnered 3 Tony nominations—Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score.
This year, the young writing tandem has written the music and lyrics of their first original musical, Dear Evan Hansen. The musical officially opened on Broadway on December 6 and is currently making waves on the Great White Way. Written by Steven Levenson, directed by Michael Grief (Rent, Next to Normal, Grey Gardens) and starring Ben Platt, the musical was inspired by a painful event in Pasek’s Philadelphia high school. Dear Evan Hansen is highly predicted to bring home a significant number of awards in the 2017 Tony Awards.
Here’s a video of Ben Platt and Lauren Dreyfuss singing Waving Through a Window at Late Night with Seth Meyers.
And that’s not the only thing that we can look forward to. This talented pair also happened to write the lyrics that accompany Justin Hurwitz’s music in La La Land, the Damien Chazelle directed movie musical starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. The movie opened in the US to rave reviews, winning Best Picture at the recently concluded Critics’ Choice Awards. It also leads the Golden Globe nominations with 7, including Best Director and Best Musical or Comedy Motion picture, and Best Original Song for City of Stars, among others. The film is set to be released in Philippine cinemas in early 2017.
We can’t wait to see them win at almost every possible award show next year. Here’s a video of the movie trailer with the song ‘City of Stars’ playing in the background.
