Lisa Brescia returns to Broadway August 7 in the Tony-winning musical Dear Evan Hansen as Heidi Hansen (mother to the titular teenager). She succeeds Rachel Bay Jones, who earned a Tony Award for originating the part and took her final bow at the Music Box Theatre August 5.
Brescia previously understudied the role as a temporary vacation cover for the Broadway production. Her additional credits include Broadway's Mamma Mia! (starring as Donna Sheridan), Wicked (standing by for the role of Elphaba), and Aida (Amneris in the final company), as well as The Woman in White and The Times They Are A-Changin'. She is currently a faculty member of Missouri State University’s acting program.
“When I first saw Dear Evan Hansen, I remember thinking: ‘This is the kind of storytelling that excites me…the writing, direction, design, and the honest, rich performances…this is as good as it gets,” Brescia said in an earlier statement. “After I received the offer to join the Broadway company, and Missouri State gave me their blessing to take some time away, we loaded up a truck and now here we are. Of course, I’ll miss my students, but knowing how they feel about Dear Evan Hansen, I suspect they’ll be as thrilled as I am.”
The current company of the Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, and Steven Levenson musical includes Taylor Trensch as Evan Hansen, Jennifer Laura Thompson as Cynthia Murphy, Alex Boniello as Connor Murphy, Michael Park as Larry Murphy, Mallory Bechtel as Zoe Murphy, Sky Lakota-Lynch as Jared Kleinman, and Phoenix Best as Alana Beck. Michel Lee Brown plays the title role at select performances.
The national tour will kick off this September in Denver before going on to play 50 U.S. cities.
Read: CAST COMPLETE FOR DEAR EVAN HANSEN TOUR
