Climate-Crisis Musical, Dear Everything, Goes on National Tour
Image Courtesy of EventBrite
By Anthony Curioso
Following in the footsteps of popular musicals like 1776 and Gatsby, as well as lesser-known but still successful works such as Prometheus Bound and Witness Uganda, another musical that premiered at the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near the campus of Harvard University, has now embarked on a national tour!
During its original run at A.R.T., the musical was known as “WILD: A Musical Becoming.” Originally slated to run from December 9, 2021, to January 2, 2022, an outbreak of COVID-19 canceled all remaining performances after only one week. The star-studded cast of the original run at A.R.T. included such Broadway legends as Javier Muñoz (best known for Hamilton), Idina Menzel (of Wicked, Frozen, and Rent fame), and Deborah S. Craig (who originated the role of Marcy Park in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee).
The musical now bears the title “Dear Everything” after undergoing revisions over the past four years. The revised version premiered for one night only to a sold-out crowd at Terminal 5 in New York City in January.
“Dear Everything tells an urgent story driven by galvanizing and emotional pop and folk music, that speaks to the dialectic of our times—adults focused on surviving the now as youth hold a fierce eye on the future,” the official website description for the show reads. “With empathy and outrage it addresses the most pressing issue of our day—the climate crisis.”
V-Day is a global activist movement focused on preventing violence against women, gender-non-conforming individuals, and the Earth. The V-Day organization produced the national tour of Dear Everything in close collaboration with A.R.T.
The creative team for Dear Everything includes Diane Paulus, the Artistic Director at A.R.T., along with Justin Tranter, a songwriter who has been a multiple-time Grammy and Golden Globe nominee for his work with numerous mainstream pop stars. Songwriters Caroline Pennell and Eren Cannata also contributed to the production, along with Tony-winning playwright V (formerly known as Eve Ensler). The production also received creative contributions from Menzel.
For the recent national tour of Dear Everything, Muñoz reprised his role from the 2021 A.R.T. run, as did principal lead actors Paravi, YDE, and Luke Ferrari. The tour included four stops in Atlanta, Miami Beach, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake City, spanning the period from September 25 to October 3, 2025.
In each production of Dear Everything, including its 2021 run at A.R.T. as WILD, a local youth choir organization served as the ensemble, known as the “Earth Choir.” These organizations included the Boston Children’s Chorus (2021 at A.R.T.), the Broadway for Arts Education Choir (January 30 at New York’s Terminal 5), the LA Children’s Chorus (LA performance, September 30), and Rise Up Children’s Choir and Youth Theater at the U (Salt Lake City performance, October 3).
Only time will tell whether Dear Everything will end up as big a Broadway hit as some of the previous musicals or plays that made world premieres at A.R.T..
