At one point during Thursday night’s sold out, joyous on-stage conversation with Grammy, Tony, and Oscar award-winning songwriting team Benj Pasek and Justin Paul — who met and started writing songs together when they were U-M musical theater students (’06) — surprise guest moderator Darren Criss (Glee) stated what many of us were thinking: “Collectively, we’re a Michigan EGOT.”

Yes, Criss (’09) arrived in Ann Arbor fresh off his Emmy win for The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, while Pasek and Paul came to promote a newly released novelization of their hit Broadway show, Dear Evan Hansen.

But the nearly two-hour event, presented by Literati Bookstore at U-M’s Rackham Auditorium, mostly felt like a chance to crash a reunion of really talented, witty friends who’d also, along the way, perform a few songs and a short reading.

There were occasional wireless microphone problems, thanks to the presence of ESPN’s College GameDay on campus, but even this just provided more opportunity for the three artists to play off each other. For instance, after struggling repeatedly with his mic, Paul accepted a second and talked into both, and Pasek quipped, “This is our relationship in a nutshell.”

Pasek also seemed genuinely awestruck by Criss’ charisma, saying, “You’re so charming in front of people!” READ THE REST HERE