Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Ben Platt wears ‘Choice’ button to sing anthem at MLB All-Star Game

Proud product of L.A. Jewish education belts it out before game featuring two Jewish players

Ben Platt, the star of Broadway-hit “Dear Evan Hansen” and its 2021 film adaptation — and a proud product of Los Angeles Jewish education — sang the national anthem at Dodger Stadium before Major League Baseball’s All-Star game on Tuesday. 

Platt delivered his 99-second rendition wearing a fuschia button-down shirt and a button that read “Choice,” while players from both teams — including two Jewish all-stars — watched on the field. (The American League won the game, 3-2.) 

“Hey thanks Ben Platt for standing up for reproductive rights,” tweeted one of the many users who praised the performance in real time online. 

Platt, 28, attended Sinai Temple and its related school, Sinai Akiba, in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, as well as Camp Ramah in Ojai, California, and has credited his Jewish upbringing with keeping him calm in big moments on stage. His parents are Marc Platt, a lawyer and producer of theater and film — “Wicked,” “La La Land,” “Legally Blonde” — and Julie Platt, who was recently named chairwoman of the Jewish Federations of North America.

Ben, one of their five children, burst onto the scene in 2015 as the lead in “Dear Evan Hansen,” a musical about a high school student with social anxiety. The New York Times said his performance was “not likely to be bettered on Broadway this season;” indeed, the show won six Tony Awards, including best actor for Platt.

Platt’s anthem performance was also received well online by fans, though a few offered some snark.

The game included two Jewish players — Max Fried, a pitcher for the Atlanta Braves, and Joc Pederson, a San Francisco Giants outfielder — for the first time since 2015, when Pederson and Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers both made the cut.

Fried, 28, who grew up in Santa Monica, wore No. 32 in high school to honor that other Jewish southpaw, Sandy Koufax. Pederson, who is descended from a charter member of Temple Emanuel of San Francisco, grew up in Palo Alto and, like Fried, has played for Team Israel in international competition.

Platt, for his part, has also done this before — in 2015, he sang the national anthem before a July Fourth game at Nationals Park in Washington, where he was introduced as “the breakout star of ‘Pitch Perfect’ and wore a “Dear Evan Hansen” T-shirt. But no button.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.