Luke Evans
|
Age: 28
Currently: Lending his distinctively gravelly singing voice to Roger in the new “remixed” West End production of Rent, a performance that can hold its own with the numerous Rogers seen on either side of the Atlantic. “I was the first person to be cast,” Evans says of the current revival, which brings a new club-oriented musical groove to Jonathan Larson’s Tony-winning score. “I think the creative team had me in mind, [but] obviously I had to audition with everybody else. And when you go for auditions, the trouble is that you always get excited about getting the job before you’ve actually got it.” Any jitters Evans may have had paid off.
Hometown: Aberbargoed, a town in the Rhymmney Valley in South Wales. Evans is one of three Rent company members to come from arguably the most musically inclined part of the U.K. “We’re a very passionate race, the Welsh,” he says. “I don’t know any gathering my family ever had where we haven’t ended up singing. I went home for my grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary, and everybody got up and sang. It was wonderful; it made me realise my heritage and where we came from. We’re such an open, happy race, and we’re very happy to sing. At a rugby match in Cardiff, it’s spine-tingling listening to 80,000 people singing Welsh hymns.”
The Road to Rent: “My mum and dad knew that I wanted to sing,” Evans says. “I had singing lessons, and I used to do eisteddfods [competitive music festivals] and win a lot of them. Then I was put up for a scholarship and won it to go to a college of the charitable foundation’s choice.” That, in turn, led Evans to the London Studio Centre in King’s Cross when he was only 17. “It happened very quickly,” he recalls. “I’d always wanted to move to London; when I was a kid, I would come up on bus trips with old ladies who were going to see shows. I knew in my blood I’d end up living here.” Evans’ West End credits include the entire run at two different venues of the musical La Cava, starring Oliver Tobias, as well as Miss Saigon on tour and the original West End company of Avenue Q. “I miss the puppets, actually,” he says with a laugh.
Rent stars Luke Evans and Siobhan Donaghy
|
A date with destiny: Evans speaks as one who truly loves Rent; indeed, his good friend Declan Bennett, with whom he worked on the London premiere of Taboo, is now playing Roger in the show’s ongoing Broadway production. “I’ve always enjoyed the show whenever I’d seen it, but I wasn’t so sure about the casting of the last production [at the Prince of Wales]. The show is very powerful and, if done correctly, really affects the audience. It has always affected me. I think the music is stunning, especially Roger’s part, which sits really well in my voice.” (Think Tom Waits or even early Rod Stewart.) That, in turn, explains why, the Saigon tour aside, Evans hasn’t done the Les Miz/Phantom West End circuit. “I’ve got a feeling I’m a little too poppy, too rocky, for those shows,” he observes. “I may be a bit rough and ready; I haven’t got that RP-sounding voice.”
Living in America? Evans wouldn’t mind fulfilling the lyrics of “What You Own,” a song he gets to sing in Rent. “I think I’m destined to do an American show in America one day,” he says with a laugh, even if his next gig—Dickens Unplugged, in which five guys perform the complete works of Charles Dickens—couldn’t sound more English. Premiered at this summer’s Edinburgh Festival, that show is, in fact, the brainchild of an expat American writer-performer, Adam Long. “The man is a talented god; he does everything,” the talented young actor declares. Evans isn’t doing too badly, either.