Luke Evans is making his Broadway debut in a part that asks for swagger, danger and a little bit of glamour, and he is doing it as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in a revival of The Rocky Horror Show. The Welsh actor is now Tony nominated for the performance, a sharp turn for someone who once said he was ready to give up acting because the work offered no stability, no financial security and no guarantee of a next job.
That is why Evans is drawing attention now: he is not just arriving on Broadway, he is arriving in one of the most recognizable stage roles in modern theater. Dr. Frank-N-Furter was made famous by Tim Curry, and the revival is being directed by Sam Pinkleton, who said the lead had to be a truly tremendous actor, a real comedian, a killer singer, terrifying and tender at the same time. Pinkleton also said the role needed someone who carried some kind of queerness with them, however that is defined, and Evans has fit that brief in a way that has already put him in Tony contention.
Evans said he did not even think he could pull it off. “I didn’t even think I possibly could pull it off, to be honest, but I did get excited about the fact that, I love a challenge,” he said. That uncertainty is part of what makes the casting land. He is 6 feet 8 inches in heels, and he straps on platform boots, a corset, a wig and a jock strap to play a character who demands that kind of fearless physical commitment. “You don’t take on a role like Frank, and expect to be covered up,” Evans said.
For Evans, the move back to Broadway also circles back to where he started. He trained in musical theater in college and had earlier stage roles in Miss Saigon and Rent before film work took over. He later moved through a run of screen credits, including Clash of the Titans, the Fast and the Furious franchise, Immortals, Dracula Untold and The Hobbit, after a stretch in which he said he felt like he was either on a plane or a film set for six years. Before that, in 2008, he starred in Small Change at London’s Donmar Warehouse, after writing to the director about his upbringing in Wales and asking to be seen. That role led him to an agent, then to Los Angeles, where he went through cold reads and meetings that helped build the career he was considering leaving behind.
What comes next is the part the production has not yet pinned down in public: the exact performance date and opening timing for Evans on Broadway. What is clear is that he has gone from wondering whether acting would ever feel secure to fronting one of Broadway’s loudest revivals, and he is doing it in a role that asks him to be bigger, stranger and braver than almost anything else on his résumé.
