"Resident Broadway Star Will 'Give Back' in Benefit"
Enterprise - Friday, December 4, 1998

When you're a guy who feels like you've got it all - great career, lovely wife, two healthy children, and a terrific village to call home - what do you do next?

For Irvington resident Rob Evan, the answer is obvious: give back.

Evan, 30, is the star of Broadway's "Jekyll and Hyde" and a former star of "Les Miserables." He and his wife, Norwegian native Beate Gran, moved to Irvington from New York City two years ago and have been much taken with the place. "We love it here," Evan said last Friday, speaking for Gran and their sons - Johan, 3, and Max, 2 months.

This Sunday, Evan and friends are renting out the Irvington Town Hall Theater for the "2nd Annual Broadway Holiday Concert," charity benefit. Evan regularly supports Broadway Cares: Equity Fights AIDS and leukemia-related causes. Proceeds from this concert will go to the Jane Elissa/Charlotte Meyers Fund for Leukemia Research, an endowment named for a friend of Evan's and her mother, who has been fighting the disease.

Evan said the "1st Annual Broadway Holiday Concert" was almost an impromptu affair. "We did not get the word out as much" as this year, he said.

Sunday's concert, which was almost sold out last weekend, will again be a series of mostly current Braodway songs sung by performers now or previously in the show of origin. "These are really just people I can pick up the phone and call," he said. "The talent we're going to have up there is amazing. And all these people are not only great talents but also really nice people. We try to make a little money for things we believe in."

The lineup includes Christiane Noll, his co-star in "Jekyll and Hyde," who also formerly starred in "The King and I" and does the voice of Anna in the upcoming animated feature of the musical; Brian D'Arcy James, a star of the original cast of "Titanic," whom Evan met when they were both in "Les Miserables"; Sean McDermitt, one of the original Chris's in "Miss Saigon"; Robert Longo, who played Javert to Evan's Jean Valjean in "Les Miserables," and Rita Harvey, who has played Christine in "Phantom of the Opera."

Hastings performing arts teacher Mark Ruhala, whom Evan doesn't know but who is a friend of his co-producer and musical director Neil Berg, will perform a song-and-dance number from Berg's original musical "The Prince and the Pauper." One of Ruhala's students, 14-year-old Elizabeth Schwartz of Riverdale, will perform "Over the Rainbow" from "The Wizard of Oz."

Evan said he will emcee and do a lot of the singing.

Given that Town Hall Theater's limited size, Evan said he'll be thrilled if the evening net's $5,000, whereas he recently raised $5,000 himself as part of a larger benefit at Manhattan's Marriot Marquis where he auctioned off "Jekyll and Hyde" tickets and some off-stage time with the star.

But the chance to perform on a smaller stage, with only a piano, bass, and drums rather than a full orchestra, is a fun one, he said. Also, "I want to invite people in the community to see what I do."

Publicity for the concert is being handled by the officers of his fan club, some of whom will be coming to the concert from as far as Philadelphia. "It's weird because you wonder why there's a fan club for you," he said. "What did I do to deserve this?" (The club maintains a web site at www.rob-evan.com.) "It's totally their thing," he said.

Evan didn't always have his sights set on the stage. He's originally from Atlanta, Ga., although after nearly eight years in New York he has little trace of his accent. "I never expected to find myself in the arts," he said. "I'm basically an ex-collegiate football player from the University of Georgia."

After college, he was thinking about law school, but also had this love of theater that he thought he'd best get out of his system. One of the first show-business jobs he landed was a six-month stint as the entertainment on a Norwegian cruise line ship, where the woman who was to become his wife was a stewardess. After that, he said, "I moved to New York and three months later I was in 'Les Miz,'" where he gradually worked his way up from a small role to the lead.

Evan and Gran had settled in Greenwich Village, but after Johan was born, staying there was not an option. "We had friends - other performers - who lived in Dobbs Ferry and said we would really love Irvington," he explained. And they do.

"I love the fact that it's got very much of a community feeling. That's how I was raised; I'm from small-town U.S.A." As for Gran, "My wife thought she'd never be able to stay in New York," he said. But Irvington "reminds her so much of Norway. She almost gets the feeling, looking over the Hudson, of the fjords of the North Atlantic. It's so beautiful up here."

They are renting a house in the village while looking for one to buy.

Since they moved to New York, "I haven't stopped working and every job gets better and better. And we have two healthy sons."

"We've been so lucky," he said. "You have to be thankful for what you have."

Tickets for the 8 p.m. concert are $25, $20 for seniors and students. Call 591-6602 for ticket information.

- Jennifer Stern