"Irvington Actor Steps In As Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde"
Westchester Journal News - Friday, December 11, 1998

Robert Evan of Irvington, a former member of the University of Georgia varsity football team who had a brief career as a punter for the Cincinnati Bengals, is poised to send shock waves among the Jekkies - the fanatical fans of Broadway's cult musical "Jekyll & Hyde."

Starting January 5, Evan will replace Robert Cuccioli in the lead, the closest thing Broadway has these days to a matinee idol with a fan club.

The father of two small boys, Evan comes to the role with his own following: He has been playing Jekyll and Hyde on Wednesday and Saturday matinees since the show opened 19 months ago, and he was in the cast of the road show before that. Evan, 30, has long experience as a cast replacement, he was Valjean opposite Cuccioli's Javert in "Les Miserables." He calls the dual role of Jekyll and Hyde "the musical actor's Hamlet."

"It's a big part and it's very demanding," he says. "It can become comical if you don't commit yourself to it 100 percent. There's a certain camp and melodramatic element to the show, obviously, and you have to embrace that."

To the characters of Jekyll and Hyde, Evan brings greater physical bulk, lighter coloring, a slightly higher lyric baritone, and a touch more humor and less angst to the villainous Hyde.

"You know he's having fun, as well as being brutal and a madman," he says.

In taking over a role, says Evan, "You have to live within the parameters created by the person who played the character before you. You have to take it step by step. The first thing is hitting your marks and working properly with the other people onstage. The show has to evolve. Eventually I will find my way into a part and hopefully feel like I've made my mark as well."

- Jacques le Sourd