Robert Buchen[1] known professionally as Robert "Rob" Evan is an American actor and singer, best known as the lead performer in numerous Broadway musicals, a performer in national and international tours of musical productions, and a featured vocalist on various music albums.
"I grew up in Monticello, Georgia, and I was a football player at UGA, and that's the first time I saw Les Mis — twenty years ago here at the Fox. It just made me go, I want to do this for a living. I was just a business major, I had wanted to go to law school, but this show lit the fire... I ended up auditioning at a Les Mis open call 'a la American Idol' two years later. I waited ten hours to sing sixteen bars of Stars. He walked out with the proverbial gold ticket. 'I thought it was going to be instant stardom and cash, not knowing any better."
He met his ex-wife, Beate, while working on a cruise ship as one of four lead singers in a musical review. Beate is originally from Norway. Shortly after his time on the ship, he moved to New York City to pursue a career on Broadway. During his early days in New York City, Evan waited tables in Times Square. He and Beate have three children.[2]
Musical theater
After a few community theater roles, Evan's first professional role was in the ensemble for South Pacific in Atlanta, Georgia in 1990.
Evan performed in the 1995 US tour of Jekyll & Hyde as Theo Davenport. Most notably, he played the title roles in the original Broadway production of Jekyll & Hyde for over three years, from the years 1997 until 2000, and over 600 performances. One of his performances was professionally recorded as a rehearsal for the DVD version with David Hasselhoff and is currently available on YouTube.[3] Evan has continued to perform in touring productions of the show, appearing alongside Linda Eder, Luba Mason, Coleen Sexton, Christiane Noll, Anastasia Barzee and Andrea Rivette, as his leading ladies.
He also performed the role of the Count von Krolock in the Broadway show called Dance of the Vampires at the Minskoff Theatre in 2002. This show is separate and very different from the show by that name that has been performed in Europe and elsewhere. An understudy to Michael Crawford, he did perform the role on stage for at least one show. He originated the role of Nanki-Poo in the TUTS/Pittsburgh CLO premiere of the Hot Mikado.
He has been in a touring show, The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Neil Berg's 100 Years of Broadway.
On March 26, 2007, he began performing as "Kerchak" in the Disney Broadway musical Tarzan. He played his final performance on July 8, 2007, when the show closed.[4]
In August 2014, he joined the cast of Atomic, an off-Broadway musical about the Manhattan Project, as Ernest Rutherford and Arthur Compton.[5]
Evan can be heard on Trans-Siberian Orchestra's albums The Lost Christmas Eve ("What Is Christmas?", "Back to a Reason Part II", and "What Child Is This?") and Night Castle ("There Was a Life", "Epiphany"). In an interview Evan said, "Paul has really been brilliant in the way he handled that band. I have three platinum records on my wall because of him. In fact, the house they’re hanging in is because of the last TSO record we did", referring to Paul O'Neill.[6] Evan has also toured live with TSO, singing "This Is Who You Are" in 2001; "An Angel Came Down", "An Angel Returned", and "The World That He Sees" in 2003; "An Angel Came Down" and "An Angel Returned" in 2009; "What is Christmas?", "Back to a Reason Part II", and "What Child Is This?" in winter 2012 and 2013; "Epiphany" and "Mephistopheles' Return" in spring 2014; "The World That He Sees" and "Christmas in the Air" in winter 2014; "What Child Is This?" in winter 2015 and 2016; as well as playing the part of Beethoven on TSO's spring 2010, 2011, and 2012 tours. Evan's vocals garnered him rave reviews from both TSO fans and musical critics. "Hard Rock Magazine," not only lauded him for his portrayal of the legendary composer in Beethoven's Last Night performed in 2011 in Beethoven's home town of Vienna, Austria but also noted that he had "the best songs on "Night Castle," (Epiphany and There was a Life) were not his by chance."[7]
The Dream Engine
Evan was one of the two lead vocalists for The Dream Engine, a music performance group that performed the music of Jim Steinman. This project has not performed or been active in public since 2006, aside from having a website and Myspace page.
Evan's voice can be heard on multiple recordings, including Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s The Lost Christmas Eve and Night Castle (Lava/Atlantic), Jekyll & Hyde (OBC/Atlantic), The Broadway Musicals of 1940 (BayView), The Prince and the Pauper (OOBC/JAY), Johnny Guitar (OOBC), Jekyll & Hyde: Resurrection (KOCH/Globalvision), Dracula (KOCH/Globalvision), the soundtrack to Neil Berg's 100 Years of Broadway (Left Field Productions), and Menrva Realm's Angels (Ectronia).
In 2005/06 he did vocal work on studio recordings intended for The Dream Engine. Sample clips from "Nowhere Fast" and "Is Nothing Sacred" were posted to the Internet, but the album was never released.
Other appearances
Evan performed at the 2001 Inaugural Gala for President George W. Bush, the Millennium Independence Day US Naval Revue aboard the USS JFK for President Clinton, the Millennium World Forum Conference with guest speaker Mikhail Gorbachev, the 1998 Goodwill Games, the New York City Mayor’s Inaugural Gala, the 1998 and 1999 NY Yankees World Series Celebration at City Hall, The Georgia Music Hall of Fame Awards Telecast in September 2006, The Today Show, and Monday Night Football.
In 2009, he performed in The Rock Tenor, which featured Patti Russo, and in Classic M: The Music of Motown, USA. While appearing in The Rock Tenor shows, Evan performed the song "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" as a duet with Russo.
Linda Eder is an American singer and actress. She originated the role of Lucy Harris in the Broadway musical Jekyll & Hyde, for which she was nominated for the Drama Desk Award.
Anthony Warlow is an Australian musical theatre performer, noted for his character acting and considerable vocal range. He is a classically trained lyric baritone and made his debut with the Australian Opera in 1980.
Sebastian Philip Bierk, known professionally as Sebastian Bach, is a Canadian-American singer who achieved mainstream success as the frontman of the hard rock band Skid Row from 1987 to 1996. He has acted on Broadway and has made appearances in film and television such as Trailer Park Boys, The Masked Singer and Gilmore Girls. He continues his music career as a solo artist.
Colm Wilkinson, also known as C. T. Wilkinson, is an Irish singer and actor who is best known for originating the lead role of Jean Valjean in Les Misérables and for creating the title role in The Phantom of the Opera (1985) preview at the Sydmonton Festival and the original Canadian production.
Frank Wildhorn is an American composer of both musicals and popular songs. His musical Jekyll & Hyde ran for four years on Broadway. He also wrote the hit song "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" for Whitney Houston.
Tony Vincent is an American actor, songwriter, and singer based in New York City and Nashville.
Constantine James Maroulis is an American actor and rock singer. He was the sixth-place finalist on the fourth season of the reality television series American Idol, and received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for his role in Rock of Ages. He starred in the title role in Jekyll and Hyde on Broadway, for which he received a Drama League Award Nomination for a Distinguished Performance Award.
Patricia Russo is an American singer and songwriter. She is perhaps best known as Meat Loaf's former female lead vocalist, as she toured the world with his band Neverland Express between 1993 and 2013. Since then, she has embarked on a solo career.
Richard White is an American actor and opera singer best known for voicing the character of Gaston in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. He also voiced the character in the early 2000s animated TV series House of Mouse and the 2023 works Lego Disney Princess: The Castle Quest, Disney Speedstorm, Once Upon a Studio, and Disney Dreamlight Valley.
Jekyll & Hyde is a 1990 musical loosely based on the 1886 novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Originally conceived for the stage by Frank Wildhorn and Steve Cuden, it features music by Frank Wildhorn, a book by Leslie Bricusse and lyrics by all of them. After a world premiere run in Houston, Texas, the musical embarked on a national tour of the United States prior to its Broadway debut in 1997. Many international productions in various languages have since been staged including two subsequent North American tours, two tours in the United Kingdom, a concert version, a revamped US tour in 2012, a 2013 Broadway revival featuring Constantine Maroulis, and an Australian concert version in 2019 starring Anthony Warlow.
Patrick Monahan is an American musician. He is best known as the lead singer and sole constant member of the band Train. He collaborated with multiple artists and recorded a solo album, Last of Seven.
The Dream Engine is the name of a music performance group created by Jim Steinman and Steven Rinkoff, first publicly presented in 2006. They only performed songs written or co-written by Steinman. TDE did live performances, and worked on studio recordings.
Emily Skinner, also known as Emily Scott Skinner, is a Tony-nominated American actress and singer. She has played leading roles in 11 Broadway productions including New York, New York, Prince of Broadway, The Cher Show, Side Show, Jekyll & Hyde, James Joyce's The Dead, The Full Monty, Dinner at Eight, Billy Elliot, as well as the Actor's Fund Broadway concerts of Dreamgirls and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. She has sung on concert stages around the world and on numerous recordings.
Christiane Noll is an American actress and singer known for her work in musicals and on the concert stage. She originated the role of Emma Carew in Frank Wildhorn's Jekyll & Hyde, and had roles in Urinetown, Ragtime, and Dear Evan Hansen.
Lauren Kennedy is an American actress and singer who has performed numerous times on Broadway. She is now the producing artistic director of Theatre Raleigh in her home state of North Carolina.
Anastasia Barzee is an American Broadway and West End actress.
Teal Wicks is an American singer and stage actress, who is best known for her performances as Elphaba in the Broadway, San Francisco, and Los Angeles productions of the musical Wicked and as Mary Barrie in the musical Finding Neverland.
Broadway Worldwide was established in 1995 as a worldwide distributor of Broadway musicals captured live-in-performance for digital cinema, DVD, video on demand (VOD), pay per view (PPV), pay TV, wired and wireless television. Since it started, Broadway Worldwide has captured and distributed Smokey Joe's Cafe, Stephen Sondheim's Putting It Together starring Carol Burnett, Jekyll & Hyde the Musical starring David Hasselhoff, and the 2010 Tony Award for Best Musical winner, Memphis.
Jekyll & Hyde: Direct from Broadway is a 2001 television film of the Broadway production of the 1990 musical Jekyll & Hyde as captured live in performance on Broadway featuring the show's final Broadway cast. The show was captured at Broadway's Plymouth Theatre in New York City December 2000 utilizing multiple high-definition cameras by Broadway Worldwide.
Andrea Rivette is an American actress who has starred on Broadway as Emma Carew in Jekyll & Hyde, with Jack Wagner, Sebastian Bach, David Hasselhoff, and Rob Evan as well as on the national tour with Chuck Wagner.
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