Wilbur Whilt "Wib" Evans (August 5, 1905 - May 31, 1987) was an American actor and singer who performed on the radio, in opera, on Broadway in films and early live television.
Wilbur Whilt "Wib" Evans (August 5, 1905 - May 31, 1987) was an American actor and singer who performed on the radio, in opera, on Broadway in films and early live television.
Evans was born in Philadelphia, the son of Walter Percy and Emma Whilt Evans, of Welsh descent. He had a brother, Walter, and a sister, Emma, who died at an early age. As a child, he sang with the Welsh Singing Society of Philadelphia and as a soloist in the choir of the First Unitarian Church in the Germantown section of the city. At Holmes Junior High School, he performed in his first play, Daddy Long Legs. From 1921 to 1925 he attended West Philadelphia High School For Boys. There he starred in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado as Ko-Ko. [1]
After graduating from high school he was awarded a two-year scholarship at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music. During his second year at Curtis, in 1927, he entered the first national radio singing contest, the Atwater Kent Foundation National Radio Singing Contest. Out of 50,000 contestants, Evans and Agnes Davis won the top prizes for male and female contestants, Evans won $5,000 in cash and a two-year scholarship for his junior and senior years at Curtis. Some have asserted that Evans and Davis were the 'first American Idols.' [2]
A baritone, Evans performed in radio early his career. In 1930, he moved to Los Angeles to perform on the radio, in concerts and to try his hand has a performer in the movie-talkie fever that was sweeping the land. Having little financial success, at the age of twenty six he returned to New York in 1931 and his burgeoning radio career. During this time he signed with Columbia Concert Management Agency and its subsidiary Cooperative-Community Concerts Bureau. They were known for sending out salesmen en masse across the US and Canada, selling a roster of concert series to larger towns- usually a singer, violinist, pianist etc. These community concerts catered usually to the social leaders in each city to promote their awareness of bringing musical culture to their areas.
On May 22 and 23 of 1931, Evans performed the role of the Pirate King to excellent reviews in the Savoy Company's production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance at Philadelphia's famed Academy of Music. The Savoy Company is currently the oldest theatrical group in the world dedicated to performing the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. Founded in 1901, and still extant, Savoy's performing membership of dedicated amateurs was formed from Philadelphia society's "blue bloods" and Social Register-types.
Evans again performed with Savoy on May 13 and 14, 1932 as Jack Point in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Yeomen of the Guard , also at Philadelphia's Academy of Music. Evans attributed his success in this difficult role to director Pacie Ripple who performed in D'Oyly Carte productions directed by Gilbert and Sullivan themselves. Evans teamed with long-time Savoy member John Steele Williams as Shadbolt for the show's hilarious comic duet which literally became a show stopping number due to the tumultuous applause.
Evans' last appearance with the Savoy Company was in 1936, again at the Academy of Music. This was Savoy's first performance of Utopia, Limited was also Philadelphia's premier of this show and one of the earliest performances of this Gilbert and Sullivan opera in the United States. He again was directed by Pacie Ripple and again drew rave reviews from the Philadelphia press.
Appearing in Canada and every state in the union “except North Dakota” in concerts, operas, recitals, oratorios. He made his grand opera debut in 1933 in Tristan und Isolde with Fritz Reiner and the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra. Over the next few years, he appeared throughout North America in concerts, operas, recitals and oratorios. He also served for two years in the Marine Reserve during the 1930s. [1] In the early 1940s, he starred on Broadway in The Merry Widow , The New Moon , La Vie Parisienne , Mexican Hayride and Up in Central Park .
In 1951, Evans co-starred with Mary Martin in the original London production of South Pacific . In the early 1950s, Evans and wife Susanna Foster performed in operettas and musicals, touring extensively. He appeared in By the Beautiful Sea on Broadway in 1954, and his last role on Broadway was in Man of La Mancha (1965). He also appeared in Man of La Mancha at the Mastbaum Theater in Philadelphia in 1966. Through the 1950s and 1960s, he also performed in concerts and cabarets. [1]
Evans was married four times, including to actress Susanna Foster from 1948 to 1956, with whom he had two children, Philip and Michael. [3] His fourth wife was the former Masako Ogura.
Evans died at his home in Mullica Hill, New Jersey at the age of 81. [2]
Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado are among the best known.
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.
Ron Raines is an American actor. He is known for the role of Alan Spaulding on the television soap opera Guiding Light. Raines also performs in musical theatre and in concert with symphony orchestras.
Shuler Paul Hensley is an American singer and actor.
Music Theater Works is a resident professional not-for-profit musical theatre company in Evanston, Illinois. It was founded in 1980 by Philip Kraus, Bridget McDonough, and Ellen Dubinsky.
Light Opera of Manhattan, known as LOOM, was an off-Broadway repertory theatre company that produced light operas, including the works of Gilbert and Sullivan and European and American operettas, 52 weeks per year, in New York City between 1968 and 1989.
Richard Barker Cobb Temple was an English opera singer, actor and stage director, best known for his performances in the bass-baritone roles in the famous series of Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas.
Thomas Round was an English opera singer and actor, best known for his performances in the leading tenor roles of the Savoy Operas and grand opera.
Derek Oldham was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in the tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.
Robert Evett was an English singer, actor, theatre manager and producer. He was best known as a leading man in Edwardian musical comedies and later managed the George Edwardes theatrical empire.
Washington Savoyards was a professional musical theatre company based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1972, the company annually produced three fully staged musicals and operettas, usually including at least one Gilbert and Sullivan production each year. It performed at the Duke Ellington School and the Atlas Performing Arts Center. The company suspended performances in 2012.
Robert Rounseville was an American actor and tenor, who appeared in opera, operetta, Broadway musicals, and motion pictures.
Philip Kraus is an American operatic baritone and stage director known for his performances with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, starting in 1991, and for his co-founding of Light Opera Works, a professional light opera company in Chicago, in 1980.
LOOK Musical Theatre (LOOK) was a professional musical theatre company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The organization, governed by an elected board of directors, followed a repertory model in presenting a summer festival program of musicals and comic opera. LOOK's annual summer season of performances at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center was known as "The LOOK Festival."
Barry Clark is an English opera singer and actor. Beginning in the 1970s, Clark played tenor roles in the Savoy Operas for over a decade with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. He then sang in various opera companies, including New Sadler's Wells and Scottish Opera, and played in musicals on the West End. Later, Clark concentrated on oratorio and, in recent years, appeared with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, among others.
Richard Suart is an English opera singer and actor, who has specialised in the comic roles of Gilbert and Sullivan operas and in operetta, as well as in avant-garde modern operas. He is probably best known for his numerous portrayals of Ko-Ko in The Mikado.
Andrew McKinley was an American operatic tenor, violinist, arts administrator, music educator, and school administrator. Although he mainly performed in the United States, he had an active international singing career with major opera companies and symphony orchestras from the 1940s through the 1960s. His repertoire spanned a wide range, from leading tenor parts to character roles.
John James Fryatt was an English actor and opera singer best known for his performance in comic character roles.
Margaret Winifred Gale is an English operatic soprano who sang leading roles with Sadler's Wells Opera Company throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.
Opera Columbus is an American professional opera company in Columbus, Ohio, founded in 1981, and is a member of Opera America. OC employs nearly 350 artists and creative professionals annually—vocalists, artisans, stagehands, costumers, and scenic designers—many of whom are members of the Columbus community.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
