Daniel Evans has another award to stand on his mantelpiece after being named the 2007 Laurence Olivier Award Best Actor In A Musical. The award was given for Evans's performance in Sunday In The Park With George. This is the second time Evans has won this award. He previously collected the statuette for his 2001 performance in another Sondheim production, Merrily We Roll Along at the Donmar Warehouse.
Evans's victory came in a very tough category that also included Tim Curry (Monty Python's Spamalot), Clarke Peters (The Gershwins' Porgy And Bess) and Philip Quast (Evita). So tough, in fact, that Evans told officiallondontheatre "I’m absolutely flabbergasted. I mean look who I was against! I just… I, I, I am actually speechless. It is absolutely a career highlight, God, without a doubt. And it’s my second, so I have bookends now! And it’s amazing that the show has done so well. Wow.”
This is the third time that Evans has been nominated in this category. The only time has not taken home the award was at the 1999 ceremony, when he was nominated for his performance in Candide, his very first musical. On that occasion he lost out to co-star Simon Russell Beale.
In addition to Merrily We Roll Along and Candide, Evans's canon of work includes The Merchant Of Venice, Troilus And Cressida (both National Theatre), Cleansed, 4.48 Psychosis, Where Do We Live (all Royal Court), The Tempest (Old Vic), Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Measure For Measure (RSC).
Speaking to officiallondontheatre about Sunday In The Park With George in May 2006, Evans said of the production: "As an actor, it is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life." That hard work has clearly paid off in the opinion of London's theatregoers and the Laurence Olivier Award judges.
Evans will return to the London stage at the Menier Chocolate Factory, where this production of Sunday In The Park With George was first staged, in March. He stars in Christopher Hampton's Total Eclipse.
MA
