Meet our Evan Hansen
Robert Markus, Riff Raff in Stratford’s Rocky Horror, will star in Toronto production of hit Broadway play
The latest Evan Hansen is a Canadian.
Robert Markus, well-known to GTA audiences for roles at major theatres including the Stratford and Shaw festivals, will play the title role in Dear Evan
Hansen, the smash hit musical opening at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in March.
This Toronto staging is the show’s third production, joining the original Broadway version — still playing after winning six Tony Awards in 2017 — and a U.S. national tour.
Having sent in an audition tape that caught the casting department’s eye, Markus went to New York several weeks ago and auditioned for producer Stacey Mindich and the show’s creative team (which includes composer/lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, book writer Steven Levenson and director Michael Greif ).
“I think we saw more than 800 boys for the role,” Mindich says.
“Robert had access to all the Evan qualities that
the directors and the author always look for,” Mindich says.
These include a powerhouse singing voice — the character is “basically singing for two and a half hours,” Mindich says — and “an ability to access raw emotion and fragility, and to tackle complicated scenes that also require a surprising amount of humour.”
Evan Hansen is a 17-year-old high school student with social difficulties who gets caught up in a web of lies that transform his life and that of a number of people close to him.
In his audition, Markus “passed all those tests with flying colours,” Mindich says.
“There is something indescribable in all the Evans we have chosen. It has always felt special when that boy walks into the room. It was the case with Robert.”
Markus isn’t a “boy” per se. He graduated from the University of Alberta in 2010 and Mindich acknowledges he is “not one of the young ones” who has played Evan.
He is most recently known for playing Riff Raff in the Stratford Festival’s hit production of The Rocky Horror Show this past summer, which was extended into December by popular demand and became the festival’s longest-running show.
Markus also performed the high tenor part in the barbershop quartet in The Music Man, the festival’s other musical production.
Former Toronto Star reviewer Richard Ouzounian praised Markus’s performance in the title role of the Who’s Tommy at Stratford in 2013 as “truly compelling.”
He also appeared in the 2016 Shaw Festival productions of Our Town and Sweeney Todd.
Originally from Vancouver, Markus has performed in Ontario at the Young People’s Theatre, Theatre Aquarius, Musical Stage Company and Drayton Productions; and for Theatre Calgary and the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton.
Markus is currently travelling in Central America, according to his agent, and was unavailable to talk to the Star.
This is the first international production of Dear Evan Hansen and the fact that it’s happening in Toronto has everything to do with the commitment of David Mirvish, Mindich says.
Mirvish was a member of the producing team for the Broadway premiere, having been captivated by the show offBroadway in 2016.
Once conversations started about international production, “it felt like a natural extension to work with David and go across the border to a country that is similar to ours,” Mindich says.
An offshoot phenomenon of Dear Evan Hansen is what Mindich calls “Evan School”: a mentorship program for young actors identified through auditions who may be able to take on the demanding role with training and time. This involves paid acting and singing workshops, and a subsequent filmed audition tape.
During the “really long and a bit scary process” of Canadian casting, Mindich says the team “pinpointed probably a half-dozen boys who are not ready yet, but who we believe we should put some work into.”
Conversations are underway between Mindich and the Mirvish organization to start up a Canadian branch of Evan School, if the production runs long enough to merit this.
Tickets are on sale for Toronto performances through June 30.
With one role left to cast, everyone in the Toronto production save one understudy is Canadian, Mindich says. Full casting will be announced in the new year and rehearsals begin on Jan. 24, initially in New York and then in Toronto.
Performances begin March 5 at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. See mirvish.com or call 416-872-1212 or 1-800-461-3333 for information.
Karen Fricker is a Toronto-based theatre critic and a freelance contributor for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @KarenFricker2