Daniel Evans

Actor and theatre director Daniel Evans shares with Michael Berkeley his passions for musical theatre, opera and the piano.

Daniel Evans grew up in the Rhondda Valley and won praise and prizes at Eisteddfods as a teenager. Since then his career has been something of a high-wire act: balancing performing versus directing and theatre management, stage versus screen, popular musicals versus edgy new dramas.

He first made his name twenty years ago as an actor, in Peter Pan at the National Theatre and then as an outstanding interpreter of Sondheim, twice winning Oliviers for Best Actor in a Musical. He’s also well known for his roles in television and film, from Spooks and Dr Who to Great Expectations.

And then in 2009 Daniel Evans was appointed Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres and he’s now at Chichester Festival Theatre. His stage production of The Full Monty went into the West End and continues to be on tour nationwide, and Flowers for Mrs Harris - a new musical about the life of a post-war char lady being transformed by the sight of a Christian Dior dress – won three UK Theatre Awards.

Daniel tells Michael about meeting Sondheim whilst performing in New York, about his passion for singing, and about the importance of the tradition of the actor-manager in British theatre.

He chooses music by Sondheim and Bernstein that reflects his passion for musical theatre, and he shares his love of opera with music by Britten and Donizetti.

And we hear Bryn Terfel sing a Welsh folk song which takes Daniel back to the valleys and Eisteddfods of his childhood.

Producer: Jane Greenwood A Loftus production for BBC Radio 3