Crucible boss back on stage for new season

DANIEL Evans is starting his daily routine with a Downward Dog. Long days filled with meetings about programming and strategy, finance and casting, as well as directing duties and myriad other demands have had to be rearranged, with some jobs put on hold and others tackled late at night. Limbering up for a day of song and dance as Bobby, the leading man in Stephen Sondheim’s early 1970s musical comedy Company, Evans joins Francesa Annis and the rest of the cast for a bout of yoga each morning.

“There’s quite a bit of high-kicking in this show, as well as the singing, which I haven’t done properly for a year. This show is a big sing,” says Evans, who has plenty of form with Sondheim, having played in Merrily We Roll Along and Sweeney Todd. He also starred in the West End and Broadway productions of Sunday In The Park With George, for which he won an Olivier award in 2006. Company will be set in its period – cue penny round collars and big hair.

“I’ve just come from a dialect coaching session, to make sure the New York accent is up to scratch, and I have to say I am really looking forward to this,” says Evans.

This will be his main stage debut, two and a half years after becoming artistic director of Sheffield Theatres. “I suppose there is lots of pressure, but I try not to think about that. As for winning an award for Sondheim, once you are into a new role you don’t think about those things. We chose this show because Stephen Sondheim is our greatest living theatre composer – an entire Prom was dedicated to him last year, he has a Broadway theatre named after him and Sheffield hasn’t done much of his work. Company won the Tony award for best musical 40 years ago, which seemed entirely appropriate, seeing as this is our 40th birthday year.

“It’s Sondheim’s most popular, most accessible and most tuneful show. It’s set in the 1970s and has a very sassy score, with great numbers like Being Alive, The Ladies Who Lunch and Side By Side By Side. There’s a real Bacharach influence, and it’s set in Bobby’s apartment in the meat packing district of New York.” The Bobby in question is a commitment-phobic 35-year-old who wants to find someone to share his life with, but is hampered by dreams of the perfect relationship. The piece is about what makes long-term relationships tick. Friends try to pair Bobby off, but he is baffled by what he sees as their dysfunctional marriages. However, at the end of each scene he also observes great love underpinning those self-same couplings. “I know that feeling so well – that you can love someone and at the same time they drive you mad,” says Evans. “There’s a great philosophical side to this show, and it seemed so relevant to today, in that we all feel uber-connected by Facebook, text, Skype and email, yet Company asks what kind of connection are we after and what quality. We’ve got quantity, but what about quality?”

Evans says he has now “finally got the measure” of running the biggest theatre complex outside London’s National Theatre – with as many seats to fill as the National, too.

“I feel we’re just starting to get airborne. I’m pleased with audience numbers – 31,000 saw Othello (the critically acclaimed recent production starred Clarke Peters and Dominic West), which beat our previous record of 27,000 for John Simm in Hamlet.

“We have established the new Sheffield People’s Theatre, a community theatre group, and audiences have been very diverse in terms of age and ethnicity.” Othello saw ticket sales of 98 per cent.

Evans expected from the start that the hours would be long and they are even longer than anticipated, especially just now. The satisfying flip side is the constant, intense mental stimulation of being boss, director and actor, even if it is at a particularly challenging time.

“Like others, we’re constantly having to find inventive ways of raising income and making theatre with high production values and greater efficiency while reaching out into the community to encourage people to come to us.

“These economic times are difficult for everyone, but the arts budget is already modest – especially in view of the return the Government gets on its investment.”

Next season offers a juicy mix, including a Michael Frayn season, the return of John Simm in Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, a restoration comedy, popular musicals and a wide variety of touring productions. Evans says programming a year ahead is about second guessing how the world will be then and what kind of productions will speak to us. “I don’t like ticking boxes, although there are genres that are usually represented. What we always want is a body of work that is bold, passionate and varied.”

Company runs from November 29 to January 7. Box office 0114 249 6000.

New season highlights

Company by Stephen Sondheim – November 29-January 7; The Way Of The World by William Congreve – February 2-25; Michael Frayn Season: Copenhagen February 29-March 10; Benefactors – March 1-24, and Democracy, March 8-31; Betrayal by Harold Pinter – May 17-June 9; Leaner, Faster, Stronger by Kaite O’Reilly – May 23-June 2.

Touring productions include Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I – January 17-21; Legally Blonde – The Musical, February 14-25; Northern Ballet’s Beauty and the Beast – March 20-24; National Theatre Connections Festival, March 28-April 4 and Swallows and Amazons – April 10-14.