BWW INTERVIEWS: Jet Set Go! star Mark Evans

How's Jet Set Go! going?

It's great. I suppose as far as me doing the show is concerned, you have a wish list of things you want to do - I want to originate a role, I want to do this, this and this, and one of mine was that I want to play an intimate venue. To do something where there's no microphone, no big lavish production and sets, and you can interact with the audience much more. It doesn't pretend to be anything it's not. It's light-hearted tongue-in-cheek fun. It's basically a story of eight people on a flight - six cabin crew, two pilots - stay over, and they go and do their little bits and bobs, and they come back again. It's nice because I think everyone will be able to relate to at least one of the characters.

My character is Richard, a straight-acting gay steward. He's a nice guy. He's very ambitious and he sees being a member of a cabin crew as a means to an end. Eventually, he wants to live with a nice Italian man in Italy, with possibly kids, and dogs. Basically he wants to settle down.

It got great reviews in Edinburgh - are you worried about living up to that?

That was one of the main reasons I wanted to do it! They sent me the script and it was something I wanted to do, and the Jermyn Street Theatre is such a nice venue. I'm not surprised it got good reviews, and to see great reviews for young British writers is really good. They're so inspiring, they're so passionate about it. You do shows that are a bit churned out, and you work with someone who's down the list, but we're working with the writers on this, which is brilliant.

Of course last year you were playing Troy in High School Musical.

In fact, this time last year I was in Wicked understudying Fiyero! Since then, it's been incredible. High School Musical was amazing for me. It's a real big confidence boost. It was a great production. It was my first principal role - and what a role to do. You get a good reaction from normal kids' audiences, and you think, wow, that's good. When you've got 3,500 screaming five-year-olds, it's amazing - a real challenge - but no, it was brilliant. It really did change me as an actor. It was like I was some sort of superstar. I'd go out the stage door and there were hordes of kids. How lucky am I getting to play a character they absolutely idolise? It's just such a massive phenomenon to portray our own versions of those characters.

Would you fancy doing High School Musical 2?

I actually really like the music for High School Musical 2. My friend Rebecca who played Sharpay in London went over to do High School Musical 2 in Atlanta, and Troy and Sharpay have more scenes together in that, so it would be nice to work with her. I've just bought a flat so I don't think I'd want to go away for a year. But I'd like to do the show. High School Musical was amazing for nine weeks, but being a 16-year-old and having to shave twelve times a day...! The energy, doing nine shows a week, and singing in a top tenor range, it was brilliant but it was hard work, and I think doing it for a year might just run me into the ground.

When did you decide to go in for Eurovision after High School Musical?

I was rehearsing panto, and I got a call from my agent saying they wanted to see me for the Eurovision thing. I was like, "No, no way, Eurovision, whatever." It's had such a stigma. Then I found out Andrew Lloyd-Webber was involved. I didn't know anything about it - they'd been saying send your videos in, and I didn't know anything about that. So I said OK, I'd go along to audition, and then it took us ages to find a slot. So I turned up, I sang, and they said, "OK, come back," and that was the next day. And then I was in the final six! I was auditioning just so that I could say that I'd auditioned for Andrew Lloyd-Webber, because obviously if you audition for Phantom or Joseph or anything like that you don't actually get to meet him! We had a couple of weeks' rehearsal and then it was the first live show.

I'd watched the Marias [on How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?], and I'm good friends with Daniel Boys who was one of the Josephs [on Any Dream Will Do]. We were watching the Nancy programme the year after and I was saying, "I don't know how you could put yourself through that - the results and the elimination process." A year later he called me and said, "Yeah, you'll be going through it yourself now."

It was the best thing I've ever, ever done. It was so exciting, and so terrifying. It sounds like a cliché but it was an absolute emotional rollercoaster. You'd feel such excitement and joy being part of it - the things we got to do, like performing at the 02 arena and that kind of stuff. You stand there and you wait to see if people bother to pick up the phone. It was just terrifying. As a theatre performer you do your training and you're constantly being judged. To put yourself back in that position and being judged by the whole nation every Saturday night - not even that, through the whole week, and comparing yourself to so and so, it was constantly on my mind - and for my mum and dad too.

Lots of the contestants did have musical theatre training. Do you think that helped?

The idea behind it was that it's not about experience, it's about the here and now, which it really was. But when you actually consider the job in hand - to perform to millions of people - I think you need to have performing experience at quite a high level to be able to deal with that. The Nancys [from I'd Do Anything] and the Marias were 12 people up for the same role, and they could all do it, but we were all really different acts. The most terrifying thing was going into the first show because we didn't know how the audience would react to us. Most of us thought Damien [Flood] would be in the final - he's got a fantastic voice. It's a whole different world.

Were you disappointed not to win?

Being completely honest, I went into the final six still not knowing if it was the right thing to do. I work really hard. I want to be a credible performer. I sat with my agent and we both agreed that the best result would be to get to the final but not win. But of course when you're involved in any kind of competition, you want to win. Then you think - how would you feel to represent every person in the United Kingdom? And yeah, actually, I'd love it! My family were so much more involved with this than they were with any of the shows I've done because they were living it with me. I wanted them to know I was OK. I went back to Wales, and hundreds of people were there with banners and things. I knew they weren't disappointed in me, but they'd be disappointed with the result because they wanted me to win, so I was disappointed too. After a couple of days I realised I was free to do what I wanted now. But Jade [Ewen, the winner] is fantastic - now that she's had the pressure of the show taken away from her, she owns it even more.

What do you want to do next?

If there's a show, I'll audition for it. I don't have one path for my career to go down. I left college not knowing where I wanted to go. I thought I was going to be a resident director or dance captain. When I got to Wicked, I loved it so much, and realised that was what I wanted to do. I think it's an important part of my career now. I want to make sure the next thing I do is something well-respected by me. I like to do original stuff like Jet Set Go! I admire John Barrowman - he's a very good musical theatre performer, he's an entertainer, he's a recording artist, he's a TV actor. To have a career like that would be fantastic. I'd love to do an album - people ask if I plan to release any recordings, which is lovely. It fills me with confidence to know I've got that support.

What are your top three ideal roles in musical theatre, then?

A top three? Well, Chris in Miss Saigon. I'd love to go back and play Fiyero in Wicked. There are so many things. I'm making the most of being young at the moment - maybe Link in Hairspray, or a role in Legally Blonde or Xanadu - something with a young, poppy sound. There are just so many things - anything that'll be a challenge.

What's next for you after Jet Set Go! finishes?

It depends. It's weird. Casting directors know what I can do now, so they'll see me if they want to see me. I didn't do the competition to be a celebrity - I don't want it to be "starring Mark, from Your Country Needs You." I'm grateful for it, but I'm also grateful people still see me as a West End professional.

I'm also running a summer school back in Wales - when I was growing up, I had a hobby of performing but I never thought of doing it professionally, and it was only by chance I came to London and ended up working here. I've seen so much talent where I come from, so I'm running a six-day summer school, West End In Wales, from August 17 at my old school which has a new theatre complex. We'll do rehearsals and workshops, and then put a showcase on at the end. But it's not just about the performance - we as tutors will write reports and give advice, so for example we could recommend extra ballet lessons. In fact, the one thing that's set in stone for my career is that I'd love to have my own theatre school in Wales one day...

Jet Set Go! is running at the Jermyn Street Theatre until April 18.

 

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