Luke Evans in 'The Rocky Horror Show' performs as musical guest on Monday, May 4, 2026 on 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.' Todd Owyoung/NBC When director Sam Pinkleton began envisioning a Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Show, he drew up a list of qualities he believed the lead, Dr. Frank-N-Furter, needed to have.
“He had to be a truly tremendous actor. He had to be a real comedian, like a clown. He had to have a killer voice. He had to be terrifying, and also tender,” Pinkleton said. “We had to be scared of him, and we also had to want to fuck him. I also really felt strongly that it needed to be somebody who carried some kind of queerness with them, whatever that means.”
At first, Pinkleton was unsure who could embody all of that and provide a new take on the role made famous by Tim Curry. But when he met Luke Evans, an onscreen action star with a background in musical theater, he found a fit in an actor who happily contains his own contradictions.
Standing at 6 feet 8 inches in heels, Evans towers above cast members including Stephanie Hsu, Juliette Lewis, Harvey Guillén and more, as the mad scientist and head of a paranormal household that has welcomed in two hapless strangers during a rainstorm. Evans is Tony nominated for his Broadway debut in the role, in which he straps on those platform-heeled boots, a corset, a wig and a jock strap to play the pleasure-seeking icon.
“You don’t take on a role like Frank, and expect to be covered up,” Evans quips.
He’s enjoying the spectacle of Broadway, as well as the recognition it can bring, including a fan recently yelling out from a restaurant asking if he still had a corset on. But Dr. Frank-N-Furter is also a role that Evans never had on his bucket list.
“I didn’t even think I possibly could pull it off, to be honest, but I did get excited about the fact that, I love a challenge,” he said.
This comes even though Evans trained in musical theater in college and then took on a number of leading West End roles including in Miss Saigon and Rent, before landing film roles in Clash of the Titans, the Fast and the Furious franchise, Immortals, Dracula Untold, The Hobbit and more. While he had some early success in theater, it wasn’t paying the rent, and Evans almost left the industry.
“I was ready to give it up and find a new career and do something else, which I was happily going to do. I’m sure I would have been very sad not to be performing, because that’s the only thing I ever wanted to do. But there wasn’t stability, there wasn’t a financial security, there wasn’t a guarantee of a next job,” he said.
His fortunes changed after he starred in the 2008 production of Small Change, a play about two Welsh boys at London’s Donmar Warehouse – a role he was cast in after writing a note to the director, describing his own upbringing in Wales and asking to be seen. That play led to Evans signing with an agent, and later flying to Los Angeles, where he went through a succession of cold reads and meetings with directors.
“I started playing dads and strong masculine roles and/or masculine-presenting men. And there seemed to be a place for me, and so it just worked out, and it was crazy,” Evans said. “I would say, at least, for six years, I felt like I was either on a plane or on a film set, and there was nothing else between them.”
In those early days, Evans, who did not have prior film training, said he suffered from imposter syndrome.
“I definitely felt like they’re going to find out in a minute, and they’re going to be like, ‘I’m sorry, we’ve made a huge mistake. Can you leave?’ But it never happened, and the jobs kept coming in,” he said.
Amid these major film roles came questions about Evan’s sexuality – he had not been hiding being gay, but had not addressed it publicly until asked about setting a precedent for other gay action heroes in a 2014 interview. He continued to take on more film roles (though he’s acknowledged he may have lost out on some after coming forward publicly), and returned to the stage in London in 2023.
When the possibility of Frank-N-Furter came up, one of the calls Evans made was to his parents. While he was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness and has since left, they remain part of the community. Evans said they remain close and have been supportive of his career choices. “I think they saw the fire in my eyes when I was talking about the show,” he said.
Evans says there’s still a little remaining sense of that imposter syndrome, even as he struts across the stage on Broadway and has been praised by critics for his interpretation of the role.
He notes that Curry is “the G.O.A.T.” and that his performance in the 1975 film has served as an “anchor,” he also wanted to find a new angle on the role. Early on, he decided to stop listening to music and stop watching the film. He also began to explore a balance between the character’s danger and inherent sense of fun.
“Some Franks will lean very much into the sexiness and the charismatic side of him, but he’s a rebel. He’s also very dangerous. He’s a risk taker. He’s a train with no brakes, and he keeps going, until he’s stopped. There’s a hedonism to him, but also there’s a little girl in him too,” Evans said, referring to a moment where he chooses to skip on stage after freezing his houseguests in place.
As Evan’s notes, per Richard O’Briens’s script, Frank-N-Furter is an alien, which gives him a sense of freedom in his style of dress and choosing to sleep with both Brad and Janet without shame. This, is in part, what continues to make the film and the show beloved among legions of diehard fans. Fans also love the callbacks that have become synonymous with the show, ranging from continually yelling “Slut” at Janet and “Asshole” at Brad to more obscure sayings.
This has been an issue at the musical, which at one point put up signage reminding theatergoers that it’s “live theater, not a movie.” Rachel Dratch, as the Tony-nominated narrator of the show, faces the majority of callbacks, which she responds and reacts to in character. Evans has also been working through them.
“The callbacks and all the stuff that is very unique to The Rocky Horror Show early on was very difficult because we had diehard Rocky Horror Picture Show fans coming in who thought they were talking to a video cinema screen,” Evans said. “So that was hard because it was almost like you couldn’t say a line without somebody shouting something out, which was not the balance that we needed, but we found it, and I think it works very well now, and people love it, and we embrace the callbacks, most of the time.”
Leading up to the show, which opened at Studio 54 on April 23, Evans spent three months practicing walking in heels, gradually increasing the height. At this point, he said, it feels like wearing sneakers.
Evans also thought he would have to work up to wearing the revealing costuming that comes with playing Frank-N- Furter, but once he hit the stage, it all clicked.
“I thought I would be terrified. I thought I would be avoiding turning my back to the audience because my butt cheeks are out. I thought I would be self-conscious of the fact I’m wearing a women’s corset with a wig. None of that was even in my mind when I’m standing behind that door before my big reveal before ‘Sweet Transvestite.’ I just feel power. I feel confidence. I feel strong,” he said.
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