Luke Evans Heads Back to West End to Serve Drinks to the Queen Mum

Luke Evans is headed back to the London theater. The out, 43-year old Welshman hasn't appeared in a theater production in nearly 20 years after starting out in musicals in West End, but returns to star opposite Penelope Wilton ("Downton Abbey") in a new comedy called "Backstairs Billy."

Written by Marcelo Dos Santos, the play follows the relationship between the Queen Mother (Wilton) and her loyal manservant Billy (Evans) during the 1979 tumult in the UK. It will be directed by Michael Grandage ("Frozen").

Dos Santos, whose five-star solo show "Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen" opens in London this autumn at the Bush Theatre, is a former recipient of the MGCfutures Bursary, a charity established by Grandage to support theater makers across all aspects of the industry, according to TheaterMania.

There's little doubt the Queen Mother, the late Queen Elizabeth's mother who died in 2002 at the age of 101, was an oversized personality ready for the stage.

"There was a very performative and delicious element to the Queen Mother," Gareth Russell, author of "Do Let's Have Another Drink!: The Dry Wit and Fizzy Life of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother," told Page Six last year.

"She liked to put on a show," he explained. "And there was an almost wink, wink, nudge-nudge campness to the way she lived her life."

She was also, according to Russell, quite the tippler who liked to drink ... a lot. And the person who served her drinks was most often her loyal steward, William Tallon, better known by the nickname Backstairs Billy, claimed Russell.

"Tallon worked for the royal from 1960 until her death in 2002. He was also openly gay, whose on-and-off partner of over 30 years was Buckingham Palace footman, Reginald Wilcock," wrote Page Six.

Perhaps the most famous story about the Queen Mother, which Russell related, happened when Tallon and Wilcock were having an argument, and she interrupted: "Would one of you old queens mind getting this old queen a drink?"

Luke Evans got his start in London's West End, appearing in musicals "Taboo," "Miss Saigon," "Rent," and "Avenue Q." But as he approached 30, he found himself typecast as a chorus member and not taken seriously as an actor. "I couldn't even get seen for an advert," he told the British newspaper The Express.

What was likely holding him back was his being out. "I came to London at 16, 17, and lived an openly gay life."

But when he couldn't be seen for the role of a young man from Cardiff, which he was, he took action and pursued the casting agent. "It was an extraordinarily bold move, and it paid off," he said. "She called me and three weeks later I got the job that completely changed my life," he continued.

"Word spread about an exciting new talent and agents came specifically to see Evans in the show. "One day I was taken to lunch and dinner, both times at The Ivy, by William Morris and Creative Artists, two of the biggest agencies in Hollywood. It was crazy."

He continued: "They were courting me. I'd never experienced that before. In musical theatre, you flog yourself for a shred of attention and you're only as good as your last show. Suddenly I had a manager and I'd never been to LA. Within a year I had my first movie."

That was "Clash of the Titans" where he played the Greek god Apollo. "It was bizarre. I was with people like Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes and they were like, 'Where have you sprung from?' I said, 'I've been around but nobody wanted me!'"

But the elephant in the room was Evans being gay and the impression he moved back into the closet once he became a movie star.

"So when the movie stuff started to happen, in my head, I thought, well, I've already done that [and come out]," he continued to The Express.

Once in Hollywood, Evans became more circumspect about his private life. "While Luke had been out publicly for his entire career, as his fame snowballed there were rumblings that he was pushing himself back into the closet because of how guarded he was about his private life. For Luke, it was important to keep certain things away from the media and public glare," wrote Attitude in a 2020 profile.

"It was the last thing I had, because everything else I've given to the world. My career was public, I was photographed, and all that stuff. My personal life just became the last thing that I had. Also, what was strange was that when people did find out that I was gay, there was a lot of articles and stuff written saying that I was hiding it, and I wasn't."

Since then Evans has been one of the most out Hollywood celebs, sharing pics (and thirst-traps) on Instagram of his relationships. He's also gone public with new partner Fran Tomas.