Evick, 35, has been living in Nashville since 2004. By day, he works for a health care company. His side gigs include vocal recording and session work whenever regional theaters rent nationally known productions. Before the pandemic, he also acted in community and semi-professional theater.
It was during one of these recording sessions that Evick heard about the Give My Regards… search.
“One of my co-workers was friends with the guy who ran it,” he said. “During the pandemic, I had been recording a song a day on Facebook.”
Evick originally caught the theater bug when his father took him to see “Phantom of the Opera” as a small child.
“The mystery of the story, the music, the staging, just the whole experience,” he said. “I’ve seen it probably 18 to 20 times now.”
His first role was in “Oliver!” at the Middletown Lyric Theater when he was 5 years old. Growing up in the Madison Schools district, he acted frequently in high school productions and summer youth programs. His family still resides in Middletown, and Evick said he returns home frequently.
“Everyone was really excited for me,” he said. “My family shared it like crazy on social media. Madison Schools shared it on their page and got the whole district involved.”
For his original Give My Regards… submission song, Evick chose “Being Alive” from the 1970 Stephen Sondheim musical, “Company.” The story concerns a single man reluctant to enter a steady relationship. “Being Alive” is the second-to-last number, where the hero admits a willingness to take the plunge. Under the pandemic, “Being Alive” took on a whole new meaning for Evick.
“The song was well within my vocal range,” he said. “And it seemed like a good song emotion-wise, expressing a desire to feel something outside of just sitting at home.”
Once Evick made the Top 20, the Spot-On Arts Academy assigned him a mentor to help him prepare his Top 10 submission. His mentor was Klea Blackhurst, best known for her 2001 Ethel Merman Broadway tribute.
Evick and Blackhurst decided to re-record “Being Alive” for his Top 10 submission.
He was again judged by a panel of Hollywood and Broadway professionals. Now that he’s in the Top 10, the next goal will be to become a Top 6 finalist, where he will perform alongside a group of Broadway and TV stars at a New York venue. If he wins the whole thing, he will be invited to perform in a Spot-On concert with the Pacific Symphony in Orange County, California.
In the meantime, Evick is cautiously optimistic about his long-term career.
“I hope things get back to normal, because you can’t produce theater on a large scale at half capacity,” he said. "I’m working toward a Broadway career. I’m meeting a lot of people in my session work, making connections. I’ve had an audition for ‘Frozen,’ and a callback for “Phantom.' Hopefully, it’ll happen.”
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