Evans will work with the company for a period of handover and preparation on a part-time basis beginning April 20, before assuming his role full-time on June 1. The refurbishment of the Crucible Theatre is due for completion in November, and the inaugural season under his artistic leadership will begin in February 2010. Evans will announce the details of his inuguaral season later this year.

In a press statement Evans said, "I am thrilled to be joining Sheffield Theatres as Artistic Director. Having had hugely fulfilling experiences myself at Sheffield I look forward to joining Donna Munday the interim Chief Executive and the excellent team currently in place, and contributing to the cultural life of the city. These are exciting times. The theatres belong to Sheffield, and they also have great national significance. The Crucible is undergoing a transformation, as is the city itself and I cannot wait to be part of the renaissance."

The actor (and occasional director) was nominated for the 2008 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his role in Sunday in the Park with George (reprising his Olivier Award-winning U.K. performance), and he has also been seen on Broadway as Lysander in an RSC production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (seen at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in 1996). He has previously appeared at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre in Caryl Churchill's Cloud Nine and as Ariel The Tempest, the latter in a producion directed by Michael Grandage, former artistic director of Sheffield Theatres. Evans has also worked extensively as an actor for the National Theatre, where he appeared in Peter Gill's Cardiff East, the title role in Peter Pan, The Merchant of Venice, Troilus and Cressida and Candide (for which he was nominated for the 2000 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical), and at the Royal Court in Sarah Kane's Cleansed and 4.48 Psychosis. In 2001 he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance as Charley Kringas in Merrily We Roll Along at the Donmar Warehouse (directed by Grandage).

As a director, Evans' credits include a double bill of plays, Lovely Evening and In the Blue, by Peter Gill (at the Young Vic), a producton of Gill's Certain Young Men at the Guildhall (Evans' former drama school) and Esther (for Welsh National Theatre). He also directed a reading of Christopher Hampton's Total Eclipse for the Royal Court's 50th anniversary.