CFA’s Jim Demler and His Identical Twin Brother Make Their Off-Broadway Debut
In My Evil Twin, the vocalists mine their own lives for an unforgettable theater experience
Jim Demler (right), a CFA assistant professor of voice, and John, his identical twin brother, star in My Evil Twin, an autobiographical musical about their personal and professional lives. Courtesy of Eric Sawyer
CFA’s Jim Demler and His Identical Twin Brother Make Their Off-Broadway Debut
In My Evil Twin, the vocalists mine their own lives for an unforgettable theater experience
Jim and John Demler are more than just identical twins. They’re both educators, both longtime professional vocalists and performers on and off-stage, and they both claim to be the evil twin.
“We have a lot of fun together—my wife really likes John, but she’s also very happy that he’s two hours away and not living in the same town,” says Jim, a Boston University College of Fine Arts assistant professor of voice. “She knows that when we get together, shall we say, evil ensues.”
The twins’ outsized dynamic leaves an impression on everyone they meet—including playwright/librettist Harley Erdman and composer/lyricist Eric Sawyer. Shortly after being introduced to the Demlers, the theater duo devised a plan to bring the twins’ all-the-world’s-a-stage antics to the real-life stage. The result, My Evil Twin, is an autobiographical musical starring the Deimlers as themselves. The show first premiered at Community Arts Trust in Northampton, Mass., in August 2021.
Watch a trailer for My Evil Twin, starring Jim and John Demler.
“Jim and I, at different times, performed in an opera for [Erdman and Sawyer],” John says. After a cast party, the brothers joked that Erdman’s next show should be about twins. “I swear, a year later we got an email that said, ‘Do you remember what you said about wanting to do a show about twins? Could we get together? Because we have some ideas.’”
The show, which has been mounted at theater festivals in the twins’ hometown of Rochester, N.Y., and in Toronto, Canada, as well as a three-night engagement at Boston Center for the Arts, heads to New York this weekend, for a one-night-only performance on Saturday, July 18, at the Marjorie S. Dean Little Theater, a historic off-Broadway stage.
“It’s right across from Lincoln Center, and a beautiful space,” Jim says. “It’s very exciting.”
Curtain Up!
While Erdman and Sawyer fictionalized some of the show’s elements, the core of the production is a tribute to the Demler brothers’ larger-than-life personalities, their bond as twins, and their professional and personal lives. Jim has been a member of the CFA School of Theatre faculty for 22 years, while John, who lives in Pittsfield, Mass., and teaches middle-school French and Spanish, is a longtime professional vocalist who performs in his spare time.
My Evil Twin rewinds the clock for the audience—about as far as the clock can go.
“The show starts when we’re in the womb,” John says. “We have a conversation with each other in baby talk.”
The audience is treated to moments from the Demlers’ childhood, high school and college years, early careers, and present-day shenanigans. They see romantic mishaps—like when John took a girl out who thought she was on a date with Jim—and bits of the playful sparring that marks the twins’ decades-long relationship.
“I think when we’re together we regress a little bit to when we were teenagers or even younger, and we could be pretty silly and stupid,” John admits.
But the show is full of contradictions—while there are some moments of levity, they are accompanied by more serious moments that touch on Jim and John’s tumultuous childhood and episodes where friendly competition turns into real contempt. Nothing is spared—family strife, personal loss, professional failure, and existential struggle are all fair game in My Evil Twin.
There are some failures in all of our lives, and we talk about them, but then we get back to the successes. It’s very revealing in a lot of ways.
“I’ve had a number of people say they don’t quite know what to say afterwards,” John says. “They say they loved it, and they say that it was very honest. There are some failures in all of our lives, and we talk about them, but then we get back to the successes. It’s very revealing in a lot of ways.”
It’s a Twin Thing
The show makes much of contradictions—from its humor and pathos to its blend of operatic vocals and popular music—but the heart and soul of the production is twinship. It’s more than a lived experience for the Demler brothers: it’s a lifelong fascination with the unique relationship that twins share.
“It’s hard for people who are married to identical twins, because there’s a bond there that maybe they don’t understand,” says John. “I would say Jim is my best friend.”
“There were times growing up where I hated him,” Jim adds, “but it didn’t last.”
The dynamic is something that audiences have picked up on as well.
“After the Boston show, a guy came up and said he was a psychologist who worked with twins, and he told us that what we did was so vulnerable—sharing all about what it’s like to be competitive as a twin,” Jim says. “When he said that, a bell went off in my head.”
Once the off-Broadway show is in the rearview, the Demlers are considering where to take it next. They may try to bring it to the world-famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. There’s also the possibility of mounting a production in Albuquerque, N.M., where the brothers went to college together. And they’re even considering a performance at the annual Twins Day Festival, the world’s largest gathering of twins, held in the aptly-named Twinsburg, Ohio.
“It’s always intrigued me to go, and maybe bring the show there,” Jim says,
In the meantime, the Demlers are enjoying the quality time that My Evil Twin affords.
“[The show] keeps fortifying our relationship, and we have a blast,” Jim says. “I think it’s just kept us good friends.”
My Evil Twin runs for one night only at the Marjorie S. Dean Little Theater in New York, N.Y. The show begins at 7:30 and is free to attend. Learn more, and reserve a seat, here.