GeorgeandDot said: "I wonder if Lady Gaga could sing the whole score. She's got a great voice decent acting chops and certainly has star presence. She'd be perfect for the part, but I'm not sure if she could hit all of the top notes. Plus she'd sell like Bette Midler."
Of course she could sing it. Despite being perfect for the role, I don't see her ever playing it. The hateful Madonna comparisons would come back with a vengeance.
So much craziness in this thread. Evita would not be played by a 68-year-old Patti Lupone, as if the role could be cast like Mame or Dolly. Also, back at the turn of the 20th century, Argentina was one of the world's 10 richest countries, and European immigrants came to the country by the thousands, particularly from England, France, Italy and Germany. The result is that Argentineans are often pretty indistinguishable from most North Americans, and do not conform to what most Americans think of as a "Latin look." So sure, Mandy Gonzalez or Eden Espinoza are fine, but the role is not inappropriately cast should they go for a "white girl." And last I checked, Elaine Paige, Terri Klausner, Nancy Opel, Derin Altay and Loni Ackerman are all very white.
Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
The great Argentinian star Nacha Guevara successfully recreated her iconic role in Eva El Gran Musical in Argentina. I believe she was about 65 and still pulled it off. The only way for Patti to reprise her role is if they got a young woman to play Eva in her youth and have Patti take over starting with " I'd be surprisingly good for you".But that ain't gonna happen. My vote is for Mandy. She would knock it out of the park
As long as they don't cast someone like Elena Roger. Her voice was quite underwhelming. Whoever plays her should have a strong voice, I think. I was there at the first preview of the 2012 revival.
"Noel [Coward] and I were in Paris once. Adjoining rooms, of course. One night, I felt mischievous, so I knocked on Noel's door, and he asked, 'Who is it?' I lowered my voice and said 'Hotel detective. Have you got a gentleman in your room?' He answered, 'Just a minute, I'll ask him.'" (Beatrice Lillie)
Random trivia: back when the Actor's Fund was still doing benefit concerts, one of the shows Seth Rudetsky assiduously pursued was a concert of Evita with Patti in the lead, but they could never come to terms with Webber's company. (He once cited this to me on Facebook as an example of Webber's company being difficult to deal with when I was trying to assemble a JCS concert of a similar stripe and consulted him, he being the acknowledged expert at that sort of thing at the time.)
I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the 2012 revival. I saw it twice, once with Christina Decicco and once with Roger, and enjoyed their performances, flaws and all. Roger's voice isn't great but I found her performance to be visceral. The set was gorgeous and Grandage's direction impressed me at points--especially leading up to Buenos Aires.
Was kind of hoping for a bit more than - " t will have been some time since the most recent revival, which didn’t serve the material well," - although perhaps Prince will elaborate when the book comes out?
I don't have a problem with people pointing out the deficiencies in the recent revival - but in the nearly 4 decades since the work premiered, there were a lot of improvements or at least progressions to this piece. The new orchestrations, the fleshing out of the character Che (which went from its Che Guervera to it's not to) and the addition of "You Must Love Me" - which was one of the most moving points of the recent revival. Going back to the original and claiming it's "iconic" and that we need to go back to that production seems over the top to me. I'd welcome a new production, even with Prince's contributions to it... but let's not simply live in the past
Well, the simple fact is that Prince understands how to make the material interesting on stage as opposed to interesting on record. One of the major problems with musicals that begin as "concept albums" is that the tend to be expository, which was the chief issue with the last revival (this is also why I believe Jesus Christ Superstar has never had a successful production - albeit for the opposite reason: Evita needs a concept, Superstar is hindered by one). Prince knew this and, with minimal rewrites, created an extraordinary and theatrically thrilling event that made Evita into a concept musical as opposed to a narrative musical. Even the Times, who didn't like the show that much, recognized the strength of Prince's direction while condemning the vague strokes Rice drew the primary characters in.
The revival tried to soften the role of Evita, make her more "likeable". This doesn't work with the character as written, and all it did was stop her from belting the more thrilling notes of the score, instead moving to falsetto. The addition of "You Must Love Me" is unnecessary and gives Eva three big ballads in act two, for no reason. Besides, it's a song added for a diva in the film version, hoping to get an Oscar, and it shows. It doesn't blend with the rest of the score (along with Superstar, Webber's most cohesive) and what does it really add to the story? Another generic pop song? I wouldn't have been surprised had I learned Glenn Slater had served as lyricist as opposed to Rice.
"Sticks and stones, sister. Here, have a Valium." - Patti LuPone, a Memoir
Sally Durant Plummer said: "Well, the simple fact is that Prince understands how to make the material interesting on stage as opposed to interesting on record. One of the major problems with musicals that begin as "concept albums" is that the tend to be expository, which was the chief issue with the last revival (this is also why I believe Jesus Christ Superstar has never had a successful production - albeit for the opposite reason: Evita needs a concept, Superstar is hindered by one). Prince knew this and, with minimal rewrites, created an extraordinary and theatrically thrilling event that made Evita into a concept musical as opposed to a narrative musical. Even the Times, who didn't like the show that much, recognized the strength of Prince's direction while condemning the vague strokes Rice drew the primary characters in.
The revival tried to soften the role of Evita, make her more "likeable". This doesn't work with the character as written, and all it did was stop her from belting the more thrilling notes of the score, instead moving to falsetto. The addition of "You Must Love Me" is unnecessary and gives Eva three big ballads in act two, for no reason. Besides, it's a song added for a diva in the film version, hoping to get an Oscar, and it shows. It doesn't blend with the rest of the score (along with Superstar, Webber's most cohesive) and what does it really add to the story? Another generic pop song? I wouldn't have been surprised had I learned Glenn Slater had served as lyricist as opposed to Rice.
"
Sally - appreciate your thoughts on this... you made some interesting points I hadn't really thought about. I suppose my appreciation of "Evita" started in the 90's when I first got interested in ALW/theatre. Had seen Aspects of Love (and really loved it) so I started going back and listening to the other scores. And the music of Evita really caught me pretty quickly. Soon after I saw a production of Evita done by a University that was following the Hal Prince Direction/production. And not too long after the movie started coming into fruition.
To me, the movie succeeded only because expectations were so low for Madonna and for a "movie-musical". (People tend to forget that at the time, this was the first movie musical done in ages... let alone a sung-through 2hour plus musical). But the difference was I think I saw this as a completely different animal than a staged version.
The addition of "You Must Love Me" where it was sung over rather than sung out by Eva on screen was moving as it was ambivalent is she saying you MUST love me like a command or is it a realization like - oh, you must love me - right at the moment when everything is about to collapse for eva - her ambition, her dreams - her very life. I agree, on stage/live it's harder to pull off though to the same effect.
BroadwayConcierge said: "After the lackluster 2012 production, I would love an amazing revival of Evita.
"
All these negative comments about the 2012 Evita is making me think Frozen will be a dud. Since it's the same creative team.
In our millions, in our billions, we are most powerful when we stand together. TW4C unwaveringly joins the worldwide masses, for we know our liberation is inseparably bound.
Signed,
Theater Workers for a Ceasefire
https://theaterworkersforaceasefire.com/statement
adamgreer said: "How exciting! The 2012 production was horrendous in every way (look BC, we agree again!), starting with the nightmare that was Elena Roger's "singing." Cerveris was the only bright spot in an otherwise awful production.
I would fly up and pay a large sum of money to see LuPone take on the role, regardless of her age. However, I don't see that happening under any circumstance, so I'd be more than happy with Mandy Gonzalez or Eden Espinosa in that role.
Also, talented as she may be, I can't imagine they could get with casting Jen Colella or any white woman besides LuPone. Did this Great Comet fiasco teach us nothing? Cynthia Erivo would be all over that bit of casting in a second."
Didn’t we have this discussion recently and conclude Eva was actually a white woman? I mean, I don’t doubt at all that the casting of a white woman as a historical person who is a white woman would cause controversy in 2017. But I would sincerely hope it wouldn’t.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
It’s like they took those photos with a first gen Iphone
In our millions, in our billions, we are most powerful when we stand together. TW4C unwaveringly joins the worldwide masses, for we know our liberation is inseparably bound.
Signed,
Theater Workers for a Ceasefire
https://theaterworkersforaceasefire.com/statement
You're right about Cynthia Evita...err..Erivo, then they could cast Okie as Che with Mandy Patinkin playing Juan this time....and of course, Lin-Manuel as Agustin Magaldl...(are tickets on sale yet?)
It is impossible to recapture the brilliance of any successful production even if you have the original creators who don't remember what they did 40 years ago.. This looks like another tour. The clips on youtube are meh.to awful. There is only 1 Patti and Mandy. And Elaine page for that matter. Recreating is very different than creating.
And add in Terri Klausner, while we're being nostalgic. Klausner's first act was superb, sexy and youthful, and LuPone's 2nd was of course remarkable, iconic. They were both terrific in the part, and I saw both twice (I saw the first preview, 9/10/79). It's worth noting: people who saw Klausner with the original two male stars weren't cheated.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
I'm glad to see that the remount of Hal Prince's Evita looks just as jank as the original one. They couldn't even bother taking Magaldi out of that mariachi looking outfit.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
Miles2Go2 said: "Patti is over twice the age (68) Eva was when she died (33). Do you envision that being an issue? I ask this with all due respect to Ms. Lupone."
True, but Patti can still sing it, which is pretty remarkable and thrilling!! A one night concert event with LuPone and Patinkin would be A M A Z I N G !!