Meryl Streep's Evita?

[JudasIscariot]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 2:46am

I heard that Meryl recorded an audition tape for Evita. Is there anywhere to listen to this/is it true?

[Taryn]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 3:29am

Ooh. I have some tracks with Michelle Pfeiffer, but haven't heard anything from Streep. That would be fun.

[Jack King]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 6:50am

00000000000h! I adore both Meryl and Michelle, my belles.

[best12bars]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 12:25pm

Yes, she did. I've never heard any of the tapes though. I remember hearing from friends that she went into Sting's private recording studio (on some island somewhere) and did several tracks.

And she was "announced" to play the part, as well. But we all know how that turned out.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 12:58pm

"But we all know how that turned out."

The keys were lowered to Lucille Ball level and the score was rewritten to Roz Russell 4 note span.

[Brick]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 12:59pm

She was announced and worked on the part for almost a year. She took tango lessons (for some reason) and more.

Tim Rice later talked about her casting as being all wrong all along. I don't know if the whole project, directed by Oliver Stone, fell through, or whether she was nixed.

[LouieLovesTheater]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 2:06pm

LOVE me some Meryl and Michelle...

However, what I've heard of Pfeiffer on those tracks it was probably the best idea that she not play the role. She can sing, no doubt....but her voice wasn't full enough to pull off Eva.

Streep might have fared a little better and would have looked lovely in the part...

I actually didn't mind Madonna in the role...yes they lowered it for her...but it was her best film role to date.

[jennamajig]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 2:15pm

I actually didn't mind Madonna in the role...yes they lowered it for her...but it was her best film role to date.

I agree with, actually. I thought she did a decent job and overall, I enjoyed the film. The fact that she looked very much like Eva helped a lot.

But Meryl. That I would be intrigued by since musically all I have to go by is Mamma Mia. She did an okay job there, having a blast, but I wished "Winner Take All" had a little more power in the end belt. Makes me wonder what "Buenos Aires" or "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" sounds like from her.

[DrewBill]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 2:59pm

I liked the film version of "Evita," but didn't love it. It was lovely to look at, and Madonna tried her best, but I wish the part had gone to someone who was a better singer and actress.

The flaw of the show (and the film) is that it never fully explains how an unsophisticated, uneducated woman rose to such great heights and held the nation's population in thrall. (Yes, I know the show portrays Eva as more-or-less sleeping her way to the top, and being involved in "charity" work late in her life -- but that only goes so far in accounting for her fame.)

But despite this problem, it totally works on stage when a "diva" is in the role -- how could you not be taken in by someone with a larger-than-life stage presence and a gigantic voice? Because Madonna (on film) doesn't have that kind of presence or power, the film lacks the spark that makes the stage show a success.

[Brick]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 3:40pm

I think Madonna did a wonderful job in the film, but I agree with DrewBill.

Her screen presence isn't what her live presence is and, with Evita, you need a dynamic and powerful presence in the part to make up for the underdeveloped book. It falls squarely on the charisma of the actress to convey how Eva gets where she is and why people love or hate her.

(And while I am in the minority opinion that Madonna be quite a good actress - when cast and directed well - I think her screen presence is more mysterious and aloof. It's still dynamic - you can't take your eyes off of her, even when she is awful - but her self-consciousness pulls her dynamicism inward.)

And I believe Rice's disapproval of Meryl was that she didn't have the requisite "rock" aspect to a rock opera. And I can see what he's saying. Especially at the time, Meryl was a respected serious actress, but not considered capable of "anything", like now. He found Madonna's casting appropriate for a rock opera.

I actually wish Placido Domingo had accepted Peron. While Jonathan Price is a fantastic actor, I think the jarring styles of Madonna, Domingo, and Antonio Banderas would have made a very exciting film!

[jennamajig]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 4:10pm

I actually wish Placido Domingo had accepted Peron.

Wow, I didn't realize he had been offered it. That would have been interesting, indeed. I enjoyed Jonathan Pryce in the part, but Placido Domingo would definitely have shaken things up vocally.

[sparrman]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 4:19pm

I heard many years ago that Meryl was actually up for the role in the OBC, but she got pregnant and thus was out of the running. I don't know if there's a shred of truth to that, though.

[Brick]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 4:23pm

Yes, Domingo was offered the role first by Alan Parker for the Madonna version.

I really wish it had happened!

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 7:53pm

When the movie was originally going to be made in the 1970s (when Michelle Pfeiffer and Meryl Streep were attached,) the perfect choice would have been Barbra Streisand.

I still don't know why she was never formally in the mix for the role (she was on a long list of rumored actresses that were never actually approached.) She had the voice, the box office clout, the presence, and the dynamic magnetism for Eva.

Liza Minnelli, who legitimately made it far in the process around the same time, would have been an equally great choice (and, speaking of Streisand, would have made an equally phenomenal Fanny Brice in her early prime.)

Updated On: 12/9/08 at 07:53 PM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 8:37pm

I think at one point Bernadette Peters was also considered for the role.

While Barbra and Liza had the powerful vocals going for them, I don't think they had the sex appeal. For the screen version, I think Eva needs a bit of sex appeal.

[DrewBill]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 9:43pm

There are others out there who probably know more about the "Evita" film than I do, but I think the casting choices went something like this:

In the 1970s when the show was new, the people under consideration for the lead role were Barbra Streisand, Liza Minelli, and Olivia Newton-John (as a vehicle to re-team with John Travolta). The leading candidate for director was Ken Russell.

In the 1980s, the actresses who were at various time attached to the project were Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Meryl Streep. The director attached was Oliver Stone. (Pfeiffer and Streep could not have been considered in the 1970s as neither was yet a movie star.)

And I believe the final casting choice in the 1990s came down to Madonna, Gloria Estefan, and Meryl Streep again. Alan Parker directed, of course.

And there were probably others considered along the way as well.

Updated On: 12/9/08 at 09:43 PM

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 9:46pm

I still don't know why she was never formally in the mix for the role (she was on a long list of rumored actresses that were never actually approached.) She had the voice, the box office clout, the presence, and the dynamic magnetism for Eva.

and I quote Forbidden Broadway:
Don’t cry for me, Barbra Streisand!
The truth is you bought [gasp] the film rights!
Though you’re a belter—
And very shrewish—
You’ll ruin the movie – ‘cause you’re too Jewish…

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 9:55pm

I can't stop giggling when I imagine Bernadette Peters singing the score of Evita.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 12/9/08 at 10:57pm

"I can't stop giggling when I imagine Bernadette Peters singing the score of Evita."

Neither could anyone else, but at one point they were considering any actress who could sing and had a name. At the time they were considering her she had done "The Jerk" "Pennies from Heaven" and "Annie".

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 2:13am

Meryl Streep didn't win her first Oscar till 1980 and that was for playing a supporting role that she was sort of got by luck (since she was originally cast as Phyllis and not Joanna Kramer). I don't think she would have been considered to headline EVITA in the 70s. She got her first Oscar nod as a leading actress the next year so I think that's probably when she would have been considered to do the role.
I honestly feel Streep would have added so many layers to the role. Perhaps her singing wouldn't have been as top notch as Minnelli's but her acting would have been out of the world. I can just imagine it. Oh well.

[gvendo2005]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 12:42pm

Karla DeVito, former cast member of early stock productions of HAIR and GODSPELL and early Meat Loaf vocalist, apparently auditioned for Webber and Rice themselves for the Ken Russell EVITA film that never panned out in the Seventies, as per her bio.

Just to throw another name in the mix.

[Brick]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 1:30pm

Ijust CANT BELIEVE the rumoured Liza screen test has never come to light!!

Supposedly, those whohave seen it say she is "electric". And they didn't cast her because the entire project fell through, not because of choice of actress. This was when the film was to be directed by Ken Russell.

[sparrman]

Posted: 12/10/08 at 4:30pm

According to the Wikipedia (yeah, I know):

Streep won an Emmy and an Oscar nomination in 1978. She won the Oscar in 1979. Her first child was born in 1979, the same year Evita opened on Broadway.

So I'd say she was much better known that LuPone at that point, which might well make her a more desirable pick for Evita. All of this helps support the rumor I posted earlier here, especially the timing of the birth of her child. But still, I don't know if it's true.
Updated On: 12/10/08 at 04:30 PM

[mentaltenant]

Posted: 12/11/08 at 12:18am

Ann-Margret was also in talks in the late 70s to do a film version of EVITA.