Dear God, They Wanted Lea Michele For EVITA- Page 3

[Broadwayboy2631]

Posted: 12/15/12 at 2:32pm

I don't know if Boggess is an ideal candidate for the role of Eva, but I liked the audio recording that I heard of her as Fantine. She has a nice belt, and she's certainly not afraid to stray away from sounding traditionally "pretty".

[hyperbole_and_a_half]

Posted: 12/15/12 at 2:34pm

I just don't understand why Sierra Boggess' name is always brought up when prospective casting for a female role is discussed. It doesn't matter what the type is or what the vocal requirements are, but there her name is, being seriously considered (or in the case of online message boards, gushed over). She's not untalented, but she is limited and not an especially dynamic performer. It boggles the mind that she would even be looked at for Evita.

Lea Michele and Naya Rivera are singularly bad choices as well, but are still better (at least from a business/marketing standpoint) than Sierra Boggess' Evita-as-performed-by-Tinkerbell.

But, then again, if there's anything we've learned about Evita's casting team, it's that casting Evita is not their strong suit.

[Kelly2]

Posted: 12/15/12 at 3:31pm

Hyperbole, I think it's pretty unfair to say that this is the fault of the casting director. There are so many outside factors that go into getting an actor for a particular role that have NOTHING to do with finding the right person while doing auditions. As we can see here, it's about who you can get to accept an offer. People turn down offers for tons of reasons, money, lack of interest in the project, conflicting dates with something else they're doing, etc. You could find the perfect person and try very hard to woo them and fail for reasons beyond your control.

Clearly you have a little bit of a misunderstanding of the myriad of factors that go into the casting process.

[darquegk]

Posted: 12/15/12 at 4:05pm

What makes you think of Naya Rivera as a singularly bad choice? Even in GLEE she stands out as one of the best performers they have, and the central complaint of GLEE has never been "well, these performers are untalented hacks."

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/15/12 at 4:55pm

With the exception of Michele & Colfer.

[hyperbole_and_a_half]

Posted: 12/15/12 at 5:19pm

I didn't say casting director, I said casting team, which meant anyone who had input in the casting process, which, based on the article, sounds like it involved many of the producers, as it often does. We also aren't discussing the people they had to "settle" for because they tried and failed to woo other, more worthy talent, we are discussing the people who were on their short list for replacements to begin with. Finally, I got in a snarky comment about this production's original choice for Evita, which is not an uncommon opinion 'round these parts.

Therefore, to restate my original opinion: it shouldn't surprise anyone that the team that thought Elena Roger would be a good Evita would think to replace her with Sierra Boggess, an actress whose name always seems to come up during any sort of casting discussion regardless of whether she is actually appropriate for the role.

Also, Naya Rivera is pretty amazing and has a quirky, charming sound when she sings, but anyone who has studied voice knows she is not up to the demands of a score like Evita. Not 5-6 times a week. Not even in the lower keys from the movie. Still, she or Lea Michele would've made business sense and gotten butts in the seats, especially if paired with some of the better rumored male replacements.

[hyperbole_and_a_half]

Posted: 12/15/12 at 5:21pm

Double post. Here is a picture.
Updated On: 12/15/12 at 05:21 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/15/12 at 5:45pm

She must have just been watching GLEE.

[Kelly2]

Posted: 12/15/12 at 5:49pm

"we are discussing the people who were on their short list for replacements to begin with."

I wasn't aware you worked at T&C and had access to know who exactly were the first choices and what offers were made. Cool.

[trentsketch]

Posted: 12/15/12 at 7:14pm

I can think of one reason Naya Rivera wouldn't be a great choice: she's an alto. She did some interviews after the episode with Rumor Has It/Someone Like You mash-up (or maybe it was on the Glee Project) and said she was terrified of actually belting the part that was originally arranged for Mercedes. Why? It was the top of her range and she didn't think she could hit it.

Even if she's a mezzo belter, she's more comfortable in her lower range. I'd love to see her come to Broadway, but I would hope it would be in a role that better suits her vocal range.

[hyperbole_and_a_half]

Posted: 12/15/12 at 7:30pm

"I wasn't aware you worked at T&C and had access to know who exactly were the first choices and what offers were made. Cool."

Perhaps you'd like to go back and read the first post and the articles this thread is about before you comment further?

[Kelly2]

Posted: 12/15/12 at 7:55pm

"Perhaps you'd like to go back and read the first post and the articles this thread is about before you comment further?"

I've read it, thanks. It is not completely accurate, I can promise you that.

[Unmasked05]

Posted: 12/15/12 at 10:29pm

I actually enjoyed the show and I saw the Hal Prince version on tour awhile back and I still enjoyed this show too. I'm sorry to see it going just because they are losing its mega starts but what about other actresses on broadway....or what about Anneliese van der Pol from "That's So Raven?" I really think she could play Eva Peron and be AMAZING in it!

[pretendworld]

Posted: 12/16/12 at 1:27am

@unmasked05 Anneliese would have been amazing, especially since she already has a history with the show at 15 years old. she easily could have opened the show.

someone posted she was booked till the end of January though. i remember someone (forgot their handle name) mentioned she was on the wish list for a possible replacement.

[KylePKJP]

Posted: 12/16/12 at 1:44am

Perhaps it's just me - and no doubt this has been mentioned before - but hasn't Lea Michele entered so much a state of being recognized/recognizable as Rachel Berry that it would be hard to draw a distinction between the two? Her persona aside, she is talented but would it be easy to buy into her as Eva?

I'm not wording this well...

About two years ago when the revival of Funny Girl was making news Ryan Murphy suggested that it should be staged with Michele, though billed as "starring Rachel Berry as Fanny Brice." In such a sense, would anyone agree that she has made herself so identifiable as Rachel Berry that her appearance in something would become somewhat of a charicature?

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 12/16/12 at 4:43am

From the article in the Times: "At least one well-known actress, Lea Michele ('Glee,' the Broadway musical 'Spring Awakening'), was discussed for the title role of Eva Peron, the three executives said. It was unclear if Ms. Michele ever developed into a serious possibility, however; the lead producers, Hal Luftig and Scott Sanders, declined to comment."

It seems a bit of a stretch to go from what was written in the Times to "Dear God, They Wanted Lea Michele for EVITA."

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 12/16/12 at 5:57pm

Sierra Boggess bores me to tears, but I'd certainly have been way more accepting of that than the more offensively inappropriate Lea Michele.

The BWW feature on this whole thing is hi.larious.

[TheGingerBreadMan]

Posted: 12/16/12 at 6:03pm

I love Lea on GLEE, but this is not the role for her.

[broadway guy]

Posted: 6/16/13 at 12:29pm

"she sang Buenos Aires under Prince's direction in PRINCE OF BROADWAY"

Does Anyone have a recording of this??? I would kill to hear Sierra sing it. I don't think Eva is really the right part for her but I would still love to watch her do it. I wonder why she turned it down?

Oh and I still stand By my statement. Lea Michele could have been a Fantastic Evita.

Updated On: 6/16/13 at 12:29 PM

[all that jazz]

Posted: 6/16/13 at 12:50pm

Absolutely!! Her Buenos Aires would've been a showstopper.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 6/16/13 at 1:19pm

She isn't a good enough dancer. Evita needs to be a true triple threat.

[all that jazz]

Posted: 6/16/13 at 1:22pm

Neither was Elena.

I LOVED the revival, but I thought the coreography was kind of bland.

[ljay889]

Posted: 6/16/13 at 1:24pm

Elena's dancing was much better than her assaulting vocals.

[broadway guy]

Posted: 6/16/13 at 1:45pm

"She isn't a good enough dancer. Evita needs to be a true triple threat"

Are you talking about Lea or Sierra? I think both have the dance talent to do the show. With the right guidance they would be fine. Patti Lupone wasn't a dancer and she still worked it. I think you need to be fluent in many different Dances but i don't think you necessarily have to be an amazing dancer to play Eva.

"Neither was Elena.I LOVED the revival, but I thought the choreography was kind of bland."

I agree with this. This revival was really just bland over all. The only thing I thought looked great was the set. Elena was just bland and didn't do it for many audiences.

[all that jazz]

Posted: 6/16/13 at 2:00pm

I think Elena's biggest problem was consistency. I've talked to some of my friends who saw her in the show and thought she was terrible, but the performance they described to me was nothing like what I had seen. She was dynamite the night I went.