Did Betty Buckley, Judy Kaye or Priscilla Lopez audition for Evita?

[Leadingplayer]

Posted: 5/26/12 at 10:13pm

Seems like they all would have been around at the top of casting lists at the time.

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/26/12 at 10:17pm

Buckley was starring on TV's "Eight Is Enough" (1978-1981) when Evita opened, so I'm sure she didn't audition. Her big return to theatre was "Cats" in 1982.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 5:58am

At Chatterbox, Judy Kaye said that she'd wanted to audition for it — she had an association with Lloyd Webber going back to the first authorized American concert tour of JCS — but Hal Prince told her she was wrong for it and he wouldn't see her for it. Of course, if she'd gotten it, she wouldn't have been able to do the Twentieth Century tour, which he needed her for.

Later, seemingly having forgotten he'd told her she was wrong for it, he called and asked her to open the L.A. company, no audition necessary. She'd just sold her residence in L.A., which she'd kept through Twentieth Century, and she was also a little annoyed so she turned it down.

One little footnote: She and LuPone were in competition for Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for best actress in a musical, LuPone for Evita and Kaye for Twentieth Century. Kaye won.

[random person 112]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 8:25am

Coud Priscilla Lopez, EVER have handeled Evita? I mean you all complain about rogers screeching...

[aasjb4ever]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 9:09am

Roger.
Elena ROGER.

[AC126748]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 9:20am

Random person 112 knows it's Roger. He's trying to say "Roger's".

He just refuses to use any punctuation in his posts, for some unknown reason.

[random person 112]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 10:07am

More like i just woke up and was not thinking about grammer.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 12:09pm

or GRAMMAR for that matter...lol

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 12:10pm

I doubt Priscilla Lopez could have handled the songs...Betty Buckley could have.

On a side-note, in both interviews with Elaine Paige and Patti LuPone they mention that Movie Stars auditioned for the role. Who were they?

[StageManager2]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 12:10pm

Grammar.
GRAMMAR.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 12:15pm

MTVMANN, LuPone says in her memoir that Barbra Streisand, Ann-Margret, Meryl Streep, Faye Dunaway, and even Raquel Welch wanted the part.

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 12:19pm

That's right...I also remember her saying that the ghost of Evita came to visit her.

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 1:26pm

Between the ghosts of Ethel Merman and Eva Peron visiting, I think Patti as Madame Arcati could really be special.

[D2]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 5:12pm

Patti LuPone should never, ever, ever be allowed near any role that even remotely requires a British accent again.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 5:18pm

I can't believe people are dismissing Priscilla Lopez out of hand. Jesus Christ.

[theeatah]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 6:14pm

I wonder if Ellen Foley was considered. She had a great rock voice.

[random person 112]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 6:16pm

Namo, maybe it's because in addition to the fact she's not a strong enough singer for the part, she looks absolutely nothing like Eva Peron.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 6:31pm

"On a side-note, in both interviews with Elaine Paige and Patti LuPone they mention that Movie Stars auditioned for the role. Who were they?"

When the original Broadway production was being cast, I remember a news item about the women who were up for the role. All were well known except LuPone. I read it and I thought, "It's going to be LuPone." I can no longer remember any of the other women who were mentioned. But I think it was in some issue of the Post in 1979.

[Leadingplayer]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 7:35pm

I found an article from "People." That must be where Lupone got the Streep, Dunaway, Welch thing. Notice the article just says they wanted a stage role not particularly "Evita." I doubt any of those women even auditioned since they would have known the vocal demands the role required since the show had been done before in London.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 7:39pm

I know Streep and Dunaway were rumored for the film at one point or another during its very long trip from stage to screen, as was almost every other actress in Hollywood who could carry a tune (I don't know if Welch was ever rumored/considered).

[Leadingplayer]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 7:59pm

Streep was all set to do the film role in 1989 with Oliver Stone directing BUT there was some sort of dispute and she decided she didn't want to work with him.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 9:31pm

I can't imagine Meryl Streep wanting to do EVITA on Broadway at that point in her career, in 1978 she was Oscar-nominated for THE DEER HUNTER and by 1979 she had both MANHATTAN and KRAMER VS. KRAMER come out, I'm sure if she had wanted to do a Broadway show (not necessarily EVITA) she'd have done it. Like others have said, she was supposed to do the film at one point, she'd have made a great Eva Peron on film.

[Leadingplayer]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 9:37pm

come to think of it I remember stories about Streep being hurt by ALW publically questioning her singing abilities (he was in the midst of his Sarah Brightman obsession and wanted her for the role.)

I always felt Streep's song at the end of "Postcards from the Edge" was a little bit of a revenge gesture showing off "look what I can do!"

[wickedfan]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 9:56pm

According to LuPone's memoir (which is a questionable source), the movie stars listed (Streep, Margaret, Dunaway etc.) were indeed interested in the role because it was the lead in a hugely anticipated musical. However, Prince, Webber, and Rice were soon discovering that almost no actresses could sing the role, and so actresses of LuPone's rank, which at that time meant steadily working but generally unknown, were allowed to audition and were essentially the finalists at callbacks.

It would make sense, though, that they didn't know vocally what they were getting themselves into because the concept album, though a big seller, wasn't such a phenomenon in the US as it was in other countries. "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" was a big hit, but it's not like everyone in America knew "Buenos Aires," "A New Argentina" or "Rainbow High." So when Streep and the Hollywood stars met with the production team and saw the score, it's likely that none of them actually auditioned because they saw the E's, F's and G's they had to hit and knew they couldn't do that.

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/27/12 at 9:57pm

Leadingplayer is right. Meryl Streep was interested in the film version of Evita, not the stage show, as far as I know. Yes, Oliver Stone was set to direct with Streep as the star. But SHE was the one who had reservations about being able to sing the role, so she actually went to Sting's private island (not making this up) recording studio, and recorded a full demo of the score in 1989. As far as I know, no one other than Stone, Webber, and perhaps a few others behind the scenes ever heard these recordings.

They were thrilled with the results ... and then something happened. I'm not sure what, but she ended up walking away from the project. That killed the whole thing (ncluding Stone's direction). Still, when it came time to go into production, they ended up using his screenplay anyway.

Updated On: 5/28/12 at 09:57 PM