Did Betty Buckley, Judy Kaye or Priscilla Lopez audition for Evita?- Page 3

[StageManager2]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 4:16pm

Here is Liza visiting Eva Perón's grave. The man is pointing to a plaque with a quote from her:

"Don't cry for me, I am not lost nor far away from you,
I am an essential part of your life,
All love and pain for me were predestined,
I accomplished my humble imitation of Christ,
Whoever walks in my path may they follow my footsteps."

Updated On: 5/28/12 at 04:16 PM

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 4:18pm

That's a wonderful photo, SM2! Thanks for sharing it.

Liza was definitely seriously considered in the early '80s, with Ken Russell directing (I can only imagine something more along the lines of "Tommy," which would have been fascinating).

[Sister George]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 4:24pm

This script does generally follow the outlines of the staged version, but Russell made Che a newspaper reporter and the script contains a strange hospital montage for Eva and Che, with them passing each other on gurneys in white corridors as she's being treated for cancer and he's injured by rioters.

Russell also changed the backgrounds of most of the scenes in his screenplay. The "Waltz for Eva and Che" is performed on the barren pampas with Eva and Che surrounded by giant symbols of ruined civilizations and religions--a fallen Swastika, a headless Buddha, a battered eagle from Imperial Rome, a rotting cross, a splintered Pharaoh, and a rusty hammer and sickle . . . then the symbols of crumbling hopes and dreams vanish, to be replaced by more familiar concerns--polluting smoke, smashed cars, barbed wire and bleached bones.


http://www.squareone.org/stoddard/evitasm.html

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 4:27pm

I still love the now outdated Forbidden Broadway version, "Don't Cry for Me Barbra Streisand."


It had to happen
The cast had to change
For how long can a girl do a show?
A year and a half and enough is enough
It wasn't easy
Even without matinees it got really rough
I'd go to the theatre just fine
But then I'd be worn out by nine
And what then of my future
And my career?
For although Broadway show offers are few
I can still do nightlubs and small movie roles
And when they film Evita
Oh, I will certainly keep myself free
Though, the chances are likely to be
They won't want to film it with me
Don't cry for me Barbra Streisand
The truth is I never liked you
You'll do the movie
And what a bummer
When you sing Eva
Like Donna Summer
How would you've liked it
In '68, if they'd filmed Funny Girl without you?
And MGM bought the film rights
And they'd wanted a star with no protrusion
So they rewrote the role
And cast...Doris Day!
You would have gone crazy and cried
But me, I'll just snicker and say
Don't cry for me Barbra Streisand
The truth is you bought the film rights
Though you're a belter, and very shrewish
You'll ruin the movie
Cause you're too Jewish
Have I said too much?
And you're to big a star to be lectured to
But all you have to do is look in a mirror
To know that every word is true

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 4:41pm

Sister George---that description of the Waltz is so great!

So "Ken Russell."

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 5:04pm

I wonder why Liza hasn't even included an Evita song on her CD's...or has she?

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 5:37pm

No. The actresses were looking at the stage version....

That 1979 PEOPLE article is pure press agent puffery: take a piece about how the "unknown" New York actress saves her voice and spice it up by listing stars she supposedly beat out for the role.

Yes, it's possible that Ann-Margret and Raquel Welch (WTF!) inquired about the part. They had both reached the end of their shelf lives in Hollywood (not fair, but true) and may have been looking to star on Broadway to re-jumpstart their careers. It doesn't take anything to say to your manager, "Call the Prince office and inquire about that part." But I doubt they entered serious negotiations without listening to the album.

Streep seems particularly unlikely, regardless of what PEOPLE said. As has been pointed out, her movie career had just exploded.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 6:56pm

I googled Bonnie Schon and Evita, since I was curious as to whether anything was written about her experience auditioning, and found this wonderfully gossipy article about the troubles Elaine Paige had before they added an alternate Evita. I think I knew that there was interest in bringing Paige over to the US with the show, but it's interesting to think of what might have been.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=MAJkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PucDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3476%2C6681880

[Leadingplayer]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 7:18pm

I remember stories that Streep's sudden departure from the film had to do specifically with Oliver Stone. There were stories that she was deeply bothered and offended by him and stuff he said or did that she perceived as sexist or sexual. I always wondered why she didn't continue on the project with a different director but I guess Stone had control. He then tried to make it with Michelle Pfeiffer (whose demo tapes probably killed it) and then tried again with Gloria Estefan.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 7:37pm

I wouldn't be surprised if Streep departed because of Oliver Stone, when you look at her career in the late 80s it's clear that she was taking movies where her rate was not being met if she was really interested in them, I doubt that she had a big salary for films like A CRY IN THE DARK, IRONWEED, or PLENTY. It sounds like the salary disputes were a way for her to get out of the project rather than a real reason for her. I do think it's interesting that throughout the 90s Meryl Streep's career was kinda dead, she did get Oscar nominated, but her movies were not doing well and she always seemed to be the only aspect that was singled out in the films, I wonder if her career would have been any different in the 90s if she had gone on to do EVITA.

[random person 112]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 8:40pm

Gloria would have been a very interesting Evita.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 8:43pm

givesmevoice, thanks for the article. Boy, were they really off with Elaine's age. They list her as 26 when in fact she was already 30 1/2 by then. Also, it seems Faye Dunaway, Raquel Welch, and Ann-Margret were vying for the part in London, too. Were those 3 the go-to ladies for the rumor mill at the time?

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 10:01pm

^^^^Methinks a press agent was using his copy machine. Of the three, Ann-Margret is the only one who could sing any version of EVITA, and the score would have had to be simplified even for her. That's not to say her manager didn't make a pitch, but I doubt ALW or Prince would have seriously entertained the idea for a minute.

[Leadingplayer]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 10:07pm

Raquel Welch did go into Woman of the Year around this time so she may have been shopping for roles (and might have been delusional enough to think she could sing it)

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 10:13pm

Back to Bonnie Schon, because I think it's interesting that she wound up never playing Evita. Why didn't she get cast as LuPone's alternate? They knew she wasn't going to do all eight performances, correct? So if she was good enough to be a finalist for the part twice, why wasn't she good enough to be the alternate?

[Leadingplayer]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 10:25pm

There was a cabaret singer named Julie Budd who was on of the finalists.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 5/28/12 at 11:29pm

There should probably be a book written some day called Hal Prince and his leading ladies because he was notorious for driving them (and many of the women who auditioned to be his leading ladies) crazy; he was often completely inconsistent in both his direction and in his casting practices.

The story i had heard in regards to Bonnie Schon is that after she went through the exhaustive audition in London only to lose out to Elaine Paige; Hal basically promised her the role on Broadeay after Equity denied Paige the transfer. Schon was put through another exhaustive audition for Broadway thinking it was just a technicality only to find out the role was given to LuPone.

It's possible she was offered the alternate ( I don't think Teri Klausner was in the mix at the final callbacks) but my guess is that Schon, like Judy Kaye later, was pretty miffed.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 5/29/12 at 12:35am

Didn't Hal Prince say something to the effect that he cast Madeleine Kahn in ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY thinking she was Bernadette Peters? If so, that's a pretty bitchy thing to say for both leading ladies involved. How juicy is all this gossip associated with EVITA? This thread has been so informative.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 5/29/12 at 12:38am

How juicy is all this gossip associated with EVITA? This thread has been so informative.

Between this and The Music Man thread, I've actually been enjoying spending time on BWW.



It's possible she was offered the alternate ( I don't think Teri Klausner was in the mix at the final callbacks) but my guess is that Schon, like Judy Kaye later, was pretty miffed.

I certainly wouldn't blame her, because I'd be pretty miffed if that happened to me.

[Leadingplayer]

Posted: 5/29/12 at 12:40am

Yep. Hal said that about Madeline. I don't really believe him though. I think he said it more out of anger over Kahn quitting 2oth Century. Kahn was a big deal at the time with multiple Oscar nominations. I'm sure he knew who she was (or someone told him before hiring her!)

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/29/12 at 7:02pm

There should probably be a book written some day called Hal Prince and his leading ladies because he was notorious for driving them (and many of the women who auditioned to be his leading ladies) crazy; he was often completely inconsistent in both his direction and in his casting practices.

Michael Bennett, as I wrote above, I am related to someone who worked in Prince's casting department for several years in the early 1980s. Because of the personal connection, they used to hire me to stage manage auditions for them from time to time.

I should be clear I was never a member of Prince's inner circle; in fact, I never met actually met him, though I knew Joanna Merlin pretty well and observed quite a few auditions (this was all after the original EVITA).

But viewing him from the other side of the room (and seeing the results of the process), it was my impression that Prince is one of those directors who doesn't always walk into casting knowing what he wants. He watches and waits for some actor to show HIM what he should want.

I don't think anybody can deny that the process often works well for him. But it used to drive actors crazy because they were trying to guess what Prince wanted when he didn't yet know himself.

[Leadingplayer]

Posted: 5/29/12 at 10:49pm

^^


I think those are the interesting directors---the ones who wait for it to show up and don't impose their strict ideas on the actor...Agree?

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 5/29/12 at 10:51pm

Great question. I've got to run. Let me think about it and I'll get back to you tomorrow...

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 5/30/12 at 4:55am

"Yep. Hal said that about Madeline. I don't really believe him though. I think he said it more out of anger over Kahn quitting 2oth Century. Kahn was a big deal at the time with multiple Oscar nominations. I'm sure he knew who she was (or someone told him before hiring her!)"

It's such a bizarre thing to say and something that reflects so badly on him — how could someone confuse Madeline Kahn and Bernadette Peters? — that I have to think it's true.

And I've never heard that Kahn quit. I've always heard that she was pressured to leave.

There's a book on Kahn that may be published by the end of the year. Perhaps if that does happen, it will clarify things.

[Leadingplayer]

Posted: 5/30/12 at 5:52am

^^

I'm surprised they pressured her to leave. I'd of thought she'd be a huge box office draw.