Elena Roger In Evita

[alxscrz2]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 3:00pm

Does anyone know if they will transfer the show to broadway and have Elena Roger in it ? I was watching a video on youtube of her performing Buenos Aires and wow she is fierce. look out Patti LuPone, lol :)

LINK !!!!! Updated On: 10/30/09 at 03:00 PM

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 3:02pm

It is Roger. ROGER.

No plural.

[blaxx]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 3:05pm

I wonder what comes up more often, the Wicked movie or the Evita revival?

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 3:13pm

Why we are at - do you think they will ever revive FUNNY GIRL or MAME? If so who do you think will play the lead?

But to answer your question alx - the production was rumoured for a transfer with Roger but it ended up not being a huge financial hit in London so those plans were aborted.

Roger was fantastic live in the role. Its a shame NYC wont see that performance.

[EVIE]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 3:27pm

I'm probably in the minority here but I did not enjoy Elena Roger in this role at all.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 3:49pm

You're not alone, Evie...I agree, and cant even listen to the recording.

[alxscrz2]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 3:55pm

Doodlenyc, atleast on the Elena Roger recording you can understand what she is singing. When I heard the Patti LuPone recording I had a hard time figuring out what she was saying.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 4:12pm

really? That's too bad. I've never had that problem.

I prefer my Eva's to carry a tune.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 4:18pm

I wish I could have seen Roger live to see what the fuss was about. On the recording it sounds like she learned the songs phonetically, because I feel like her emphasis was often on odd words and syllables.

[alxscrz2]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 4:28pm

Phyllis, check out the link I put up. Elena Roger is singing buenos aires and is doing a good job with the dance also :)

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 4:29pm

On stage Roger threw herself unto the role with a kind of wild, raw abandon that I thought was really thrilling. Vocally, she was closer to Julie Covington than Lupone but I actually like that sound for the role. As much as I loved her live- I don't really like that recording either.

With time I actually have to say I actually have come to rather dislike the Elaine Paige recording as well- I'm sure she was thrilling live ( like Roger) but vocally she has a lot if issues on the disc

[Pgenre]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 4:29pm

That EVITA revival recording is a litany of missteps from Matt Rawle's Che to the bastardization of the score to Elena's fo-net-tick pronunciations...

... I mean, they had the gall to cut the intro to "A New Argentina"?! Have they heard Ja Rule's sample of it on his song "Six Feet Underground" ("Dice are rolling..." is the chorus of that song) and felt that it was not necessary for this recording? UGH...

... I have rarely been as disappointed in a recording as I was in this. Why cast EVITA with an Eva and Che who can't sing the songs? And Quast was bizarre and wasted as Peron, and we don't even get his best part ("Dice are rolling," etc) on the recording!

The rumors (and reality (Gerard, etc.)) of ALW never wanting his scores to be overshadowed by the performers must really be true... at least he has had a change of heart with LOVE NEVER DIES: THE STORY CONTINUES: PHANTOM 2: ELECTRIC BUGALOO by casting Sierra and Ramin.

P

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 4:35pm

Roger's wild, raw abandon just reads whacky to me.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 4:37pm

Genre that rumour about ALW sounds awfully silly to me when you look at the singers who have appeared in his shows in NY and London over the years- some amazing voices

[Mark_E]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 6:39pm

Slightly OT here, but if anyone has the chance to see the current UK tour of Evita with Rachael Wooding, she is absolutely exceptional in the role.

I quite like the Revival recording of Evita.

[vassey]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 6:46pm

Elena Roger in Evita was the most monstrous, hideous, and brilliant performance I have seen onstage. 1 year in the role and she was brilliant, I don't know about at the start though.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 10/30/09 at 7:06pm

I agree MichaelBennett, but they have been saying that from the Phantom movie on (and that casting surely bolsters this argument) he has become obsessed with making his music outshine the performers... I don't agree with that theory in general, but I think in the case of that EVITA it may SOUND true, but really he was casting actors over singers... I still can't come up with a valid excuse for the Phantom movie though!

And I happen to LIKE Gerard in the role, but... please.

P

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 10/31/09 at 3:38am

Hmm genre - I definitely do not see that as a steady habit with Webber's stage productions. THE WOMAN IN WHITE for example, his last major show, was very well sung - though Webber does seem to have a penchant for singers with unique sounds (Sarah Brightman, Michael Crawford, Maria Friedman, Elaine Paige) that might not be to everyone's tastes.

In the case of the PHANTOM movie, Joel Schumacher wanted two young sexy leads. The movie had a pretty tight budget (as far as a movie that size goes) so major stars were out. When cast, Gerald Butler and Emmy Rossum were both actors who had just wrapped filming on two sizable film projects that hadn't yet been released. There was a lot of industry buzz on them. I think their casting was at least in part a gamble on the production teams part that they might be bigger marquis names by the time that PHANTOM opened than they ended up being. I think thats why you ended up with minor movie stars in those parts with somewhat weak singing voices.

The recent EVITA revival is just a bad cast recording. Odd cuts, bad sound and strident voices that sounded better live in the theatre.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 10/31/09 at 11:53am

As I told Alex before, I am in Buenos Aires now and got to see Elena Roger in her award winning performance of PIAF.
She is a good performer, but she lowered her register to sound like Edith Piaf and her voice comes off horribly. The direction is dreadful and the production has basically no set and it´s just awful. One of the worst ¨musicals¨ I´ve seen.
On the other hand, the local versions of The Young Frankestein, August Osage County and Phantom of the Opera are great.

[noradesmond]

Posted: 10/31/09 at 2:32pm

"LOVE NEVER DIES: THE STORY CONTINUES: PHANTOM 2: ELECTRIC BUGALOO"

That just made my day.

[LotteTBS138]

Posted: 10/31/09 at 10:08pm

I loved Philip in that production!

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 10/31/09 at 11:33pm

I saw her in BOEING-BOEING and PIAF. She's a wonderfully versatile performer. Her Piaf was magnificent.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 11/1/09 at 5:26am

"On the recording it sounds like she learned the songs phonetically."

That crossed my my mind as well, but I thought she was great when I saw her live. The production itself was only OK and couldn't hold a candle to the original.

With hindsight I preferred her in Piaf and it's that performance rather than her Evita that makes me think she'll be great as Fosca in the Donmar's Passion next year (I can't abide Maria Friedman screeching and wailing her way through the OLC).

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 11/2/09 at 12:35am

¨I saw her in BOEING-BOEING and PIAF. She's a wonderfully versatile performer. Her Piaf was magnificent¨

She was good in it, but lowering her range she sounded awful. Also the show was very poorly directed and the set was basically unexistant. I hated it!

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 11/2/09 at 12:46am

Elena Roger as PIAF: