Evita 2006/2012 Revival- Page 2

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 7/18/15 at 6:13pm

I saw her alternate, Christina DeCicco, in the role, and i thought she was wonderful. Ricky Martin was, as everyone keeps repeating, very underwhelming as Che. I loved this production's staging and design for its willingness to part from the cartoonish Hal Prince staging that has been reproduced for decades. This was the first production of Evita I have seen in which it seemed that someone actually realized that the show is set in Argentina. The orchestrations sounded more Latin and the physical production looked more authentic, allowing the audience to get swept up into the world. The only moment I found weaker in this production was "The Art of the Possible," and I wondered if "The Lady's Got Potential" would be a better fit. 

I remember there was some controversy among people who did not like that Che in this production was an "everyman" rather than Che Guevara. While there are many clues in the text that indicate that the character is Guevara, I didn't think the show lost anything by abandoning that concept.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 10/14/15 at 9:41am

https://www.broadwayworld.com/grossesshow.cfm?show=EVITA&year=2013&allall=on

can somebody tell me why this production closed early, because its weekly grosses weren't terrible. They were over 1 million for the most part. Did it have an unusually high operating cost?

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 10/14/15 at 9:47am

Call_me_jorge said: "can somebody tell me why this production closed early, because its weekly grosses weren't terrible. They were over 1 million for the most part. Did it have an unusually high operating cost?"

 

Um, it looks like their numbers took a pretty precipitous turn for the worse once autumn rolled around.

[trpguyy]

Posted: 10/14/15 at 10:30am

Ricky Martin's name above the title. The numbers tanked when he went on vacation, and the producers knew they needed a big name for when he left and couldn't secure one (they actually got JLo far enough through the process that she was touring the theater and dancing on the stage). 

The tour was not profitable.

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 10/14/15 at 10:39am

But the grosses never dipped below 600,000. It couldn't have been that bad. And it was only for a few weeks.

[trpguyy]

Posted: 10/14/15 at 10:48am

The weekly nut was substantially higher than 600,000, and the production was not sustainable without a big star draw.

[wickedfan]

Posted: 10/14/15 at 10:50am

Producers don't just take into account the weekly grosses, but advance sales as well. And there was zero advance past Ricky Martin's end date. The producers realized during the run that the majority of their audiences were coming to see Ricky Martin, not Evita. They searched for possible replacements when the three leads' contracts were up, but decided in the end to just close the show at the end of their contracts. 

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 10/14/15 at 11:19am

I happened to see both productions and in many ways the 2006 version was far superior. The 2012 was saddled with Ricky Martin as a weak Che, spending most of the energy of his performance just trying to enunciate and precious little on creating any depth; Elena Roger, who set the Adelphi stage ablaze in 2006, spent most of her time here just getting brow-beaten by people who could f*cking get over her not being Patti LuPone, especially as her voice was a little raspier than in 2006; and stuck in the Marquis, which from the beginning felt was the wrong venue for that show. A show that felt grand and epic in the Adelphi, with its high stage, felt terribly claustrophic and I think made Elena seem smaller than she even is. (I personally felt the then-vacant St. James would have been a much more appropriate theatre at the time.)

[trpguyy]

Posted: 10/14/15 at 11:32am

That's perhaps the most polite description of Roger's voice I've ever heard. I prefer "aurally abusive."

[sklabam]

Posted: 10/18/15 at 11:47am

Elena was a strong actress and dancer. Her voice though should have resulted in her being recast in previews. Loved the production but for her voice, sadly.

[RaiseYouUp]

Posted: 10/18/15 at 1:35pm

trpguyy said: "That's perhaps the most polite description of Roger's voice I've ever heard. I prefer "aurally abusive."

I agree. Her voice was not good. When she screeched the last "Star quality" at the end of Buenos Aires, my mother and I turned to each other with a look of shock and disgust on both our faces.

 

[VernonGersch]

Posted: 10/18/15 at 5:35pm

gotta love the subjectivity

I thought Ricky Martin was fantastic and really well suited for the part but I found Elana to give one of the worst performances I've ever seen on Broadway.  Her voice was screechy and lacked any kind of nuance or beauty.

 

The production itself was fine If I remember correctly - Grandage directed right?  But her shrill annoying voice runined the experience for me

[JerseyBoy25]

Posted: 10/18/15 at 5:54pm

I liked the revival, I didn't love it. I knew of the show, but it was the first production of Evita I've ever seen, so I can't compare it to the original. I thought Michael Cerveris was a revelation in a role that I often overlooked on the album. Michael Cerveris is an amazing actor, but when that role is what steals all the focus of the show, there might be an issue. Ricky Martin and Elena Roger I think did a good job, and weren't completely embarrassing, but I think there was something misguided about this revival.

[ajh]

Posted: 10/19/15 at 10:03am

I saw it in London (several times) and on Broadway and it was subtly different, although it looked pretty much the same (ravishing) in both cities, despite a restaged opening.

In London I thought Elena Roger was genuinely sensational......a human fireball. She was more sympathetic than the Eva's I'd seen in the Hal Prince staging but had a core of steel. Vocally she was so different from the  Lupone/Paige belters we were used to but still sang it excitingly and had all the money notes. Couldn't take my eyes off of her.

Philip Quast was a solid, beautifully sung Peron and Matt Rawle was a handsome likable Che if a tad on the bland side. I didn't know what bland was however until I saw Ricky Martin grinning his way through it at the Marquis. It was as though he had no idea what he was singing about. Of course he looked beautiful but it was only when he could let rip and shake it on "And The Money Kept Rolling In" that he seemed in any way comfortable or invested. Maybe because she had a lot of stage time with him but Roger seemed lacklustre and less vocally secure than in 2006. The star performance was the always amazing Michael Cerveris, followed closely by Max Von Essen, a huge improvement on the London Magaldi. However, these roles are NOT leads and that was a problem for this production.

I loved the set, choreography and lighting but they were much more straightforward and representational than in the wildly imaginative original.

In retrospect I wish I'd seen DeCicco. The second West End alternate, Yvette Robinson was probably the most satisfactory combination I'd seen of Latin heat and stunning belt.

it is a shame that NYC didn't see Roger at her best as she is a major talent. Her Fosca was superb and her Piaf was astounding, THAT is the performance B'way should have seen.

[Justin D]

Posted: 10/19/15 at 11:14am

It might seem to be a small thing to get worked up over, but after singing the role so so often in London then Broadway, I just could not get past her, after all that time, still singing "And it seem-ED to the world it was all I desired"

seriously

seem---ED, Nobody in the whole cast could not have told her that the proper pronunciation is seem'd. I know english is not her first language bla bla bla, but that one was a real doozie. And when I saw the show in NYC I saw alot of gray haired old ladies looking at each other in bewilderment mouthing feeble "I cant understand what she is saying"