Evita intermission placement

I recently learned that in the vocal score for Evita, there is a note from Andrew Lloyd Webber stating that it was his and Tim Rice's intention when writing the concept album to place the intermission after the balcony scene ("Don't Cry For Me, Argentina" rather than after "A New Argentina," then explaining how one would do so in production. I have been a huge fan of Evita for years, but I had never heard this before. Has anyone ever seen a production of Evita that made this choice before? I have to admit, I am intrigued now.

It is the new official rental materials that suggest it. I agree it makes no sense but it's honestly what it says in the score - you can put the intermission after "But your despicable class is dead/Look who they are calling for now" and Act Two starts with the weird chords before "High Flying Adored" and supposedly that's what the authors prefer.

It also only has the dance music from the revival. So the mariachi trumpets in "Buenos Aires" are gone and other stuff like that, and "You Must Love Me" is officially part of the show now. They fixed something that wasn't broken and made it considerably worse.

Here's the page as it appears in the score:

https://imgur.com/a/GWjFE

Updated On: 1/14/18 at 01:54 AM

They probably didn't imagine the rousing finale that Harold Prince was going to come up with. I have always considered A New Argentina to be (a) as perfectly staged a 5 minutes as there has ever been in a musical; and / or (b) one of the top 5 greatest production numbers in the last 54 years (as long as I have been going), as well as (c) one of the 4 or 5 greatest act closers in the last 54 years.

I can see the story telling aspect of having her 'greatest moment' end the first act, it would just pale theatrically to any staging that I have seen. Come to think of it, I have seen 5 or 6 productions of Evita, and IMO A New Argentina has always been the highlight of the show.

It might work fine, but it leaves Act Two without its finest hour. "When the Money..." is a terrific number, but I can't imagine that act doesn't feel thinner without the most famous song in this composition, placed in the "Hello Dolly" position, after all. Isn't that the obvious parallel?

That said, from a strictly story telling perspective, it makes perfect sense to close the act with "Don't Cry...", since the two arcs will be in sync, the rise, the "fall" to her death.

If you think that's strange, most of the West End productions of JCS have placed the Act 1 curtain after "Gethsemane," which incidentally explains the boffo showstopper ending they gave every version since Steve Balsamo. To me, it ruins the symmetry of 12 songs in the first act and 12 in the second, and really, Judas is who the show is (mostly) about; the curtain should fall on his momentous decision to betray Jesus.