Florence Lacey as EVITA

The amazing Florence Lacey is starring as Peg in Bruce Graham's THE OUTGOING TIDE in Portland, Maine at Good Theater www.goodtheater.com. She is as beautiful today as she was when the Evita clip was filmed. A great performer!
Review of The Outgoing Tide

I wonder if Florence holds the distinction of playing the role longer than any of the other Eva's. I recall reading a review about her in the role when I was in college in the early 80s, but don't remember if it was when she was on Broadway, or when the tour was at the Bushnell in Hartford.

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Florence played it in the '80s when it came through Kansas City, but I saw the matinee Evita instead, Patricia Hemenway, who was fantastic. She has since passed away (in 2009). What an incredible talent.

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In addition to seeing her as Irene Molloy in Hello, Dolly!, I saw her in Sunset Boulevard at Signature a couple of years ago and kept thinking, wouldn't I have loved to see her as Evita. I saw Nancy Opel both times.

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Lacey goes back to the very beginning of EVITA when it played Los Angeles in the late seventies the summer before it opened on Broadway. If LuPone or Klausner (the matinee Eva) were unable to perform, other actresses would go on. The matinee performance I saw Lacey in was when Patti was out for that evening performance and Klausner replaced her. No actress did two performances a day. Over that summer I saw many different women play the role. Patti was indeed the best but Lacey was a close runner up. In fact I thought Lacey acted the role better than anyone else (including Ackerman who I saw later). Patti just had a bit more fire and a truly powerful voice.

EVITA's pre Broadway run played the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion before it went to Broadway. It played most the summer of '79 there, then played the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco, finally opening at the Broadway Theatre in NY that September. The first national tour in 1981 starred Loni Ackerman, Jon Cypher and Scott Holmes and played the Shubert Theatre in Los Angeles (Lacey was the matinee Eva).

Lacey was a standby EVITA (and eventually the fourth and final replacement EVITA on Broadway) and thus may not have been in the show ensemble or on the original cast album. She later did the world tour of the show. Here are some clips of Lacey and Ackerman:

Lacey's "Rainbow High":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI2qjbNWcfI

Ackerman's "New Argentina": (she did a phenomenal job hitting those high D's:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no46XBUo2Ck

I love Florence Lacey. I didn't realize she was in the cast of FOLLIES until I took my seat at the Ahmanson--it's a shame she didn't have a meatier role. I saw her previously in the mid 90s playing Dolly in San Diego. Carol Channing had decided--at the last minute it seemed--to fly to NY to accept a lifetime Tony award and Florence, who regularly played Irene in the tour, stepped in as Dolly. I was a kid and had no understanding of Carol Channing's history with the role, so was surprised to see hundreds of people in line getting refunds. My family and I decided to stay and I'm glad we did. Florence was a divine Dolly. Funny, earthy, even a bit sexy and effortlessly charismatic and charming. My family and I were literally the only people in the mezanine--we decided to upgrade ourselves to front row. I was so taken with Lacey that I stood up, alone, and gave her a standing O at the curtain which made her giggle. She waved up to me and blew me a kiss as the curtain came down and I thought, those suckers don't know what they missed. Of course, once I learned about Carol Channing's history, I was disappointed that I didn't get to see her, but you couldn't have asked for a better second place.

Updated On: 3/13/14 at 02:35 PM

Because my husband was the assistant casting director, I saw many, many replacement Evitas. Florence Lacey and Nancy Opal are the ones who stood out and whom I still remember.

Evita was the first time I paid full price for a show. For a 16 year old, $30 was a lot of money at that time (I was actually afraid to tell my parents). My friend and I had a front row orchestra seat for a Friday evening performance and unfortunately Patti Lupone was out that night. I saw Nancy Opel, who had done a wonderful job, but to this day, I'm disappointed I never saw Patti.

I'm not sure if it was Hal Prince or Larry Fuller who staged this, but the staging was simply stunning and has stayed with me after all these years. I remember the banners dropping down during the Requiem at the beginning, and the montage towards the end of Act 2.

From what I recall, there wasn't much of an advance notice when it closed.

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No, Florence never went on for Bernadette. I would love to hear her sing Sally's songs. Her Desiree in NIGHT MUSIC was amazing.