Now the next question is how long will it take for somebody to see the title of this thread and start a new one about the "Planned Revival of Evita" that they heard about?
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Forgetting the factor of age? Julia Murney can't properly sing the score. I say this as a Julia Murney fan, hoping people will stop mentioning her. Just for her own sake.
I still vote for an unknown. I think it should be a starmaking role, and something big would have to be compromised by trying to shoehorn a known Broadway actress into such a specific role.
If Julie Murney is too old, so are Alice Ripley and Orfeh.
I would also prefer an unknown. Maybe even someone Hispanic or -dare I dream- actually Argentinian.
I can't believe people are claiming Karen Olivo is too dark to play Eva Person. I don't care if she was a real person, that's an overtly racist comment. Many, many real people have been played by caucasian actors that weren't precise physical matches and no one batted an eyelash. God help us if a minority be allowed to play a traditionally (though inappropriately) white role.
Like a firework unexploded
Wanting life but never
knowing how
"God help us if a minority be allowed to play a traditionally (though inappropriately) white role."
Why inappropriatly? Evita WAS white. She was renowned for her alabaster skin. A lot of Argentineans are fair. So that's why caucasian actors have traditionally been cast in the role. Even Elena Roger is white.
Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia
Orfeh isn't "too old" for Eva at all. And Ripley looks MUCH older than Orfeh does, especially up-close. Olivo, IMO, would just be miscast for other reasons, not her age.
LOL. Ripley looks more mature than Orfeh, but she doesn't look older.
Orfeh looks like the prototypical cougar. I can't decide if she looks way older than she is or way younger than she is, because she's not the kind of woman I trust to tell me the truth about their age.
I don't think either of them are appropriate for it vocally, but I can't speak to that with as much certitude as I could for Julia. I only singled Julia Murney out before because I've actually seen her in the role and have an entirely educated perspective to judge from.
Um, Orfeh IS too old. She's 42. She couldn't possibly be convincing in the first act of Evita where Eva goes from 15-26. "Waltz for Eva and Che" would look like a musical episode of "Cougartown."
"Sing the words, Patti!!!!" Stephen Sondheim to Patti LuPone.
I don't see how it's racist for somebody to say a person playing a historical figure should LOOK LIKE the real person.
If somebody, said Raul Esparza shouldn't play Malcolm X or Patti Lupone shouldn't play Harriet Tubman, that wouldn't be racist either. It would just be... factual.
As for the other question, it's considered "racist" to suggest that anyone non white couldn't play the role of a white person whereas suggesting Beyonce should play Nancy Reagan is perfectly acceptable, albeit ridiculous.
Beyonce should play Nancy Reagan is perfectly acceptable, albeit ridiculous.
that's the worst thing I've ever read in my life.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad