#26
Posted: 5/12/07 at 11:27am
I asked Matt Rawle about this on my last visit to EVITA last month, and he also said that the show wouldn't be transferring to Broadway (although Elena Roger said she had no idea as no-one was talking about it...).
I'm sure it was on the cards at one point following all the positive reviews it got (and I completely disagree with you, songanddanceman2, this production WAS very highly praised by the vast majority of the London critics), especially given Riedel's report at the time and the fact that the rights to the show in the US were withdrawn (I don't know if they still are).
I think a lot of factors contributed to the short run. One is that the positive reviews sort of backfired -- by focusing so much on Elena, the nights she wasn't on were very empty (Variety reported that attendance for one of the alternate's nights was as low as 29%), which didn't help the fact that the show's weak point was selling during the week rather than the weekends (since both the alternate performances are on weekdays). Otherwise attendance was fine -- some nights I went it was sold out, others were half empty. I think that whatever happened, the show probably would have departed with Elena...and after seeing Abbie Osmon in the role and hearing less than ecstatic reviews of the new alternate, I'm kind of glad that the show is closing with this cast.
I think opening in the so-called 'year of the musical' was a mistake. Revivals have a limited shelf-life anyway, but it was pretty obvious that not all the musicals opening in 2006 could survive competing against each other. And I agree that it was completely overshadowed in the ALW world by THE SOUND OF MUSIC; it was as if ALW just couldn't be bothered to give EVITA the boost it needed and focused all his attention on the other show. I also think that publicity was extremely poor -- there was very little press coverage. With WICKED advertising was everywhere; with EVITA it just meant an advert stuck on the back of a few scabby cabs. A lot of people I talked to at my last couple of visits to the show told me they had no idea EVITA was even on in the West End, and only found out when discounts for it started appearing everywhere on sites like lastminute.com.
Don't forget that ALW deliberately delayed his revival of EVITA by a couple of years (it was originally planned for 2002/3) because he thought that it wouldn't find an audience in a climate that was becoming increasingly biased towards feel-good shows. I think he's been proven right -- if anything the climate has become even more feel-good since 2003, so a serious musical with a political theme has no chance in the West End (maybe it should have been done at the National?).
All in all I think it's a terrible shame, but I enjoyed the production while it lasted. And while I do think there were some aspects of Michael Grandage's take on it that were flawed, I do agree with the critics that it was, overall, a strong production with an exceptionally strong cast (excluding the alternate Evas). Something tells me that not even Hal Prince's legendary production could have lasted in the current West End climate, which does make me wonder if EVITA really would have even managed a year on Broadway, which is arguably even more feel-good-orientated than the West End right now.
I'm sure it was on the cards at one point following all the positive reviews it got (and I completely disagree with you, songanddanceman2, this production WAS very highly praised by the vast majority of the London critics), especially given Riedel's report at the time and the fact that the rights to the show in the US were withdrawn (I don't know if they still are).
I think a lot of factors contributed to the short run. One is that the positive reviews sort of backfired -- by focusing so much on Elena, the nights she wasn't on were very empty (Variety reported that attendance for one of the alternate's nights was as low as 29%), which didn't help the fact that the show's weak point was selling during the week rather than the weekends (since both the alternate performances are on weekdays). Otherwise attendance was fine -- some nights I went it was sold out, others were half empty. I think that whatever happened, the show probably would have departed with Elena...and after seeing Abbie Osmon in the role and hearing less than ecstatic reviews of the new alternate, I'm kind of glad that the show is closing with this cast.
I think opening in the so-called 'year of the musical' was a mistake. Revivals have a limited shelf-life anyway, but it was pretty obvious that not all the musicals opening in 2006 could survive competing against each other. And I agree that it was completely overshadowed in the ALW world by THE SOUND OF MUSIC; it was as if ALW just couldn't be bothered to give EVITA the boost it needed and focused all his attention on the other show. I also think that publicity was extremely poor -- there was very little press coverage. With WICKED advertising was everywhere; with EVITA it just meant an advert stuck on the back of a few scabby cabs. A lot of people I talked to at my last couple of visits to the show told me they had no idea EVITA was even on in the West End, and only found out when discounts for it started appearing everywhere on sites like lastminute.com.
Don't forget that ALW deliberately delayed his revival of EVITA by a couple of years (it was originally planned for 2002/3) because he thought that it wouldn't find an audience in a climate that was becoming increasingly biased towards feel-good shows. I think he's been proven right -- if anything the climate has become even more feel-good since 2003, so a serious musical with a political theme has no chance in the West End (maybe it should have been done at the National?).
All in all I think it's a terrible shame, but I enjoyed the production while it lasted. And while I do think there were some aspects of Michael Grandage's take on it that were flawed, I do agree with the critics that it was, overall, a strong production with an exceptionally strong cast (excluding the alternate Evas). Something tells me that not even Hal Prince's legendary production could have lasted in the current West End climate, which does make me wonder if EVITA really would have even managed a year on Broadway, which is arguably even more feel-good-orientated than the West End right now.
Updated On: 5/12/07 at 11:27 AM
