I adore Barbara Cook immensely, but I think Benanti is just as good as Amalia. Cook has an absolutely perfect voice, but Benanti gets pretty damn close vocally. I also find Benanti's quirkiness and comedy to be slightly superior, and her acting of Vanilla Ice Cream is definitive.
It's one of those things you're never bothered by until you are ya know? I wonder if the luxury of having two LPs to fill made them take their time so to speak. Funny because many cast albums of the era (esp, Goddard Leiberson projects) would actually have the tempos sped up either for space or to makeup for lost visuals.
Would love to have seen how Cook acted the role, born 32 years too late unfortunately! I can imagine her having that same air of self-sophistication that Margaret Sullavan embodied so well in the film.
The main reason the 2012 Broadway Revival Cast Recording has supplanted the 1996 Film Cast Recording as my favorite version of the Evita score is because I ended up enjoying the cast and the arrangement of the former more than I did the cast and arrangement of the latter (even without Another Suitcase being an Eva song). The fact that the 2012 score features the entirety of the score from both the original production as well as the movie also puts it over the top.
Regarding Elena Roger's performance as Eva on the 2012 recording, I love the way she plays off of Michael Cerveris, who really is the best of the 3 Perons I've heard (even beating out Jonathan Pryce, which is hard to do). I also prefer her performance on the 2012 recording over her performance on the 2006 London recording, even if some people think she's vocally inconsistent on the former. She seems more 'confident', vocally, IMO, on the 2012 recording, and just 'gels' better with her castmates (especially Cerveris).
The 1960 City Center Finian's Rainbow. Superior sound, more complete, and wonderful Jeannie Carson instead of Ella Logan with her mannerisms and fake burr.