The Evita Revival — Page 3

"As opposed to the superbly crafted Legally Blonde?"

Where she starred opposite her husband and got herself a Tony nomination. Say what you will about Legally Blonde, but it was very good for Orfeh's career, IMO. And on a personal note, I preferred it one hundred times over to Spamalot, which I thought was completely unfunny.

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Kelly, I'm not disputing Orfeh's talent in the least, but to say that the types of roles she plays and auditions for are not indicative of her type is a pretty ridiculous statement to make.

I'm aware she auditioned for the closing company of RENT several times, but the role of Maureen is exactly in line with the sort of roles I'm saying she's starting to play almost exclusively- broad comediennes, much like Paulette was in LEGALLY BLONDE and Pippi was in TRAILER PARK and Rusty was in FOOTLOOSE.

In fact, the only dramatic role I can think of that she's played her entire career is Clara in BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY in Philadelphia a few years ago, which I didn't enjoy her in at all.

I'll concede that the age flexibility for EVITA has certainly been put to the test over the years, but the show plays to none of Orfeh's strengths. You need someone for Eva whose acting chops are equally as ferocious as her voice, and I don't think she fits that bill.

I'm sure Orfeh would be the first to admit she's a singer first and an actress second.

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Updated On: 8/23/09 at 09:07 PM

I would love Mandy Gonzalez in the role, and agree that Karen Olivo couldn't handle it vocally.

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somethingwicked, I guess we disagree then, since I thought she was lovely in Bright Lights, Big City, and her "My Son" was particularly good. Annette in Saturday Night Fever was also not a "broad comedienne", nor was Janis in Love, Janis. All those roles, ESPECIALLY the last two, earned Orfeh a lot of praise.

I disagree with your assessment of her entirely, and I really don't think she would call herself a second-rate actress, sorry.

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Kelly, my point stands that the roles Orfeh tends to play almost exclusively share the same style of broad comedy with one or two exceptions.

That's only re-inforced by the fact that her two most recent auditions have been for Maureen in RENT and Ursula in THE LITTLE MERMAID after having played a character like Paulette in LEGALLY BLONDE. The days in which she would have ever been cast in a role like Eva Peron in a Broadway revival are long gone.

LOVE, JANIS was quite a long time ago, and all the praise she received for SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER had everything to do with her voice and nothing to do with her acting ability.

I know you think she can do no wrong, but you also should understand that people disagreeing on her being right for every role under the sun isn't always a direct criticism of her talent. I think Mary Testa is incredible, but I wouldn't want to see her taking on Dot in SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE any time soon.

Immense talent doesn't equal supreme adaptability.

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Updated On: 8/23/09 at 11:37 PM

I know you think she can do no wrong, but you also should understand that people disagreeing on her being right for every role under the sun isn't always a direct criticism of her talent. I think Mary Testa is incredible, but I wouldn't want to see her taking on Dot in SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE any time soon.

Immense talent doesn't equal supreme adaptability.

This. This. All this. A million times this.

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Mandy Gonzalez is the only Eva Peron.

She is divine.

P

"I'm sure Orfeh would be the first to admit she's a singer first and an actress second".

SomethingWicked, you certainly know a great deal about Orfeh's every move in musical theater, so I'm sure you'd know what her personal assessment of her talents would be as well. To my knowledge, she auditioned for the last Maureen exactly once and over the course of Rents run, many times, so if you're going to spew "facts" about Orfeh's day to day schedule, at least get the details right since it's clear you need all of us to know how much YOU'RE in the know.

We can debate Orfeh on this board ad nauseum and mention her in way too many threads she has no reason to be mentioned in and say either over the top loving things or disgustingly scathing things, as there seems to be nothing normal or in between with regards to her but one thing and one thing alone is certain IMO and seemed pretty obvious to many of us and that is, no one gave her that Tony nomination for her *singing* in Legally Blonde. She took a small, poorly written role and made it the heart of the show. That's a testament to her acting/comedic skills, not her singing. But again, I'm sure you know her a whole lot better than any of us as obviously, you have access to her day planner.

Winston, I disagree, especially when you consider who was NOT nominated that year. Erin Davie, Barbara Walsh, Heather Laws, any of the various women from the revival of A Chorus Line (minus Charlotte, of course), heck even Christine Estabrook were all not nominated in that category, in favor of Orfeh. While there was little doubt that Mary Louise Wilson would win (deservedly so), Orfeh's nomination was by no means a slot filler.

That would be your opinion Winston and I respect that but she was not a slot filler in any way. She's one of the only actresses that year that received all THREE award nominations and I'm sure the DD and OCC nominations weren't slot fillers either.

You don't have to like Orfeh's work but it resonated with the nominators and audiences in a big way. And going off of how long it's been since LB closed and how often Orfeh's still obsessively talked about here, I'd say she resonates with people in general. We can *debate* that till we're both blue in the face but you can't deny that, positive or negatively, she gets people talking.

I never understand why, when someone is disliked ( the Darryl Eisenberg thread is the absolute best example I can think of) that people still feel the need to discuss every minute detail they can grasp about that person. That's not how to make someone go away, that simply keeps them alive. A couple of weeks ago, I didn't know who the heck DE was, now she accomplished exactly what she set out to do, become a "somebody" for 20 seconds, but I digress.

Unknown is the only answer, seriously.

I didn't say she was.

I'd say she was relatively unknown, since they didn't know her well enough to show her when she was nominated for her first Tony. and, at least the way she's described it, she was less known for musical theater. (although that always confused me, since she had been nominated for a Tony for a musical and had just come off The Baker's Wife.)

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