The Evita Revival- Page 3

[Kelly2]

Posted: 8/23/09 at 8:53pm

"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.

[blaxx]

Posted: 8/23/09 at 8:57pm

That doesn't make it less mediocre than Legally Blonde. The show was a financial hit and won the Tony for Best Musical.

One thing is that you didn't like it, another than Spamalot is not good enough for the superstar talents of the majestic international sensation that is Orfeh.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 8/23/09 at 9:07pm

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.

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

[winston89]

Posted: 8/23/09 at 9:15pm

AndAllThatJazz22, I do remember reading another thread where a couple of people were confused by that statement as well because it could have been read either way. That, either she couldn't do the role because it was too high vocally or that she couldn't do it because it was physically too high in the end of Defying Gravity. And, I think that there were a handful who felt that it was vocally to high for her. And, if that's the case then I would think that that would not let her even be a candidate for Evita due to the fact that the role of Eva is much higher vocally then that of Elphaba.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 8/23/09 at 9:21pm

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

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 8/23/09 at 9:24pm

I still want an unknown actress as Eva. I know producers don't want to risk money on a show with an unknown leading lady, but I think it's a perfect star turn role. Elaine Paige was an unknown, LuPone was mostly unknown (and, as she's said, almost completely unknown as a musical theater actress), and it made stars of them.

[Kelly2]

Posted: 8/23/09 at 11:30pm

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.

[Kelly2]

Posted: 8/23/09 at 11:30pm

"That doesn't make it less mediocre than Legally Blonde. The show was a financial hit and won the Tony for Best Musical.

One thing is that you didn't like it, another than Spamalot is not good enough for the superstar talents of the majestic international sensation that is Orfeh."

It would've been a replacement gig, also. As opposed to originating a role. So I guess that's the key difference.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 8/23/09 at 11:37pm

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.

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

[blaxx]

Posted: 8/23/09 at 11:38pm

If she doesn't want to replace, why did she audition for ReNt and Little Mermaid? For fun?

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 8/23/09 at 11:46pm

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.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 8/23/09 at 11:51pm

^ I second Lizzie's Thising.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 3:41am

Mandy Gonzalez is the only Eva Peron.

She is divine.

P

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 5:34am

What about Felicia Finley? Josefina Scaglione sings too high to play Eva, correct?

[ruprecht]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 9:03am

"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.

[winston89]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 9:44am

ruprecht, I personally think that Orfeh got the Tony nom only because they needed to fill the slot with the alotted number of people. I have always been of the school of thought that just because a given catagory can have a given number of nominations, it doesn't mean they have to.

Look at the past couple of years. They gave Wedding Singer and Rock Of Ages a nomination just for the sake of doing so so that way they could fill spots. And, they gave Constintine and Lynch noms for the same reason as well as giving Grease the revival nomination as well. Yes, there is a limit of how many best revival nominations or best actor ect can be given out. But, if it is a weak year, I don't feel that they need to be grasping for straws and just giving out nominations to those who don't deserve it.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 9:59am

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.

[winston89]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 10:05am

Adam, I can see where you're right. I guess I am not a fan of the practice that there has to be a full list of nominations in each catagory and that I find that practice to be just grasping for straws to fill up a list. I think that I should have said that I thought that there were people more deserving then Orfeh who should have gotten the nomination.

[ruprecht]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 10:48am

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.

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 7:34pm

Josefina is a soprano, not a belter (although I wouldn't mind seeing a soprano's take on "Don't Cry For Me Argentina"...but a soprano singing "A New Argentina" and "Rainbow High" would not be very good).

[Craww]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 7:39pm

Unknown is the only answer, seriously.

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 7:42pm

Patti was a Tony nominated actress before playing Eva. I wouldn't exactly call her an unknown.

Updated On: 8/24/09 at 07:42 PM

[Craww]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 7:47pm

I didn't say she was.

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 7:47pm

You should try actually reading the thread before you fly off the handle with incoherent babling, ruprecht

By saying that she auditioned for THE LITTLE MERMAID, I'm now some sort of "insider" who know Orfeh's exact schedule? If you had accurately comprehended the discussion here, you would have seen that Kelly2 was the person who brought up her "repeated" auditions for Maureen in RENT. Any correction toward that bit of information should be directed at her, not me.

The extremely overt lengths this woman's fans go to "defend" her when she's not even being attacked continue to amaze me.

Updated On: 8/24/09 at 07:47 PM

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 7:49pm

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.)