Evita

[ljay889]

Are you joking? This thread is filled with tons of reviews from people who have seen the show ON Broadway. Do some reading....

[smallworld]

Yes, and then there's those who haven't seen it who continuously complain about it, which is super annoying

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

I HAVE seen the show (saw the first preview). I would have preferred an Evita with a strong and commanding voice. LOVED Max von Essen! from RC in Austin, Texas

[SNAFU]

Without a strong Che, Eva and Che's waltz loses all intesity. Love or hate Mandy and Patti, but their waltz was a waltz to remember. Not a waltz designed to conceal Madonna's baby bump either.

[bwayphreak234]

I still can't believe that Elena Roger has been so unpopular on here... I have said it before and I will say it again, I find her to be absolutely incredible, and I find her voice to be unique and great. I LOVE the London cast recording and the video I saw of Elena on London closing night blew me away. To each their own I guess

[TotallyEffed]

I mentioned I saw Evita to an acquaintance and he immediately asked, "does she belt?"

That isn't what it's about. Evita is a not a belt concert. Say what you want about Ricky Martin, but Elena Roger is giving an incredible performance at the Marquis. She is nuanced, gorgeous, powerful, and acting her face off.

Does she "belt"? Not always, no. Is her voice unique and effective? Absolutely.

I was stunned at her performance. In "And the Money Kept Rolling In", she doesn't have a single lyric but she was all I could look at. As she stepped from mark to mark on the stage, she would stand still for a few moments and stare out with a slight smile on her face. Gripping, chilling, a hint of evil ambition...and I still loved her Eva. I cared about her Eva.

She's an amazing dancer, she looks age appropriate in all scenes (she is TINY), and she's very clear. I understand some people might have an issue hearing some of her lyrics, but her acting is truly what makes her performance so remarkable.

Of course her talent/performance is subjective, but I fear many people will write her off for the wrong reasons. She's DIFFERENT and people don't like that, even in the theatre. Evita is a remarkable piece of theatre...I'm saddened people are so hung up on "fierce belting" instead of substance.

[broadwayguy2]

Fine. Remove the belting.
I am still left with a leading lady who is a fantastic dancer - in a singer's show, with an accent that made it difficult to understand most of her lyrics and left the strangers near me absolutely confused about what she was saying, as they did not know the show, and who's voice, yes, is "different", but nevertheless with thin, grating, pinched and sharp and struggled to reach the notes in the score and who is REALLY unpleasant to listen to when she isn't singing at a moderate volume in her midrange.
I'd love her in a dance piece based on Eva's life, but I have no need or desire to listen to her sing that score again.
NO, I don't want to listen to Patti sing it either. Is it so much to ask for an Eva with a full voice that can sit well on the music and hit the notes without being pained and strained or, on the other end, bombastic?

[inlovewithjerryherman]

After the raves she got in London, I find the reaction everyone's having to Roger very interesting. Clearly, she is giving a performance that is worth talking about, at the very least. The divided opinions have only made me more intrigued to see her performance.

The head voice thing is interesting - she does at least belt/mix her way through the recording - perhaps she is ill and is saving her steam for Brantley, who missed her in London when he went to review it.

And on a completely unrelated note, if the revival does well enough to outlast Roger's run in it, I'd love to see Nicole Scherzinger step into the part next.

[TotallyEffed]

She does belt and mix. People are mistaking her mix as head. Her voice is quite forward and resonant, which is where the "pinched" complaints are coming from, I think. She certainly sings it a hell of a lot better than Madonna...Elena's singing voice actually captures the essence of Eva Peron's actual speaking voice, in my opinion.

I will certainly agree that it is "thinner" than Patti LuPone's belt/mix...but then again most voices are!

[Beavers]

L U V MADONNA. the new album is siqq, fyi.

[bwayphreak234]

Elena's singing voice actually captures the essence of Eva Peron's actual speaking voice, in my opinion.

I completely agree.

[broadwayguy2]

It's fine and dandy if Roger's singing sounds like Peron's singing, but that does not make it at all pleasant to listen to or appropriate for the written show... and it sounds thin on its own, comparisons to LuPone aside.

[CarlosAlberto]

@ Beavers: FYI. Yes it is siqq. It made me want to hurl.

[CarlosAlberto]

Now all of Rogers detractors feel obligated to add statements such as "...all comparisons to LuPone aside" and "NO I don't want to listen to Patti sing it either..."

F.Y.I. ~ I saw it last week. Not posting my review though as I'm really not interested in "getting into it".

This thread is hilarious.

[best12bars]

So you don't want to post your own review after seeing the show, but you criticize and laugh at other people's opinions?

I don't get it. Is this the "dish it out but can't take it" approach?

[broadwayguy2]

Well perhaps those things are being said because there is a small faction here who seem to be of the mind that the ONLY way someone could find fault in Roger is if they wanted LuPone, as if we have the inability to judge Roger on her own merits.

[Bettyboy72]

"In "And the Money Kept Rolling In", she doesn't have a single lyric but she was all I could look at. As she stepped from mark to mark on the stage, she would stand still for a few moments and stare out with a slight smile on her face."

People in the rear mezz won't see that. Those fortunate enough to pay $250 for close orchestra seats will get the nuances. What a great way to demonstrate the class issues happening on stage.

[Rainbowhigh23]

I look forward to seeing Elena again as I do enjoy her style, but but I do agree and am surprised that her voice often sounds thin in this production. I saw the show first week of previews and remembered how her voice sounded in albeit a completely different work, "Mina Che Cosa Sei?" - incredibly strong. Here's an example from 2010 - a style I was totally expecting for parts of Buenos Aires and Rainbow High. But then again, completely different work.
Mina Che Cosa Sei

[CarlosAlberto]

Well besty I will say this much, as much as I love Ricky he didn't do it for me in this. Elena was fine but she didn't "WOW" me and I wanted to be "WOWED". The choreography was amazing though. Rob Ashford did an excellent job with it. BUENOS AIRES was thrilling and exciting to watch. Such a winning number.

I think Michael Cerveris came off best. I hope he gets a Tony nomination for this.

[CarlosAlberto]

...oh, and I wasn't expecting Patti LuPone!!!

[TalkinLoud]

I saw this yesterday for the first time. My only prior experience with Evita was the Patti LuPone cast recording.

I enjoyed myself quite a bit. The music is achingly beautiful, maybe ALW's most complete and achingly beautiful score. Even a lot of the music that I didn't really care for on the CD, I loved it so much more in context. Ricky Martin is OK. He seemed to not really know what to do while he was singing.

But Elena Roger is incredible. I was floored by her performance. Great actress, magnetic and a hell of a singer. Her accent didn't bother me at all. I don't understand the criticisms of her voice at all. She does have a strong voice. She doesn't belt the role, she sings it. I loved it and would go back again just to see her.

[Dubliner]

I haven't seen her in Evita but having seen Elena Roger in both Piaf and Passion it strikes me that she is first and foremost an actress who is much more interested in serving the production and giving a nuanced interpretation of her character than in giving a star turn. Her voice in Piaf was incredibly powerful and sounded just like the real Edith Piaf. In Passion it was barely a whisper as befits such an ill and fragile character. Both performances were stunning

[random person 112]

I too don't get the accent crack i mean hers is no worse than Sofia Vergaras.

[CarlosAlberto]

I will be going back to see this. Hopefully it will have improved by then.

I will definitely agree with TalkinLoud that ALW's score is one of his most beautiful scores. Definitely up there in my top 5 faves.

[Deena Jones]

I saw it Thursday and was blown away by Elena Roger! Growing up listening to LuPone I was expecting the worst but Elena proved me wrong! I understood everything she said. I was terribly disappointed with Ricky. he just didn't have enough edge to him. No power to his voice. No anger... and Che was weak....

The show itself is stunning, very well directed ricky aside.

[The Scorpion]

It's funny, because the reactions I'm reading on this thread are EXACTLY the reactions I thought would happen if the show transferred to Broadway, which it has done now. Back when it was playing in London, based on the comments I was reading from American posters on theatre boards, I noticed the following:

- It tended to be people from the US rather than the UK who had a problem with Elena's accent. No-one I knew who was not American found her unintelligible. I later saw her in Piaf and Passion and understood her just fine. Whether this is because US audiences are less 'exposed' to other accents in the world, I have no idea, but there might be something in that (given how virtually everything is remade for American audiences, especially in the cinema).

- Incessant comparisons with LuPone coming from the American audience, but for some reason the Paige followers from Britain didn't have a problem. LuPone and her interpretation seems to be sacrosanct for American audiences in a way that Paige's turn in the role isn't for us in Britain. I wonder if that's because we knew Evita starting from Julie Covington, whereas Americans weren't really familiar with the concept album. It might have something to do with Paige endorsing Elena Roger and the production and saying that she loved it... I'm pretty certain pigs will fly before LuPone attends this revival, though it'd be really, REALLY interesting if she does, not least because of her post-Sunset anti-ALW stance.

It seems none of this has changed in the intervening 6 years. I'm guessing that perhaps the theatre nuts of the US see 'Evita' as a 'diva' role with a harsh, aggressive Eva as played by LuPone. Paige was nowhere near as aggressive as LuPone (Hal made her far more bitchy for US audiences, as there was greater risk of the charge of 'OMG you're glorifying fascism' coming from the US critics than from London's, with the added risk that the Jewish community wouldn't respond well to a show about a dictator who allegedly helped to harbour the Nazis), and that may be why Roger's performance was much better received by audiences in London. She's the polar opposite of LuPone in that she's chosen to play her sympathetically, and it's an interpretation that, though at odds with the sometimes scathing lyrics, is probably more in tune with how Eva is viewed and depicted in today's Argentina (I really can't see how LuPone's Evita would fit the current Argentine view of Eva from what I perceived when I was living in Buenos Aires, even by those who didn't like Evita). Also Paige and Roger were/are both good dancers; there was a lot less dancing when LuPone did the role and the show was frozen. Whatever Elena lacks in vocal power, she more than compensates for with her dancing.

I thought Elena Roger was electric every time I saw her at the Adelphi in London. I can't wait to see her at the Marquis next month. And I personally loved the revival, and I'm a Hal Prince fanboy. There were things I thought weren't as good as in Hal's production (particularly the staging of Dangerous Jade), but there were also things that I thought were better (Buenos Aires in the revival is amazing IMHO).

Re the sets, I find it odd people are complaining about them not changing much, considering the original was a black box production with no real sense of locale either. If anything, the revival gives a much more obvious impression as to where you are during a particular scene.

Incidentally, for anyone who thought we were badly cheated in London by only getting a highlights recording, there's a Facebook page to register support for a complete recording of the Broadway production. Supposedly the powers-that-be are listening, so might be worth joining. Search for 'Evita Broadway Cast Recording' or something like that on Facebook.