The UK's Sunday Times reports today that Argentinean star Elena Roger has signed to take on the lead role in the upcoming London revival of Evita. About the 30-year old star, the paper writes that "Roger's voice is more rock star than musical diva, although she is a great admirer of the musical Chicagoand recently appeared in Les Miserables in Argentina." The show, and further casting are both set to be officially announced at a press conference on Tuesday in the West End. Casting for the lead role has been a hot topic of conversation on both sides of the pond since the show was announced with a large number of notable names reported to have gone in for the part.
The revival, which is now slated for an opening at the Adelphi Theatre in late May of 2006, will boast Donmar Warehouse artistic director Michael Grandage (Don Carlos, Suddenly Last Summer) as its director, Tony Award-winner Rob Ashford (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Doctor Doolittle) as choreographer and Christopher Oram (Passion Play, Merrily We Roll Along)
as the main designer; the three last collaborated on the smash revival of Guys and Dolls that is playing at the Picadilly Theatre. The revival will be produced by Lloyd Webber's Very Useful Group.Evita,
which began life as a 1975 concept album, takes a cynical but
multifaceted view of Eva Peron's ascent. With music by Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Rice, the show
opened at London's Prince Edward Theatre in 1978 with Elaine Paige as
Eva and David Essex as Che. In New York, it ran 1,567 performances at
the Broadway Theatre, and won the 1980 Tony Award for Best Musical, as
well as six others. The show starred Patti LuPone, Mandy Patinkin (both
of whom won Tonys) and Bob Gunton; Harold Prince also won a Tony for his direction.
