Tim Rice & Elaine Page on the Origin of EVITA; From Inception, to the Stage, to Madonna

EVITA, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1978 master class musical, has enjoyed runs internationally, two on Broadway and two in London, with a third on the way at the Dominion Theatre. But the process of bringing it to the stage, which Rice and original West End star Elaine Page detail in a new series of essays with The Guardian, was challenging, invigorating, and began on a "late night in 1973."

"I was driving to a dinner party when I caught the tail end of a radio programme about Eva Perón," Rice writes. "I knew very very little about her - just a few headlines from my childhood - and was immediately intrigued. She'd come up from the lowest origins and was fantastically glamorous. Then there was her husband, president of Argentina, and his fairly repressive regime, presenting her wonderful, exciting image to the world."

Rice worked heavily on scripting - with the show originally narrated by Eva's hairdresser - with the support of Lloyd Webber.

"When Andrew's Jeeves show finished, having not done that well, he said: 'Let's have a go at Eva Perón.'...Andrew got [director] Hal Prince on board, but then Julie Covington, who'd sung Evita on the album, turned down the stage role. We auditioned hundreds of women, but Elaine Paige was the best. She was one of the few people who chose not to sing Don't Cry. She sang Yesterday instead."

"I'll never forget the opening," Page says. "When I left the stage, the audience began chanting "Evita! Elaine!" I'd just reached my dressing room, up two flights of stairs, when the manager called me back down. I stood in the wings, unable to believe what was happening. He had to push me back on. Then we had the most fantastic party on the Thames, in a boat called theTattershall Castle. There was champagne and all the glitterati from the industry came. At 1am, someone went to buy the next day's papers, and there was my face splashed all over the front pages. Heady times."

With Page as the pair's original Eva Peron, who went on to win the Olivier Award for her role, she prefers to stay that way. In 1996, pop legend Madonna donned a blonde wig and took her turn on the Casa Rosada in the film adaptation of the musical.

"The last thing I felt like doing on my day off was going to a cinema to watch Madonna in a part I'd originated," Page says. "From what I saw, she did a good job. She certainly died well."

Click here for the pair's full pieces in The Guardian.

Photo Credit: Jennifer Broski