ELENA ROGER in Passion

Argentinean actress continues to forge acclaimed career

By the time 2012 is out, Elena Roger is going to be considerably more famous than she is now.

That’s because Michael Grandage’s 2006 production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Evita is to be revived on Broadway in Spring 2012 starring Roger as Eva Peron, and joined by Latino superstar Ricky Martin as Che.

The Argentinean actress won an Olivier award for her role in the show – and if the reaction to her London performance in that role is anything to go by, America is going to fall in love with her.

She followed Evita in London with a 2009 Olivier Award win for her performance as Edith Piaf  in the Jamie Lloyd directed Piaf at the Donmar Warehouse and in the West End.

And she is about to return to the Donmar to star in a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Passion alongside Scarlett Strallen and David Thaxton, again directed by Jamie Lloyd.

The show is part of the Donmar’s celebration of Stephen Sondheim’s 80th birthday, that will also include concert performances of Merrily We Roll Along and Company at the Queen’s Theatre, featuring members of the original Donmar productions including Anna Francolini, Adrian Lester, Clive Rowe, Michael Simkins and Sophie Thompson in Company and Daniel Evans, Julian Ovenden and Samantha Spiro in Merrily We Roll Along.

Elena Roger’s other credits include Matthew Warchus’s Boeing Boeing, and in her native Buenos Aires she played Nine, Beauty and the Beast, Les Misérables, Saturday Night Fever and Mina, che cosa sei, with director Valeria Ambrosio.

Links:

News: West End Evita to transfer to Broadway

Donmar Warehouse

More Sondheim for Menier

The award winning Menier Chocolate Factory in South London intends to produce two new Stephen Sondheim productions in the next two years, including the UK premiere of Road Show.

The news comes following their success at this year’s Tony awards, where the theatre’s revivals of Jerry Herman’s La Cage Aux Folles and Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music picked up a number of awards, including Best Revival of a Musical for La Cage.

Artistic director of the Menier, David Babani, has told Playbill that he has further Sondheim in his sights, and plans to produce Sondheim’s 2008 show Road Show, originally debuted as Bounce, in 2011 and the following year a production of Merrily We Roll Along, helmed by Maria Friedman. She has already developed an abridged version of the show that she performed in two Sondheim birthday concerts this year at the Cadogan Hall in London and Derngate Theatre in Northampton. Friedman appeared in the original UK production of the show.

Road Show is small-scale musical about the eccentric Mizner brothers and their adventures across America, and has a book by John Weidman. Merrily We Roll Along is about three friends whose story is told backwards, and has a book by George Furth.

The Menier, and Babani in particular, have a strong association with Sondheim, with their stagings of Sunday in the Park With George and A Little Night Music both transferring  into the West End and on to Broadway. Babani cut his theatrical teeth on Sondheim, producing in 1997, at the age of 19, a successful revival of Assassins at the New End Theatre in Hampstead which toured the UK .

This year marks Sondheim’s 80th year and the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and lyricist’s work and career has been celebrated in a number of shows and events staged around the world. A new production of his 1994 musical Passion will premiere at the Donmar Warehouse this summer, starring Elena Roger, Assassins will get a short run at the Union Theatre in Southwark from 30 June to 24 July, and Into The Woods is playing at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park starring Hannah Waddingham from 5 August.

OLIVIER AWARDS – Best Actress Winners

OLIVIER AWARDS – BEST ACTRESS WINNERS

Best Actress

2012 Ruth Wilson for Anna Christie
2011 Nancy Carroll for After the Dance
2010 Rachel Weisz for A Streetcar Named Desire
2009 Margaret Tyzack for The Chalk Garden
2008 Kristin Scott Thomas for Chekhov’s The Seagull
2007 Tamsin Greig for Much Ado About Nothing
2006 Eve Best for Hedda Gabler
2005 Clare Higgins for Hecuba
2004 Eileen Atkins for Honour
2003 Clare Higgins for Vincent In Brixton
2002 Lindsay Duncan for Private Lives
2001 Julie Walters for All My Sons
2000 Janie Dee for Comic Potential
1999 Eileen Atkins for The Unexpected Man
1998 Zoë Wanamaker for Electra
1997 Janet McTeer for A Doll’s House
1996 Judi Dench for Absolute Hell
1995 Clare Higgins for Sweet Bird Of Youth
1994 Fiona Shaw for Machinal
1993 Alison Steadman for The Rise And Fall Of Little Voice
1992 Juliet Stevenson for Death And The Maiden
1991 Kathryn Hunter for The Visit
1989/90 Fiona Shaw for Electra, As You Like It and The Good Person Of Sichuan
1987 Judi Dench for Antony and Cleopatra
1986 Lindsay Duncan for Les Liaisons Dangereuses
1985 Yvonne Bryceland for The Road To Mecca

Actress of the Year in a New Play

1988 Pauline Collins for Shirley Valentine
1984 Thuli Dumakude for Poppie Nongena
1983 Judi Dench for Pack Of Lies
1982 Rosemary Leach for 84 Charing Cross Road
1981 Elizabeth Quinn for Children Of A Lesser God
1980 Frances de la Tour for Duet For One
1979 Jane Lapotaire for Piaf
1978 Joan Plowright for Filumena
1977 Alison Fiske for Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi
1976 Peggy Ashcroft for Old World

Actress of the Year in a Revival

1988 Harriet Walter for Twelfth Night and The Three Sisters
1984 Vanessa Redgrave for The Aspern Papers
1983 Frances de la Tour for A Moon For The Misbegotten
1982 Cheryl Campbell for A Doll’s House
1981 Margaret Tyzack for Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?
1980 Judi Dench for Juno And The Paycock
1979 Zoë Wanamaker for Once In A Lifetime
1978 Dorothy Tutin for The Double Dealer
1977 Judi Dench for Macbeth
1976 Dorothy Tutin for A Month In The Country

Best Actress in a Musical

2012 The Matildas for Matilda The Musical (Sophia Kiely, Kerry Ingram, Cleo Demetriou and Eleanor Worthington Cox)
2011 Sheridan Smith for Legally Blonde – The Musical
2010 Samantha Spiro for Hello Dolly!
2009 Elena Roger for Piaf
2008 Leanne Jones for Hairspray
2007 Jenna Russell for Sunday In The Park With George
2006 Jane Krakowski for Guys And Dolls
2005 Laura Michelle Kelly for Mary Poppins
2004 Maria Friedman for Ragtime at the Piccadilly
2003 Joanna Riding for My Fair Lady
2002 Martine McCutcheon for My Fair Lady
2001 Samantha Spiro for Merrily We Roll Along
2000 Barbara Dickson for Spend Spend Spend
1999 Sophie Thompson for Into The Woods
1998 Ute Lemper for Chicago
1997 Maria Friedman for Passion
1996 Judi Dench for A Little Night Music
1995 Ruthie Henshall for She Loves Me
1994 Julia McKenzie for Sweeney Todd
1993 Joanna Riding for Carousel
1992 Wilhelmenia Fernandez for Carmen Jones
1991 Imelda Staunton for Into The Woods
1989/90 Lea Salonga for Miss Saigon
1988 Patricia Routledge for Candide
1987 Nichola McAuliffe for Kiss Me Kate
1986 Lesley Mackie for Judy
1985 Patti LuPone for Les Misérables and The Cradle Will Rock
1984 Natalia Makarova for On Your Toes
1983 Barbara Dickson for Blood Brothers
1982 Julia McKenzie for Guys And Dolls
1981 Carlin Glynn for The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas
1980 Gemma Craven for They’re Playing Our Song
1979 Virginia McKenna for The King And I

West End Evita to transfer to Broadway

Ricky Martin and Elena Roger to star in EVITA on Broadway

The 2006 London production of Evita directed by Michael Grandage is to be revived on Broadway, opening at a Nederlander Theatre in Spring 2012.

The show will feature the London production’s star Elena Roger as Eva Peron, joined by Latino superstar Ricky Martin as Che.

The Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical will be produced by Hal Luftig and Scott Sanders.

Grandage, who directed the acclaimed 2006 London production of the show at the Adelphi Theatre, will be joined again by Tony Award winning choreographer Rob Ashford for the new production. It will be the first Broadway production of the Tony Award-winning show since its 1979 debut.

Ricky Martin said in a statement that, “I’m looking forward to playing such an essential part in Michael Grandage’s wonderful production and the chance to work with the tremendously talented Elena Roger.”

Michael Grandage said: “It is very exciting to bring this new production of Evita to Broadway with an Argentinean woman in the title role for the very first time”.

The Argentinian actress Elena Roger won an Olivier award for her role in the show. Most recently Roger won the 2009 Olivier Award for Best Actress for her performance as Edith Piaf  in the Jamie Lloyd directed Piaf at the Donmar Warehouse and in the West End. She is about to return to the Donmar to star in a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Passion at the Donmar Warehouse alongside Scarlett Strallen and David Thaxton, again directed by Jamie Lloyd. The Donmar is about to launch a new West End season at the Trafalgar Studios showcasing the talents of the Donmar’s Resident Assistant Directors scheme. The plays are Lower Ninth, Novecento and Les Parents Terribles.

Ricky Martin is no stranger to Broadway having played Marius in the original production of Les Misérables – a role about to be taken by pop star Nick Jonas in the London production of Les Miserables at the Queen’s Theatre and at a Les Miserables 25th anniversary concert at the O2 in October. Martin has sold over 55 million albums during his two-decade solo career and is expected to undertake a worldwide tour throughout 2011 before making his Broadway return in Evita.

TONY AWARDS

The Tony Awards will be presented this Sunday 13 June 2010 at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Hosted by Sean Hayes, the annual Broadway event will feature performances from shows including American Idiot, Fela!, Memphis, Million Dollar Quartet, La Cage aux Folles, A Little Night Music and Ragtime. Star presenters will include Katie Holmes, Will & Jada Pinkett Smith, Angela Lansbury, Mark Sanchez, Daniel Radcliffe, Barbara Cook, Stanley Tucci, Idina Menzel and Laura Bell Bundy!

Other appearances will include Glee’s Lea Michele and Matthew Morrison, Paula Abdul, Antonio Banderas, Cate Blanchett, Kristin Chenoweth, Michael Douglas, Scarlett Johansson, Lucy Liu, Helen Mirren, Chris Noth, Bernadette Peters, Raquel Welch and David Hyde Pierce, who will appear in La Bete at the Comedy Theatre in London next month.

www.tonyawards.com

CASTING: Open Air’s Into The Woods

West End star Hannah Waddingham, who enjoyed success in Trevor Nunn’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, will return to Sondheim this summer in Into The Woods.

Part of this year’s Open Air Theatre season in Regent’s Park, the show helps celebrate Stephen Sondheim’s 80th year which also sees a revival of Passion at the Donmar Warehouse starring Elena Roger and a special South Bank Show Revisited on ITV1 in April.

Directed by Timothy Sheader, Hannah Waddingham plays the central role of the Witch, alongside Olivier award winner Jenna Russell (Sunday in the Park with George) as the Baker’s wife in the show that adds a dark twist to famous fairytales such as Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel.

The Menier Chocolate Factory production of Sondheim’s A Little Night Music continues to pack them in on Broadway starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Elena Roger (Evita, Piaf), Scarlett Strallen (Mary Poppins) and David Thaxton (Les Miserables) will star in Passion at the Donmar Warehouse from 10 September.

Into the Woods will run from 5 August until 11 September at the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park.

Piaf Review

I was really looking forward to seeing this sold-out show – and for the most part I wasn’t disappointed. But I didn’t leave the Donmar feeling as elated as I thought I would.

It’s no fault of this production that it has to follow the superb film La Vie En Rose, which kind of renders Pam Gems’ play slightly redundant. And Elena Roger has the physical presence (her slight build perfect for Piaf) and awe-inspiring voice to carry it off. But it was often hard to understand her heavy Argentinean accent, and this, combined with nearly 50% of the show consisting of Piaf’s wonderful songs sung in French, leaves a slim percentage of the production in English.

I know I risk sounding like a luddite for voicing my opinion about the songs being sung in French, but another joy of the film was being able to appreciate the subtitled lyrics.

Overall I love Elena – and long may she remain in London to take on equally challenging parts – but Gems’ patchy play, and a slightly muddled production, left me a little disappointed.

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