Maybe Ariana DeBose won’t be crying for Argentina after all.
News reports are coming in that Oscar-winner Ariana DeBose (West Side Story), who was tipped to be starring as Eva Peron in Jamie Lloyd’s production of Evita at the London Palladium this summer, has dropped out of the race.
Variety is reporting that scheduling conflicts have meant that the BAFTA, Oscar and Golden Globe-winning actor has had to bow out of talks with Jamie Lloyd and producer Michael Harrison to star in the show.
DeBose’s other current commitments include filming new Amazon Prime series shooting Scarpetta, alongside Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Ariana DeBose would have been a perfect choice given that there’s every expectation that the show will transfer to Ariana’s home turf of Broadway once it has completed its London run.
There have been rumours circulating for months that DeBose was in discussions to star in the show, including Deadline’s Baz Bamigboye confirming earlier this month in Deadline that Ariana was in talks to star in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s epic musical.
The show will play the London Palladium from 14 June to 6 September 2025.
At the time, work commitments and clearing the gig with other producers was the stumbling block, and clearly that has proved insurmountable.
Ariana DeBose told Baz back in January that, “if you’re going to do a revival of a property that is well known and well loved, it’s paramount to have a new vision, a new way in for today’s audiences”, and that directors such as Jamie Lloyd are ready to “go out on a limb to remount these beloved productions”.
The rags to riches story of Argentina’s first lady Eva Peron features musical numbers including “You Must Love Me”, “Another Suitcase in Another Hall”, “Oh! What A Circus”, and showstopper “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina”.
The show will be produced by Michael Harrison for Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals and The Jamie Lloyd Company with The Really Useful Group.
Ariana DeBose’s other stage work includes Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award, Hamilton off and on Broadway, and Motown: The Musical and Pippin on Broadway. She has also hosted Broadway’s Tony Awards for three years in a row, although won’t be on hosting duties for this year’s awards.
Jamie Lloyd (Sunset Boulevard, A Doll’s House, The Tempest) originally directed Evita at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre as part of their 2019 season. The Palladium production is billed as “reimagined by the visionary award-winning director Jamie Lloyd.”
Speaking recently on What’s On Stage’s podcast, Jamie Lloyd confirmed that the London Palladium production will be an “evolution” from his Regent’s Park production: “It’s an evolution of that production that we worked on in 2019. There’ll be a lot of new elements. Some ideas will be similar, but we’re all different people. Fabian Aloise, choreographer, Alan Williams, musical supervisor, Soutra Gilmour designer and I are all different, and we’ve all been through the experience of making Sunset Boulevard. So I think it’ll be interesting to come at that work afresh.”
The Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production starred Samantha Pauly as Eva Peron, and had planned to transfer to the Barbican in June 2020 although was derailed because of Covid.
The production was first revealed back in October, in an interview with Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Jamie Lloyd’s current production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard starring Nicole Scherzinger has proved hugely successful, both last year in the West End at the Savoy Theatre, and currently on Broadway at the St James Theatre, where the show opened last month to mostly rave reviews.
Jamie Lloyd’s production of The Tempest starring Sigourney Weaver is about to finish up at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 1 February 2025, followed by Much Ado About Nothing starring Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell.
Evita is playing at the London Palladium from 14 June to 6 September 2025.
More about tickets to EVITA at the London Palladium
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