The now out-of-the-closet, Ricky Martin, has been announced to play Che Guevara in the upcoming Broadway revival of EVITA, and he should be smashing in the role, possessed as he is of the right kind of charisma, musicality, good looks – and, yes, Ramin Setoodeh, who wrote in NEWSWEEK that gay actors can’t play straight – machismo and cojones for the role.
Elela Roger: Polly wanna cracker and play Evita, as well!
I only wish it was a different actress cast in the title role, for I saw Elena Roger in the London production a few years ago, and, while she was a dynamic dancer and capable actress, she has a piccolo voice sans any real, highly necessary belt, and is facially unprepossessing in an ornithological way.
EVITA’s producers, to me, are insane if they don’t consider Karen Olivo, who won the Tony for the recent WEST SIDE STORY, in which she pretty much matched Chita Rivera’s legendary original interpretation. From the first time I saw her onstage, hair-tossing, hips a-swivel, and endless legs slicing through the air in IN THE HEIGHTS, she had the eye-riveting sexiness of a real star. Hey, all you ALLTHATChatterers and BROADWAY.COMers, why not start a facebook campaign to get Olivo to play the Dior’ed, power-mad Blonde One?
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