Will the West End's Evita Travel Across the Pond?

Is the West End revival of Evita heading to Broadway? According to The New York Post, producers are currently looking for a New York venue to house the revival for a fall 2007 bow.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Evita is based on the life and times of Eva Peron, the second wife of Argentine dictator Juan Peron. It chronicles her life as Argentina's most complex and powerful figure, against a backdrop of political unrest, until her death from cancer in 1952. Evita features many classic songs including "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," "Buenos Aires" and "Another Suitcase in Another Hall." This new staging features the Oscar-winning "You Must Love Me," written for the 1996 film adaptation starring Madonna and Antonio Banderas.

Starring Elaine Paige, the original London production of Evita opened at the Prince Edward Theatre in 1978 with the highest box office advance in West End history, running for seven consecutive years. The Broadway production opened in 1979 at the Broadway Theatre, where it launched the career of Patti LuPone and ran for 1567 performances. It has never been revived on the Great White Way.

The current London staging, directed by Michael Grandage, features Elena Roger as Eva Peron, Philip Quast as Juan Peron and Matt Rawle as Che. It opened to mostly positive reviews at the West End's Adelphi Theatre on June 21. In his Theatre.com Review of the production, Matt Wolf wrote: "Grandage has discarded Prince's famously spare, neo-Brechtian approach in favour of something grander and far more self-consciously monumental: a song-and-dance icon fully aware of its formidable status… The design hints at what the production goes on to bear out: this Evita pays full obeisance to the operatic aspirations of Lloyd Webber and Rice's rock opera, and if the result bypasses much of the wit—and bitter humour—that first time round sold the sizzle, at least on Broadway, Grandage and co. ensure that on their own terms attention must be paid... Make no doubt about it: Argentine performer Elena Roger is a star, and her Eva Peron brought the crowd to its feet with an enthusiasm extending well beyond opening night protocol."

Producers would surely want to bring Roger, who received raves, across the pond, but, because she is not an American citizen, her casting would need to be approved by Actors' Equity.