Grandage, Ashford, Oram Sign on to London Evita Revival

By: Aug. 17, 2005
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The major creative team has now been assembled for the upcoming London revival of Evita, which is set to open next spring.

While casting for the show has not yet been announced (London auditions are currently being held), Michael Grandage will direct, Rob Ashford will choreograph and Christopher Oram will be the main designer for the rock opera. The three artists are currently represented on the West End by their acclaimed, Donmar Warehouse production of Guys and Dolls; the show has been lauded as being somewhat harder-edged than other stagings have been. Evita will be produced by Lloyd Webber's Very Useful Group, and not by the previously-announced Cameron Mackintosh.

Grandage, recently of Sheffield Theatres, is now the artistic director of the Donmar; his productions of Schiller's Don Carlos and Williams' Suddenly Last Summer recently transferred to commercial runs. Oram frequently collaborates with Grandage, and has done so on such pieces as Passion Play, Merrily We Roll Along and The Jew of Malta (at the Almeida). Ashford received a 2002 Tony for choreographing Thoroughly Modern Millie. He recently created the dances for Princesses and Doctor Doolittle, and has his hands full (and his feet busy) with upcoming productions of Cry-Baby and Ever After.

Evita, which began life as a 1975 concept album, takes a cynical but multifaceted view of Eva Peron's rise to power as the first lady of Argentina. With music by Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Rice, the show opened at London's Prince Edward Theatre in 1978 with Elaine Paige as Eva and David Essex as Che. In New York, it ran 1,567 performances at the Broadway Theatre, and won the 1980 Tony Award for Best Musical, as well as six others. The show starred Patti LuPone, Mandy Patinkin (both of whom won Tonys) and Bob Gunton; Harold Prince also won a Tony for his direction. A 1996 film version of Evita starred Madonna.



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