Evita - Eva's 6 Show Week

[ChgoTheatreGuy]

I remember when "Wicked" opened in Chicago in 2005, there were plenty of benefits/fundraisers that the cast of the show participated in.  There were fundraisers for World Aids Day and Hurricane Katrina, where the whole orchestra level was sold for charity.  I bought a ticket with the hopes of meeting her to tell her how much I loved her performance.  Both she and Annaleigh Ashford were no-shows at both events.  I got to meet Terry Leung (Boq), who was very kind and polite and an incredibly rude Kristoffer Cusick (Fiyero), who was probably just there looking for a trick that night.  Gasteyer later said that playing the role required her to have 100% vocal rest.  I am very sorry that I never got to meet her, but I tried to see her as many times as I could.

[StephieElise]

They just announced this week that for the upcoming Sydney production starring Tina Arena that Jemma Rix will be playing Eva for one show a week. Interestingly, Jemma was the original Elphaba standby for the Australian production of Wicked. She eventually ended up taking over the role full time after Amanda Harrison suffered from terrible vocal troubles (that plus pregancies and cast departures meant they even had to fly in Carmen Cusack and Jennifer Di Noia at points). Jemma ended up being an absolute rock as Elphaba and was able to sustain it for years through the Australian Tour, Asia Tour and Australian Revival, doing over 1,000 performances.

Personally I felt that her vocals never had quite the same ferocity as many other Elphabas (I much preferred her as Molly in Ghost), but she was able to sustain it so good on her.