Evita vs Bombshell

[nativenewyorker2]

Posted: 5/20/20 at 7:03pm

I never understood why people thought if Bombshell became a musical there would have to be two Marilyns per performance. Eva Peron is an equally demanding role and only one actress plays her per performance.

[gypsy101]

Posted: 5/20/20 at 8:37pm

my problem with it becoming a stage musical is the fact that at least on the show smash there were 3 act-2 opening numbers and barely anything for anyone to sing other than Marilyn

[Jarethan]

Posted: 5/21/20 at 12:44am

The actress playing Evita has generally only  played 6 performances, which helps.  Too theoretical a question, however, since we have only seen snippets of Bombshell (and as Gypsy101 pointed out, some of the scenes we saw were not going to even make it to the real production).

[akhoya87]

Posted: 5/28/20 at 12:04am

nativenewyorker2 said: "I never understood why people thought if Bombshell became a musical there would have to be two Marilyns per performance. Eva Peron is an equally demanding role and only one actress plays her per performance."

Totally understand the big-picture point here, but the recent New York City Center production of Evita had two Evitas (Solea Pfeiffer, who was an absolute star, and Maia Reficco as the younger Eva), and I thought it worked quite well.  But yes, Eva is an incredibly demanding role.

[bjh2114]

Posted: 5/28/20 at 12:56am

Of the 22 songs on the Bombshell recording, 12 of them have Marilyn as the only singer or the continuous soloist in front of an ensemble/dance number, and 4 of them involve involve her in a duet. That's 16 numbers, most of which are heavy belting, high energy with lots of dancing, or both.

Eva is also listed as being in 16 numbers, but most of them are group numbers or duets. She effectively only has 4 real solo numbers, all of which are very demanding. Eva is a SUPER difficult role. Marilyn, as written, is quite literally an impossible role to do 8 times a week, and I'd argue even 6. I actually think the closest thing to Marilyn is Fanny Brice, who is in almost every single number in Funny Girl. I also think that's one of the reasons we haven't had a notable revival of Funny Girl anywhere on this side of the pond in forever.