Evita/Trivia

• Dawson Casting: Unavoidable, unless the production opts for Playing Gertrude instead. In Eva's first appearance, she is 15 years old; she ages 18 years over the course of the show, dying at age 33.
• Dyeing for Your Art: In a special about Madonna, while talking about her role in the movie, Madonna's two backup singers (who had toured with her for years and probably knew her voice almost as well as she did) mentioned that the songs for the movie were quite a bit outside Madonna's normal range and to stretch her voice as far as she did to sing in the movie was a minor miracle.
• Follow the Leader: Evita was followed by a slew of European sung-through musical biopics about glamorous political women (Elisabeth of Austria, Marie Antoinette, Catherine the Great, and the ilk) narrated by a sarcastic male character.
• Hey, It's That Guy!:
  • Inigo Montoya is Che on the Original Broadway Cast album.
  • Bob Gunton, Juan Peron in the original Broadway cast, is Warden Norton.
  • Jonathan Pryce (the movie's Juan Peron) may be known, depending on your generation, as either The Engineer, Gabe, or Governor Swann.
• Hide Your Pregnancy: About midway through the film production, Madonna discovered that she was pregnant with her first child. The film directors went to great lengths to cover up the possibility of her "Eva Peron" getting pregnant, even if it meant removing some scenes of her being carried out of the church for fear she might slip.
• Star-Making Role: The role of Eva is perhaps one of the greatest examples of modern musical theater. The original productions launched the careers of Elaine Paige and Patti LuPone, two of the most respected musical actresses of their generation; "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" remains a Signature Song for both of them to this day. The movie version was perhaps Madonna's best reviewed acting performance, and the 2006 revival introduced Elena Roger to the English-speaking world.