EXCLUSIVE: Ariana DeBose sure had some exciting news to share last night. “Fingers crossed,” come this summer she will star in the Jamie Lloyd-directed revival of the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Evita at the iconic London Palladium, she told me exclusively.
The Oscar-winning star confirmed whispers I’d been hearing on the grapevine, although she cautioned that she has to clear it first with producers and partners of other projects that she’s working on.
“We’re 70% there,” DeBose told me as we chatted at the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group party at Lavo, on Sunset Boulevard.
Universal was celebrating the cinematic and box-office achievement win for the musical Wicked and Peter Straughan’s best screenplay win for Edward Berger’s Focus Features movie Conclave. There was no getting away from the fact that Universal’s The Wild Robot, one of the year’s most enchanting films, had hoped to pick up the trophy for Best Animated Film but it lost out to indie darling Flow. Then there is… well, we could go on forever. There are 310 Golden Globes voters — I’m one of them — and clearly we each have our own views about what we believe is the best this awards season.
DeBose will play Eva Peron in Evita and the show’s signature number is Don’t Cry For Me Argentina, so let’s not shed too many tears for those that didn’t take home hardware at the Golden Globes on Sunday night.
Evita will play a twelve-week limited season at the Palladium from June 14 through September 6.
Lloyd and DeBose began their conversation after the director’s version of Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard starring Nicole Scherzinger ran in London and then Broadway where it’s still playing.
Harold Prince staged the original 1978 production at the Prince Edward Theatre in London, produced by Robert Stigwood in association with the canny David Land. It was a stunningly massive hit for all concerned and launched Elaine Paige as West End royalty. I watched from the upper circle — yes, the cheap seats — although later I got to see it from the stalls.
DeBose believes, as I know Lloyd does, that “if you’re going to do a revival of a property that is well known and well loved, it’s paramount to have a new vision, a new way in for today’s audiences.”
She added that directors like Lloyd are “willing to go out on a limb to remount these beloved productions,” adding, “It feels very risky but if you’re willing to go there,” it can be worthwhile.
Also, DeBose, observed, Evita asks a lot of questions about women in politics, as we just saw that here in the United States in the presidential election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. “We’re seeing it playing out around the world as well, both in good ways and in ways that could prove to be quite negative.”
She added, “A lot is said about women from the male gaze. We should ask ourselves what expectations do we hold them to and what fables, tales and truths do we tell ourselves about who we believe them to be, and who are they actually?”
“There’s so much mystery around ‘woman’. Women are revered and feared for a reason — because they’re powerful and it doesn’t matter what circumstances you put them in. It’s fabulous to be a woman, but it doesn’t mean it’s easy.”
Smiling as she reflected on the upcoming role, DeBose said her “fingers are crossed,” and hoped that everything “will fall into place for me to be in London this summer.”
Serendipitously, after my conversation with DeBose, I ran into Wicked’s director Jon M. Chu, who just happens to be considering a big screen version of Lloyd Webber and Rice’s early work, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. New songs are being written and the title character is being fleshed out, as it were.
Chu wagged his finger at me and stressed that any Joseph movie is a long way off.
In any case, he and Kristin Hodge, his graphic designer wife, wanted to enjoy a night out. And no, he would not reveal anything more about Wicked: For Good, which is due out in November. No, no, nothing to reveal about whether Dorothy will make an appearance. No, he will not tell me who plays Dorothy.
I like that growing up, both of us had a thing for the golden age musical Yankee Doodle Dandy, where James Cagney portrayed showman George M. Cohan. That’s where Chu got the M in Jon M. Chu, which made me wonder if I missed a trick not putting an M into my name. Baz M. Bamigboye. Nah, that would be excessive.
More from the party scene
Conclave director Edward Berger and I discussed the state of the world, as you do, and he noted that after his film premiered in Germany and then France, both countries were thrown into political turmoil. The movie also premiered in the U.S. five days ahead of the presidential election. “We all know what happened then,” he said.
We both laughed, but maybe there’s something about a group of men in their ceremonial vestments holding an election for a new pope that isn’t as clean as one might have perceived, leaving “something in the air,” Berger wondered.
Somehow, the conversation turned to our tuxedo shirts. We both boasted intricately tailored bibbed fronts, mine from Budd in London’s Piccadilly, his from Battistoni in Rome. “A treat after shooting Conclave there,” he explained.
He then showed me the tiny label on his bow tie. It was from Budd, and it was a sign that I should change the subject!
Berger has already shot his next film, The Ballad of a Small Player — Conclave writer Peter Straughan had a hand in the screenplay, which stars Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton. Late into the night, I saw Swinton at the Netflix party over at Spago, having a long and involved conversation with Ted Sarandos. She was making herself heard, that much was clear.
It was also lovely to see Emilia Perez actor Karla Sofia Gascón and she was obviously deeply moved by the film’s success at the Golden Globes. I was too.
It’s very difficult to express a fondness for an actor’s work to the thespian in question if you’ve never met them before and they have no clue who the heck you are. I asked a friend at Netflix to introduce me to Adam Brody because I’m a massive fan of the romantic comedy Nobody Wants This in which he stars with Kristen Bell. Would have been better if Bell had been there too, but I’m more than well aware how difficult it is to produce a good, heartfelt room-com, and I wanted to express my gratitude.
It has been an age since I have laughed out loud at a TV rom-com. I wonder if it’s because Bell and Brody play older would-be lovers and not the usual 12 year-olds? My wife and I will debate the matter when we watch it again.
And what were Baby Reindeer’s Jessica Gunning and Kate Beckinsale chatting about? I could have asked, I guess, but sometimes it’s more interesting to just stand there and observe.
And great to bump into Anthony Mackie. I remember the night when he, an up-and-coming actor just out of Juilliard, and I got into a deep discussion about how Shakespeare has influenced so much of our culture. We were both overly refreshed that night and talking bollocks, really, but it was super fun.
Mackie’s a huge star now. His Captain America: Brave New World, also starring Harrison Ford, has been through the wringer in post-production — there was a month of extensive reshoots — but I hear it has emerged in a good state.
Also fun was catching up with the cast of director Tim Fehlbaum’s excellent September 5 film. I wrote about it as it was playing in Venice and Telluride and it has stayed with me ever since. Ben Chaplin, who plays the ABC Sports operations manager at the Munich Olympics, heads to London in a few weeks to work alongside Julia Roberts and Eddie Redmayne in Sam Esmail’s thriller Panic Carefully.
Chaplin’s fellow September 5 star, the marvellous John Magaro, will be filming the second season of The Agency, while their cast mate Leonie Benesch, who I first met during last year’s award season when Ilker Çatak’s The Teacher’s Lounge did so well, is headed to make a movie in Wales. More she would not reveal.
It was also good to see no-nonsense Kate Winslet, double nominated for Lee and The Regime. We have some catching up to do back in London.
There are a couple of other things I need to get off my chest. The Golden Globes gala last Friday honoring Viola Davis with the Cecil B. DeMille Award and Ted Danson with the Carol Burnett Award was a sublime occasion where both artists were lauded in style. Meryl Streep feted Davis, and Mary Steenburgen did likewise to Danson, her husband.
There are videos from the event on Deadline’s social media site on X. It was highly insulting to Davis and Danson that the “evening of excellence” as it was described, was treated as an afterthought on Sunday’s main show. The footage shot Friday needs to be edited and shown widely.
I was trying to work out why there was so little spark — aside from when Demi Moore won — in the room Sunday night. Could it have been something to do with several tables, where seats were going for a reported $10,000 a pop, filled with people who had little to do with the entertainment industry, and precious little to do with the shows and films in the running?
I could tell that many couldn’t care less. They certainly hadn’t seen The Brutalist and Nickel Boys.
Not a good look, Golden Globes organizers.
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