Elena Roger

Elena Silvia Roger (born October 27, 1974, Buenos Aires, Argentina) is an Argentine actress who won the 2009 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her portrayal of Édith Piaf in Piaf. She has also appeared in the West End in Evita, Boeing-Boeing, and Passion. Argentine career Prior to being cast as Eva Perón in the West End revival of Evita, Roger was already a performer in her native Buenos Aires. In 1997, she was nominated for the Trinidad Guevara Award as Best Breakthrough Female for her work in Yo Que Tu Me Enamoraba. She went on to appear in several productions including Nine, Houdini, Beauty and the Beast, and Fiddler on the Roof, as well as starring in Les Misérables as Fantine, and Saturday Night Fever as Annette. For the 2002/2003 season, she was nominated for an ACE Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role in Jazz, Swing, Tap. The following season, she starred in the show, Mina...che cosa sei?, which she co-authored with the show's director, Valeria Ambrosio. Roger won the ACE Award for Best Actress in a Musical for this performance. She has also appeared on several Argentine television programs, including Hombres de Honor, Pensionados, and El sodero de mi vida. Internationally, she briefly toured Europe with Tango por Dos. West End career While doing research in Buenos Aires for the 2006 West End revival of Evita, an employee of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group saw Roger perform and suggested her for the title role of the show. After several rounds of auditions, Roger was cast as Eva Perón and performed the role to critical acclaim. The Times of London called Roger a "revelation" in the title role of Evita. The Daily Telegraph's praise of Roger's "star performance" was echoed by most other newspapers, including the Evening Standard, which reported that Roger's performance was "ripe for superlatives", and the Sunday Express, which noted her "transfixing presence with more than just a touch of the star quality that she proudly sings of possessing". The Guardian added that Roger "captures all of Eva's iron-willed determination". American reviewers also praised Roger's turn. The Hollywood Reporter opined that Roger "knocks the Argentine socks off the title role" and Variety declared Roger "a triple-threat dynamo".