As little kids we saw this commercial on WPIX about two hundred times an hour. Actually loved seeing it. We always had fun imitating the line, "Not much to ASK for." And the commercial for the Broadway show "Sarava" with those dancing letters was equally as amusing to us kids as this "Evita" ad was.

@xxxvse

7 жыл бұрын

I remember well annoying the crap out of everybody singing this since like you said it was played constantly.

@kamlawilliams6549

4 жыл бұрын

Me tooooooo!!!!

@martinsorenson1055

4 жыл бұрын

This is hilarious..... we did the same thing. And just watching it now, it made me laugh seeing Patinkin oversell that "ASK FOR!"

@willdrucker4291

4 жыл бұрын

Ehhh this version cut out one of my favorite lines....”I kept my promise...you keep your distance....I KEPT MY PROMISSSEE”

@jerryd8022

3 жыл бұрын

Patinkin actually didn't sing it that way in the show or the soundtrack. The line is sung at Eva's funeral in the beginning. That was purely done for the commercial.

One of the best commercials of my childhood.

@monacaravetta

Жыл бұрын

omg me too!

We need to start a WPIX fan club - all these great comments are giving me the feels 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

BEGGED my parents to take me to see this!! This commercial would run all the time but it was for downstate at the time. Had to wait a long while for the off Broadway show to come to the historic Proctor’s Theater in Schenectady N.Y. I was over the moon when my Dad announced he was taking me!! That was a lot for a struggling family back then and he got two tickets for him and I while my mother stayed home with my siblings because no way could he have afforded to take us all. I begged for over a year to go. It was a big deal to be able to. It was my first ever show and I was 11. Thanks Mom and Dad for that!! ♥️

This is what made me fall in love with Patti LuPone.

I remember this ad for Evita, I grew up in a socially & politically smart family, but I was young when this aired ON WPIX but I always had a sense this was about something strong and powerful....

That commercial brings back memories!

This took me straight to my childhood… parents, please expose your children to the arts… I was a kid and this commercial stopped me in my tracks when it came tv ….and I’ve been a performing artist for 35 years and counting.

I too remember this. So inspiring Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin.

@NoPawn

3 ай бұрын

Oh wow. Never put two and two together before!

From around 1980-81 this commercial was on our local stations non-stop-around the clock, in Northern New Jersey-New York City.

I remember this ad (or at least, a version of it), from when I was VERY young: 6 years old or less. I was born in New Jersey (moved away 1981, age 6), and I saw this ad on TV all the time. I had no idea what it was about, needless to say. It's funny now, to realize that the actor playing Che was Mandy Patinkin! "Evita Peron, you killed my father: prepare to die."

@mariamal-arda6884

9 жыл бұрын

HAHAHAHA! - I noticed the same thing (Mandy Pantinkin) - I loved your comment!!!

I used to see this commercial EVERY MORNING during the ABC Morning news while my mom was doing my hair me ready to go to Kindergarten every morning

@PungiFungi

4 жыл бұрын

You couldn’t escape this commercial.

had to stop what i was doing every time that commercial came on and watch it

I’ll never not be jealous of my dad for getting to see this version. Mandy patinkin is so amazing and patti lupone is a legend.

Once I had seen the original Broadway productions of "Company" and "Follies" directed by Harold Prince, I closely followed every theatrical production he directed afterwards. So I knew that his production of "Evita" was a smash hit when it premiered in London. I was so excited when I found out that Hal Prince's Broadway-bound production of "Evita" would first play Los Angeles before moving to New York for its Broadway premiere. I bought tickets immediately. No one else I knew had any idea what I was so excited about. Totally typical for LA which is hardly a theatre town - movies and television seem to be the only things on peoples' radar here.. My wife and I were in our 20's and were simply awed at the actors' performances and Prince's staging which transformed a concept album into a theatrical spectacle. Absolutely brilliant and unforgettable.

I remember this commercial from my childhood and didn’t realize then how much I would come to love this cast recording and both Patti and Mandy!

This commercial made me see Evita with Patti. I’ve been following Patti ever since.

I got to know this first half of this commercial when it was featured on a short Entertainment Tonight segment on Lloyd Webber. It aired in the 80s and my brother recorded it, so I discovered it in the 90s. I then finally saw the entire commercial here on KZread many years later and I'm really digging the last few seconds...that mischievous smile, the widening eyes, and Lupone's distinctly powerful "Star quali-TY!!!!" Can't get enough!!!

I remember this commercial and loved this song and it was years before I realized that the guy from criminal minds was singing in it! Lol!!!

I remember this commercial VERY well. I wish I'd seen Evita, and with that cast. I couldn't afford to see many Broadway shows.

God what I would give to see this original production. Patti, Mandy, and of course the staging by Harold Prince. MY. GOD

Thanks so much for posting this - I can remember being about 11 years old and first getting cable tv - these ads would often run on the NYC station we received. It's only now that it dawned on me that this was Patti Lupone and Mandy Patinkin. It was great to see them together hamming it up a bit this year at the Tonys.

What a throwback! Thanks for sharing :-)

I ❤this commercial! I used to watch it on TV when I was 12.😁

wow!! throw back to my childhood!!!!

I remember seeing this as a teen! It's amazing how this just fell right back into place in my brain! I was also lucky enough to see this on Broadway!

I remember watching commercials for evita AND Candace Bergen for the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena as a little boy in Bakersfield lol

OMG her eyes at the end freaked me out!

@mariamal-arda6884

9 жыл бұрын

"Star Qualit-ee"

@twentiethcenturyman

3 жыл бұрын

You need to look up Andrea Martin doing Indira on SCTV

This spot ran frequently for years; we used to crack each other up by mimicking the weird way she smiles at the end.

@k.robertrichardson6779

2 жыл бұрын

That was about the closest they could come to making Patti appear to be a pretty girl in a closeup.

@monacaravetta

Жыл бұрын

@@k.robertrichardson6779 #I thought she was HAWT!!!

this commercial ran in Chicago on a constant loop. it seemed it was always on.

I remember this as a kid.

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

"not much to ASK for!!!"

@Mary22632

2 жыл бұрын

the truth is i never left you..all through my wild days my mad existence

Living in Los Angeles I saw the same commercial and was excited when it finally played LA. Ignorant me was bummed when it wasn’t Patti and Mandy on stage the night I saw it in LA. Live and learn…

@johndillon2456

Жыл бұрын

I too saw the off-Broadway production at the Shubert Theater in LA. Wonderful, even without Patti. I then saw it again in Nuremberg Germany of all places, in the late 1980s. It is by far my favorite musical and I listen to it often.

This played in Columbus OH when I was a kid. It was so confusing and mesmerizing, we had no idea what was going on or what anything meant. But it captured our attention lying on the shag carpet in the middle of the country.

I remember seeing these promos with Patti Lupone and Mandy Patinkon.

Anyone remembers a Broadway play commercial in the 70's and a guy would sing," Give me the ball, give me the ball, give me the ball"

@opticscolossalandepicvideo4879

7 ай бұрын

I had the same question. Gimme the ball gimme the ball yeah is from chorus line and that part was played in non stop commercial. If you type gimme the ball gimme the ball yeah on you tube engine. They will show the clip. Fantastic memory

@ThaGataNegrra

3 ай бұрын

Then some lady comes singing: "Orchestra, and balcony/what they want is what you see..." Later on, I found out what that song was really about and I was shocked, LOL🐾

I always loved the commercials especially the dancing lady

My 11 year old mind kept thinking she was singing "Just a little TORTURE!".

I saw this commercial, and went to see it 4 times..

I remember the SCTV parody. 😂

Coming up next....the Yankees take on the Boston Red Sox...here on WPIX, CH 11.....🙂🙂🙂

Libretto writer James Lapine said he never even saw _Evita_ on stage, but was interested in Mandy Patinkin as Che. He thought he looked a bit like a certain pointilist painter from 19th-century France, and both he and Stephen Sondheim chose him to be a part of the OBC of _Sunday in the Park With George._

Anybody else old enough to remember this commercial remember the moment they realized the guy from Princess Bride was the "Not much to ASK for" guy?

@GeorgeSorass

10 жыл бұрын

I remember, because the guy with the big nose has been haunting my nightmares since I was a child.

@chrisbano9216

7 жыл бұрын

Same here too, I was scarred of Mandy's Che coming out from the crowd, LOL, As 7yr old child I thought Patti Lupone Evita was a singing angel with the white dress, lol

@MDKE114

6 жыл бұрын

I remember this well from years before Princess Bride was released, which I didn't see until it was shown on TV. But then, I was an adult already when Evita opened, and I was a little familiar with Mandy Patinkin's work before I saw Princess Bride. I wish I'd have seen Evita on Broadway.

This is the ad where James Lapine discovered Mandy Patinkin for Sunday in the Park with George.

The man in the beard and beret, is a very young Mandy Patinkin.

there was another line were she says "I kept my promise you keep your distance" at the end.

@gasaholic47

7 жыл бұрын

That was the one that was made when it first came out, before the Tony's...

@morganandwong

6 жыл бұрын

I cannot find that version anywhere but that is the one I remember also. This one will have to do for now I guess. I hope somebody will post that other one though. I am blown away seeing this decades later and realizing that was Mandy Patinkin.

@yvonneferguson113

6 жыл бұрын

don barlow yes that was that part I was looking for. I used to sing this all the time as a kid lol

@jerryd8022

3 жыл бұрын

DON'T keep your distance

@lazybonesfordogs1449

2 ай бұрын

m.kzread.info/dash/bejne/mZtko5V-aazXg9Y.html

They should've made a movie or at least have a live recording with this cast.

I remember this commercial very well. My mom got me out of school to go see it. Unfortunately it was a matinee and it was Patti Lupone's understudy. Still cool though.

I remember this commercial from the 1980s in Chicago

Hi Victoria, Oh my God, It really is Patti Lupone, isn't it?? Thanks for informing me, I would have never known. Catch cha back in the Ryans hope Circle.

SCTV brought me here

Hey, nice dedication.

To add to the "was Che always supposed to be Che Guevara?" debate... Lloyd Webber and Rice now say that they ALWAYS intended to have Che be an everyman (and TBH, I think it works well that way) and that it was Harold Prince's idea to explicitly make him Guevara. But there were those hints in the original concept album that the character was supposed to, if not actually be Guevara, then be based on him. So I don't know if ALW and TR are telling the truth, or if they're backpedaling now that some very nasty stories about Guevara have come to light and they don't want to be seen as glamorizing HIM as they were accused of glamorizing Eva.

@musicaltheatergeek79

9 жыл бұрын

You are correct. In the original concept album, before Prince got involved with the project, there were several hints to suggest that the character Che was supposed to be Ernesto "Che" Guevara. For one, in the original version of "The Lady's Got Potential," Che sings about an insecticide he hopes to market. This is a direct reference to Guevara's attempts to unsuccessfully market a roach killer called Vendaval as a young man before he turned revolutionary. This insecticide subplot is referenced other times in "Dangerous Jade" (the original title of "Peron's Latest Flame") and "The Actress Hasn't Learned the Lines You'd Like to Hear"). Thus, the character was supposed to be Guevara from the get-go, and he was always portrayed as such in subsequent productions. The movie was the first time that Che was ever portrayed as an Everyman, and now everyone assumes he originally was. It doesn't help that the recent London and Broadway revivals ditched the whole Che conceit and followed the movie's example.

@daintybrighton

5 жыл бұрын

Ohhhhhhh! I keep going around writing essays on KZread about this whole debate and I found more info and interested people (albeit 4 years late in this instance, lol!). Maybe I should just start a blog for my analysis of lyrics and music themes since I seem to do that a lot . . . I learned a couple things here so maybe I can leave a couple things I noticed as my contribution? :) In the original "Oh What a Circus", he says he was 17 to 24 during the first wave of Peronism covered in the musical which matches with the real Che. I'm not sure where else this fits in but something else that I noticed that had an impact on me was that the three main characters are: Peron, Eva/Evita, and Che. All mononymous. Again, it might just be me, but it kind of struck me as appropriate that they went with calling this character "Che" because it fit the whole musical. Personally, I think he was always intended to be fluid and even though I had a bit of a hard time accepting him as having a connection to the real Che because of my feelings about that person, I'm actually liking it more. I still think the writers didn't mean for him to be 100% real Che and they left enough "outs". I'm also a historian and have gotten into debates about how much historical fiction should be accurate so it could just be not wanting to force their creativity that made them make him less "real". The real Che was from a relatively well off family and was going to medical school when the events of the musical were taking place, plus his famous motorcycle travels away from what was going on in the political scene. The medical part actually really fascinates me and is another thing I wanted to add to my contribution of details. In "Waltz for Eva and Che", she tells him she's dying and what does he do? He walks away. His reactions to her health and death are very interesting for someone in the medical world. I've seen a lot of people say that he is supposed to be a representative of the people of Argentina and I can get on that to an extent, but I still have to reject that being 100% the case. "Oh What a Circus" comes up again and he is very obviously NOT feeling the same way as the people of Argentina with her death. Maybe I'm just too black and white but I can't bring myself to say he is the real Che or that he is the people of Argentina because there are enough contradictions throughout the musical. Depending on what version, he can be more one or the other, but still not 100% either. He definitely is something or someone more than a narrator, though, so what/who is he? I say he is the revolutionary spirit of South America. His ideals, methods, feelings, etc. contradict and change throughout the show. This could be that he is fickle or perhaps as he gains new occupations, he gains new personas? Let's face it: South American politics is "unique" and so many times I have to just let go trying to understand it. I used to get so frustrated with Che in the musical because nothing was ever good enough for him and he's hypocritical and inconsistent. But then I have to keep reminding myself that characters have to have flaws to make the story interesting. I'm also not a fan of the real Che, so should I be so bothered when he looks like a jerk, lol? Sorry, I wrote another essay, lol! Thanks for your thoughts and for the tidbits that I added to my mental encyclopedia to ponder :) Ahhhhh, this musical is so rich, I wish it got more attention apart from the bits and pieces that have made it into pop culture!

@kevinwilson3609

2 жыл бұрын

@@daintybrighton Person is named "Juan" several times, and Eva's 2 last names are mentioned so not sure the connection to mononymous. Tim Rice has said many times that he based Che on Guevara and the character is supposed to be him but that it was Hal Prince who wanted him to be visually and clearly Guevara - hence the costume that instantly identifies him as Guevara. He is the conscience of the people, who are too blinded by Evita to see what was really happening - hence his anger, at both the Perons and the people. That he later turned into a communist revolutionary is implied as having started from his anger at seeing the disparity between rich and poor when young and observing Eva.

@Jen-Yueh_Hu

Жыл бұрын

@@musicaltheatergeek79 Also there was a little bit in "Oh What a Circus" that suggests Che was based on Guevara, but they removed it in later versions.

OK, this is really odd. My wife and I have been watching "Death and Other Details" with Mandy Patinkin and were just talking about him today. Meanwhile...I've been listening to the "Something Rotten" soundtrack, where the song "A Musical" includes a lot of brief nods to musicals over the years, and one of them was Evita ("Stand back! ...It's a musical..."). So I went looking for this commercial to hear the "Stand back, Buenos Aires" line again (as a kid growing up in the Chicago suburbs in the 70s-80s, I must have seen it a million times). And who shows up in the commercial? Mandy Patinkin. Weird.

Pattu Lupone is the best.

The end creeped me out.

Patti couldn’t handle the low note on “star quality”

What a blast from the past? Seeing this commercial with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin before they became stars.

I used to watch that commercial and did not realize who she was.

Didn't know Leonard Rossiter was in it

I saw this commercial many times around 1980. It gave me the impression that "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" is a duet. I just recently learned it's not, 35 years later. Maybe "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" should have been done as a duet. I wonder how many people went to see the Broadway show after watching this commercial and were disappointed that the lines "Don't cry for me Argentina" and "You were supposed to have been immortal" aren't even in the same scene.

@karlmark9029

8 жыл бұрын

+Eric Jaffa The abbreviated version implied that she was being threatened by revolutionaries, she said "dont cry for me, Argentina" then he said "you were supposed to have been immortal, that's all they wanted, not much to ask for", and the she said "I kept my promise., you keep your distance, I kept my promise". - It was a tactic used to evoke visions of danger, deception, intrigue, and extreme vengeance. - in 1980 most of us did not realize the scene was not in the actual stage play, and had nothing to do with the numbers. It was a mix of different lines, from different points that was used to garner more interest among the public. - Waht a ripoff!

Ever since the film that has been the new representation of the character (Che representing the voice of Argentina), and I actually think that makes more since. But in the original production it was supposed to be Che Guevara, although I'm unsure why that decision was made considering it doesn't make sense historically.

@kevinwilson3609

2 жыл бұрын

It is historic - Che was Argentinian and he was 17 - 24 during Eva's political career.

Warden Norton can sing!

I know people love her but Patti has spent too many years listening to people tell her how great she is.

I kepd my Prombiss

Saw this commercial when I was a kid, knew nothing about Eva Peron or Patti LuPone but thought it looked interesting. We lived 40 mins from Chicago; the parentals took me & my sister to see Evita. Was deflated to see some clown was performing instead of Patti LuPone. She was the one and only Evita for me. Soundtrack is the best, hands down. Not to insult other's opinions or likes of the other performances but for me, the other performances don't measure up.

How do you spell charisma?? L-U-P-O-N-E!!!

so strange to see young Patti Lupone..

i like the sctv version with slim whitman better.

loved it but did she or did she not bug the fuck out at the end lololol

@k.robertrichardson6779

2 жыл бұрын

For Patti, that was a pretty serious effort at actually acting instead of just yelling.

@jerryd8022

2 жыл бұрын

@@k.robertrichardson6779 For Kevvie, trolling 10-year-old threads making snippy little comments to folks not likely to respond makes him feel as though he's made a valid point or 20 and had the last word.

@k.robertrichardson6779

2 жыл бұрын

@@jerryd8022 I see my observation touched a vulnerable nerve for you.

@jerryd8022

2 жыл бұрын

@@k.robertrichardson6779 whatever helps you get through your day Kevvie

@jerryd8022

2 жыл бұрын

@@thevalkyrie8 Actually Dameon, that was not what he "only" did. If you scroll a tad through the rest of the page, he attacks her looks as well as her talent and several irrelevancies. You walked into the middle of a conversation. He trolled the entire page for no reason. I trolled him cause I love to fuck with idiots.

Alot of people dodnt get the che Guevara input. Try gis was way before him. Who can explain why his image was put in?

MANDY PATKIN?!??

I heard that Patti Lupone HATED doing this role!

@loferx

7 жыл бұрын

Ok, she liked the whole thing, but it was very hard for doing the show 6/7 some days even twice, not with that high notes ( New Argentina if you now what i mean). It was exhausting for her, doing it for two yeras (or more, i don't recall).

@jerryd8022

3 жыл бұрын

@@loferx She didn't do matinees and it set the precedent for every actress who would play the role going forward. It's too vocally demanding to be sung full-out twice in a day.

@riotheriolu2825

3 жыл бұрын

Yellow diamond the clod graffe

@k.robertrichardson6779

2 жыл бұрын

​@@jerryd8022 The score could actually be sung very easily by a vocally-proficient, classically-trained mezzo soprano. Screaming the whole score in chest voice is another story; performers who call that "singing" are only making things artificially hard on themselves, and resorting to that in order to carry the performance would not be necessary for anyone who could actually act. And let's be honest, even as early as the cast recording Patti was struggling to squeeze out both extremes of the role's vocal range, even faking it with alternate notes at a few points. If ever a completely undeserved Tony Award was handed out just because the role itself was expected to be acknowledged with one, this was it.

@MadameCorgi

2 жыл бұрын

I read an interview where she said it was because Hal Prince was in the habit of demeaning his leading ladies in front of everyone

Creepy

@Mulderitssme

7 жыл бұрын

Her smile at the end.

@trhip03

7 жыл бұрын

Caponi Gatto her nose, teeth, eyes, and then smile.

@abdulrasulalah8414

6 жыл бұрын

This commercial used to scare me

It's a musical, is it supposed to make sense????

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

@Mary22632

2 жыл бұрын

EWWWWW not even close

"Seduced a country?" Hmmmm does the name Donald Trump mean anything to you?

@all4you33

7 жыл бұрын

I was thinking the same thing.

@stardate2856

7 жыл бұрын

How 'bout "DUPED a country"?!?

@loferx

7 жыл бұрын

the funny thing is that he said he like Evita very much

@bmcg678

6 жыл бұрын

chrisbacos it's funny cause Hillary and Eva Peron have a lot more in common than Donald and Eva do. Using one's gender and former social status to convince a country to funnel millions into a "foundation" while using such donations as subsequent salary for ones own lavish expenses. Playing victim whilst also eliminating all political rivals and commentators 🤔

@bmcg678

6 жыл бұрын

Eva Ovalle then again, those “polls” are taken by the same people who said Hillary had 98% chance of winning the election so I wouldn’t take them with much weight at all.

i miss those days..the 2000s suck