Prior to being cast as Eva Perón in the West End revival of Evita, Roger was already an accomplished 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 a number of 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 coauthored 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 great critical acclaim. The Times of London called Roger a "revelation" in the title role of Evita. The Daily Telegraph's praise of Roger's "socking great star performance" was echoed by most other newspapers, including the Evening Standard, which reported that Roger's "charismatic 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 "possesses the stage by right rather than default and captures all of Eva's iron-willed determination". These sentiments were echoed by The Independent:
"When this kid from the sticks hits the capital in the number 'Buenos Aires', it's as a whirlwind of witty, drop-dead determination, every electrifying high-kick and tumbling, teasing phrase in that furious samba-extravaganza announcing the character's drive, devouring appetite, and sense of arrival. 'Stand back!/You wanna know what you're gonna get in me?/Just a little touch of star quality...' For 'just a little touch', read 'avalanche'. Ms Roger has a wide, voracious mouth and a clarion voice capable of thrilling shrillness and of a pensive purity that's just on the point of curdling. She can also drop into a searing privacy that nonetheless feels partly calculated, as in her extraordinary, modulated reprise of 'Don't Cry For Me...' when as a dying woman, she recycles her greatest hit in a renunciatory, damage-limiting broadcast. Michael Grandage, one of our best directors, must have had to pinch himself to believe that Roger actually had dropped into his lap."
The Observer concurred:
"Elena Roger is brilliantly varied. She looks like a humming-bird – tiny, darting, brightly coloured – but sounds sometimes like a nightingale, sometimes like a parakeet. She seduces in a murmur: 'I'd be surprisingly good for you,' she boasts to Peron, dropping her voice on 'surprisingly' with velvety insinuation. But when she pledges herself to the poor she squawks like a stall-holder flogging dish-cloths."
American reviewers also praised Roger's turn as Eva Perón. The Hollywood Reporter opined that Roger "knocks the Argentine socks off the title role", the New York Times considered her "a terrific dancer and is at her most vital in her early scenes as the young Eva", and Variety declared Roger "a triple-threat dynamo", adding:
"'What's new?' is her exultant, open-throated cry. Throwing herself joyously from partner to partner on Christopher Oram's monumental three-sided, balconied set, eyes flashing in determination, this isn't a question, it's a fearless challenge. What's new about the explosive number is that when she sings, "Put me down for a lifetime of success," not a soul in the auditorium is likely to disagree. It's also blindingly clear that Grandage's entire production team knows it."
Roger was nominated for a 2007 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance at the Adelphi Theatre but lost the award to Jenna Russell for her performance in Sunday in the Park with George. Roger next appeared on the London stage as Gabriella in the hit production of Boeing-Boeing, directed by Matthew Warchus at the Comedy Theatre. In 2008, Roger played the title role in the Donmar Warehouse’s production of Piaf and once again received rave reviews. The show eventually transferred to the larger Vaudeville Theatre, and Roger won the 2009 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She subsequently toured internationally with Piaf including a stop in her hometown of Buenos Aires. During her time back in Buenos Aires, she revived her performance in Mina...che cosa sei? for a brief run. From September 10 through November 21, 2010, Roger starred as Fosca in a revival of the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine musical Passion for a limited engagement at the Donmar Warehouse. On February 7, 2011, it was announced that Roger was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award as Best Actress in a Musical for the third time for her work in this role.
Recordings
Roger can be heard on the cast albums of Mina...che cosa sei? and Evita.. She has also recorded two solo albums: Vientos Del Sur and a live album recorded in Buenos Aires entitled Recorriendo el Rock Nacional.
On the strength of her reception in London, Roger returned to the role of Eva Perón in a new Broadway revival of Evita with previews beginning in March 2012 and an opening night in April at the Marquis Theatre. The production, based on the 2006 West End revival, was again directed by Michael Grandage and choreographed by Rob Ashford. It also starred Ricky Martin as Che and Broadway veteran Michael Cerveris as Juan Perón. In contrast to the unanimous raves that Roger received in London, reviews were mixed in New York, with some saying she had "too fragile of a voice to portray Eva Peron", while others said "Roger is an outstanding actress" and had "plenty of the star quality Evita sings about."
