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"Broadway&amp;#039;s Evita is to close when Ricky Martin departs the production, it has been announced. Martin, Elena Roger and Michael Cerveris have announced that they will leave Evita in January after 10 months on the Broadway stage.   Producers initially announced that they would carry on with new actors, but have since chosen to close the production following the January 26 performance. &amp;quot;Our extensive search for a new cast presented the significant challenges of not only replacing a high-calibre trio of stars but also synchronising the schedules of potential replacements with that of the production,&amp;quot; producer Hal Luftig explained. Luftig continued: &amp;quot;Despite going down the road with a variety of artists, the planets have simply not aligned for us to engage the right talent at the right time.&amp;quot; A national touring production of Evita is expected to kick off in autumn 2013, with new actors and actresses in the lead roles.  Martin has called playing Che Guevara in Evita one of the most defining projects of his career. He wrote on Twitter when announcing his departure: &amp;quot;EVITA [was] 1of the most amazing cycles of my career.Discipline and growth! 2013 a year full of amazing projects Thank u so much for ur applause.&amp;quot; Evita debuted on Broadway in 1979 with Patti LuPone as Eva Peron and Mandy Patinkin as Che Guevara. A 1995 feature film had Madonna and Antonio Banderas in the lead roles. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/news/a444826/evita-to-close-on-broadway-when-ricky-martin-leaves/>