Another Suitcase in Another Hall Lyrics - Evita

Song Overview

Review and Highlights

Review

The track works because it underplays. A gentle guitar figure sets the floor, strings creep in, and the chorus answers without crowding the Mistress. Jane Ohringer’s vocal stays clear and conversational, and that restraint makes the gut-punch land when she circles back to the same, terrified question. You can hear how Tim Rice’s words and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s melody invite phrasing over belting; the cast album treats it like a pop torch moment tucked inside a through-sung score. The lyrics live in the pauses as much as the notes. When the ensemble echoes the refrain, it feels less like commentary and more like the city answering back. This is one of those places on the record where the story breathes, and the lyrics do the acting.

Highlights

• The call-and-response architecture lets Che and the men frame the Mistress’s inner monologue without stealing focus.
• Arrangement details matter: nylon-string arpeggios first, then subtle harp and keys to widen the room.
• It’s a pop-ballad heart in a theatre body, the kind of crossover color that helped Evita travel far beyond the proscenium.

Creation History

The song was first recorded for the 1976 concept album, sung by Barbara Dickson and released as a UK single on February 7, 1977, where it reached No. 18. The 1979 Premiere American Recording (Original Broadway cast) was produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, tracked in Los Angeles in July 1979 and remixed in London in July–August 1979. In the 1996 film, the song shifts to Eva herself; Madonna’s studio version became the soundtrack’s third European single on March 18, 1997 and reached No. 7 in the UK.

If you’re chasing recordings: the Broadway cut above is the cleanest doorway into the stage context; Dickson’s 1977 single shows the piece as a lean radio ballad; Madonna’s release reframes it as Eva’s private inventory of resolve.

Song Meaning and Annotations

The point arrives fast: a young woman is dismissed from a powerful man’s apartment and pretends she has a plan. The music is lullaby-slow, the rhythm an easy 4/4 that invites small breaths, not big gestures. The genre sits between pop lament and theatre aria, with guitar-led accompaniment and discreet orchestral color.

I read the verse as practiced stoicism that keeps cracking. She claims she “doesn’t expect” permanence, yet the hook keeps asking, where am I going to? Che and the men answer with the brutal logistics of moving on. It’s tidy writing: each chorus sounds like the city’s bureaucracy filing her feelings away.

“Perón was known for having a preference for much younger women… Eva was 24 when they met, while Perón was 48.”

The annotation lands because the show leans on that age gap to sharpen the class and power imbalance. Eva met Juan Perón in January 1944 at a charity event; she was 24, he 48.

“These recurring lines highlight the lavish nature of Eva’s lifestyle… she has forgotten her roots.”

That critique shadows the whole score. Here, though, the focus is the Mistress, not Eva. The refrain’s inventory-feel (“another wall,” “another hall”) reads like a weary inventory of rented rooms, a metaphor for being fungible in the orbit of power.

Production, instrumentation, tone

The stage arrangement privileges intimacy: guitar arpeggios, soft strings, light keys, a touch of harp. Madonna’s film version keeps the delicacy but shifts the perspective to Eva, in a key and tempo that emphasize vulnerability. Published sheet details for that cut note common time around 50 bpm and a notated key of Cb, with a practical vocal span about A3–Eb5.

Emotional arc and cultural touchpoints

It starts in denial, turns candid, and ends resigned. The line “Don’t ask anymore” is a curtain on self-pity and a nudge back into the survival routine. Historically, the lyric brushes against the Peronist universe of patronage and spectacle; thematically, it’s a portable story about how private heartbreak gets flattened by public life.

Why the film reassigns the solo

Cinema favors the protagonist. Alan Parker’s adaptation lets Eva voice the song after breaking with Magaldi, which bends it from “discarded mistress” to “self-inventing striver.” It works on screen, even if stage purists miss the original sting.

Key Facts

• Artist: Original Broadway Cast of Evita (lead voices: Patti LuPone, Jane Ohringer, Mandy Patinkin)
• Composer: Andrew Lloyd Webber
• Lyricist: Tim Rice
• Producers (album cut): Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice
• Album: Evita: Premiere American Recording (MCA, 1979)
• Release date of original single (Barbara Dickson): February 7, 1977
• Notable film single: Madonna - released in Europe March 18, 1997
• Genre: Pop ballad, musical theatre
• Instruments (typical arrangement): guitar, marimba, harp, keyboard, strings
• Language: English
• Mood: reflective, bruised, steady-tempo
• Length (OBCR track): ~4:43
• Track #: 8 on the 1979 Broadway set
• Label: MCA Records (cast album)
• Music style, meter: pop-inflected theatre ballad; mostly iambic phrasing over 4/4
• © Copyrights: © 1979 MCA Records (album recording)

Questions and Answers

Who sings it on the Broadway album, and who sings it in the film?

On the cast album, the Mistress (Jane Ohringer) leads, with chorus responses; in the film, the solo shifts to Eva (Madonna).

How did the earliest single perform on the charts?

Barbara Dickson’s 1977 UK single peaked at No. 18.

How about Madonna’s 1997 version?

It reached No. 7 in the UK and saw modest action elsewhere in Europe.

Are there notable covers or language versions?

Yes. Beyond Elaine Paige, Marti Webb and others, numerous productions have sung it in Spanish and Portuguese; Brazilian stagings credit versions by Claudio Botelho, and you can hear “Mais uma mala, mais um corredor” performed by Verônica Goeldi and company.

What’s the practical vocal range and feel?

Stage keys vary, but the published film arrangement sits around A3–Eb5 at a slow ~50 bpm in common time, encouraging intimate phrasing.

Awards and Chart Positions

• Charts: Barbara Dickson - UK No. 18 (Feb–Apr 1977).
• Charts: Madonna - UK No. 7 (week of March 29, 1997).
• Associated production awards: The original Broadway production of Evita earned seven Tony Awards including Best Musical, Book and Score (1980), and the Broadway cast recording won the 1981 Grammy for Best Cast Show Album.

How to Sing Another Suitcase in Another Hall

• Range & key: Many scores sit comfortably for mezzo; the film arrangement maps roughly A3–Eb5. Transpose if needed; the intimacy matters more than the ceiling.
• Tempo & breath: Treat it like a slow walk. Place micro-breaths at line ends so the questions feel unbroken.
• Text before tone: Keep diction forward on “where am I going to?” and relax consonants so the phrase falls, not punches.
• Color: Start flat-voiced and guarded; warm the core on the second verse to show the mask slipping.
• Ensemble awareness: If you have Che and the men answering, let them set your dynamic swells. You’re the eye of the storm.

Additional Info

• Barbara Dickson later said she didn’t like her recorded version and altered the arrangement live, a reminder that even “definitive” takes keep evolving.
• On the film soundtrack, “Another Suitcase…” is Madonna’s track; Andrea Corr appears as the Mistress elsewhere in the sequence (“Hello and Goodbye”).
• Brazilian productions have popularized “Mais uma mala, mais um corredor,” underlining how cleanly the lyric travels across languages.