Well - what to say about the brand new production of Evita that our little gang (me, Madame Acarti, Baby Steve, Houseboy Alex, Lou and Our Sal) went to see at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre last night [on its own last night]?
Having only really had a connection with the Andrew Lloyd-Webber/Tim Rice classic via its hit songs Don't Cry For Me Argentina, Oh What a Circus and Another Suitcase Another Hall, and the gloriously opulent Madonna movie [we've never seen it on stage before], it was quite a shock to the senses to experience Jamie Lloyd's stripped-to-the-bare-bones version. There was none of the Baroque architecture, grandiose militaria nor dazzling costumes here - quite the opposite, in fact, as all the action takes place on an enormous set of stepped concrete walkways, starkly illuminated, with a rusting "Evita" sign at is head, behind which the orchestra occupies centre stage throughout. With the frequent use of smoke, ticker-tape bombs, fireworks and flames, it often more resembled a rock concert than a piece of musical theatre...
Reflecting the brutalist air of the set, our "anti-heroine" spent the entire show in basic attire; mainly a white slip dress and trainers. Although this was at first a bit jarring, it served the story as a whole by not distracting us from the realities of the life of Eva Peron, née Duarte - she was a dirt-poor girl of very easy virtue, who used and abused anybody and everybody (mainly men) on her way to the top; hardly batting an eyelid at the disdain of the establishment, the fate of her opponents (be they her lovers, or their partners, or the political opponents who became known as "the disappeared") nor at the brutality and corruption of her eventual husband President Peron's regime, over which she presided as matriarch. Her goal was immortality, and she achieved that in spades.
Playing Eva in the first half was the American singer Samantha Pauly - who is fresh from a US staging of the "teenage girly fan-pop musical" Six, and it showed. Her voice was [like the "Curate's Egg"] good in parts, but veered dangerously close to rock-chick "Pink-lite" shrillness at times, which none of us appreciated much. She was obviously suffering however, coughing a lot, so it was no surprise that in part two her understudy Marsha Songcombe took over. Ms Songcome's voice was much more melodic, which was just as well as she got all the "big numbers", including Don't Cry For Me, Argentina, and did them beautifully.
Trent Saunders as Che Guevara portrayed the frustrated (and ultimately impotent) voice of the cynical radical opposition excellently, right from his opening number Oh, What a Circus. The interplay between the two lead characters - perpetually grabbing each other's microphone, until eventually, at the height of her power, Evita cut the wire - and the air of frightened anger and despair this "voice of the people" felt, as the "Peron star" began to outshine and crush everything it/she claimed to uphold, came across very well. Juan Peron (played by Ektor Rivera) was less impressive however; we didn't feel he conveyed the true callousness of the man as dictator nor (at the end) errant husband convincingly enough to complement the narrative.
The chorus and dancers were all excellent (and some of the boys were very sexy indeed!), and the choreography (albeit very, very modernist) worked well within the limitations of the set. Some of the gimmicks (the popping balloons symbolising the "disposal" of lovers by Eva or political opponents by Peron; the changeover (under sufferance) of Che's t-shirt from his own face to that of Evita; the use of light and shadow, smoke and flames at various points in the drama) worked very well. Others less so - after a while, the lack of distinguishing outfits made the "action" a bit confusing; the graffiti-spraying of Eva's frock to denote her glittering array of outfits on the so-called "Rainbow Tour" was somewhat unimpressive; and one-too-many centrepiece songs being sung by people in their knickers began to grate.
However, there were sufficient brilliant moments for this to be a rewarding experience - the "comic" turn of Adam Pearce as the crooner Magaldi (Eva's first "lover/victim"), the sublime Frances Mayli McCann as Peron's doomed mistress, Eva's seduction of Juan Peron with I'd Be Surprisingly Good For You, her bitter swansong You Must Love Me, and Che's sardonic High Flying, Adored were all as much high points of the show as were the star-billing numbers - in all, it was a very memorable production, and one we're very glad we got to see.
And, just because - heeeere's Ricky!
