New production of a classic musical relies on a single, spellbinding song
Evita
Adelphi Theatre, London WC2
From the rockin' stable of 1970s Brit musicals that was the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice partnership comes this, the Serious Non-Biblical One. Evita is the story of Eva Perón, Argentina's legendary first lady of the postwar period, who arrived in Buenos Aires as a two-bit working-class actress from the sticks, but whose ruthless ambition ensured that she ended up on the arm of the fascist leader Juan Perón. The biographical musical was first produced in London in 1978, where it ran for seven years. The title role was so utterly inhabited by Elaine Paige that, when Madonna played Evita in the 1996 Alan Parker movie, some commentators felt Paige had been snubbed.
Giving the part this time around to an Argentinian actress, Elena Roger, has again caused a flurry of articles, because Evita is one of those roles which don't, you know, go to an "unknown". However, from the opening moments when she appears, dressed in funereal black, the diminutive Roger takes hold of this Evita and, with a dazzling smile and some knockout dancing, claims the part as rightfully hers.
She can sing, too. This is Lloyd Webber yearning towards opera, and this "sung-through" musical has some tricky moments. In between the big numbers, Evita and Perón (Philip Quast) warble through scene-setters describing back-breaking poverty, class struggle, global politics and military unrest. It is not easy, or even particularly musical, but they are helped by Che (Matt Rawle), an Everyman figure who strides forward with manly braggadocio whenever things start to flag.
However, there is no getting away from the fact that Evita takes time to get going. Even though the director, Michael Grandage, gives us a lot of stage dynamism, including sexy "shadow" tango dancing, the night doesn't really kick, I feel, in until Evita dumps her frumpy country look for that of blonde bombshell, and starts making eyes at Perón. From then on, it takes only a quick rendition of the hit single "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" for the Peróns to win the support of the nation via the simple but effective technique of making the working classes think, for the first time in their lives, that they matter.
The only really spine-tingling moment comes just after the interval. The Casa Rosada, the iconic 19th-century offices of Argentina's heads of state, illuminated by Paule Constable's miraculous lighting design, stands impassive and elegant. Beneath it are the people, waving hankies and shouting for Evita. Perón, looking like Bob Maxwell in a turquoise and white sash, moves away so that his wife can upstage him. The double doors open, and down walks Roger in a white fairy-tale Grace Kelly ball gown, diamonds glittering at her throat. The balcony on which she stands comes gliding forward miraculously, over the people. Yes, Evita is the Diana of Argentina.
Spellbound is the only word to use for the atmosphere in the auditorium during "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina". The song breaks all musical conventions: it doesn't move the action on, it's whiny, and it doesn't make sense. And, of course, everyone knows it from cheesy moments on Radio 2. But somehow it is still a great stage ballad, and Roger approaches it with such panache that to sing along, or even to tap your foot, seems like heresy. The audience sat pin-drop silent as a five-foot-tall woman in a blonde wig delivered us into another world.
From then on, it was all a bit of an anticlimax. The production canters through the rest of Evita's life: international fame, popular beatification, and her sudden death from cancer at 33, fizzling out in a rather lacklustre scene involving a hospital bed. Evita is essentially a musical pegged around a single great tune, and although at one point Rice's lyrics foolishly refer to Anything Goes, it in no way has the multifaceted quality of that Cole Porter masterpiece. Yet this production works very hard, and in the end manages convincingly to reaffirm both the myth of Evita's awesome social ambition and the reality of her dazzling glamour.
Booking details available from www.evitathemusical.com
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