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I saw a preview of Evita earlier this week and wanted to share a few comments.
Overall I enjoyed the show A LOT and not only because it was my first opportunity to see Quast onstage again after more than one year. ;-)
Although I knew the original studio album (the one with Julie Covington as Eva) and had distractedly watched the Alan Parker movie once (sorry, I'm not a Madonna fan), I had never attended a fully staged performance of the show. My only 'live' reference was a concert version at an open-air venue back in the 90s – featuring Ria Jones as Eva and Simon Bowman as Che -, which I had thoroughly enjoyed.
Strangely enough, I actually found myself spotting similarities to a show which not many people might know in the English-speaking world, a German musical called Elisabeth, by Michael Kunze & Sylvester Levay. Although the historical figure of Elisabeth of Austria had VERY little in common with Eva Duarte, the 'musical approach', if I may say so, was somewhat similar…
Though I'm not an unconditional ALW fan I am convinced that some of his shows, like Phantom and indeed Evita, have truly enthralling scores, which never cease to entertain and amaze me, no matter how often I listen to them. As we all know now, in this new production the orchestrations have been entirely reworked and the result is IMHO even more captivating than the original. I'm not a music expert, but it was a delight to discover all the different "shades of sound" ALW has added to each number, especially in the 'staccatos' by the wind instruments and the somewhat unpredictable bars by the violins… the result is a very modern, very gutsy score which made me feel like standing up and dancing with my neighbour more than once (don't worry, I kept quiet!)
The opening 15 minutes are maybe a bit slow… but I guess that was to be expected, considering that the show begins with a funeral… I clearly felt the show "took off" for the best with the 'Buenos Aires' number: WOW! Among my other highlights: the very sensual 'I'd Be Surprisingly Good...' and the whole of the final part of Act Two, from 'You Must Love Me' onwards.
I also liked the simple staging: the three wings of the Casa Rosada (which however is NOT pink!) seemed to literally dance forward and backwards guiding us through the story of Eva and Juan…
Indeed, Eva and Juan… I might have missed Tim Rice's & Grandage's message altogether, but more than the political intrigues the aspect of the show that grabbed me most was the private side of Eva's story, and her relationship with her prestigious husband.
Elena Roger is as petite as yours truly, but that's where all the similarities end: although my show was an early preview she literally exuded talent and assurance whatever she was doing onstage, be it singing, dancing, acting or the three together! Elena has an amazing vocal range (the part of Eva must be one of the hardest in the musical repertoire) and her Latin accent made her performance sound much more authentic. She played the ambitious Eva, the sensual Eva, the powerful Eva, the frail Eva convincingly all through the show. Eva's illness in particular was so well acted that I used up my entire stock of hankies in a matter of minutes.
It must be said that Quast's performance in those final scenes was just as heart-breaking as Elena's. It's true that ever since the glorious days of Secret Garden and South Pacific I've shamefully developed a certain liking for PQ's "suffering roles" and the final section of this revival of Evita is undoubtedly another quintessential example of the kind: Perón's cry of despair when Eva collapses on the floor and his whispered "So what happens now…" soon after were totally devastating.
But even for those who are not too keen on Quast's "suffering roles" Evita reserves plenty of blissful moments of a totally different nature: all through the first half, which follows the rise to power of an extremely confident and charming Perón, his generous smiles could have won the unconditional support of the entire female population of Latin America…
When I first knew that Quast would be playing Perón I couldn't refrain myself from wondering whether he would be somewhat "wasted" for the part. In a way I was fearing his role would be rather small, and probably overshadowed by the female lead in every number of the show. For example, I had no recollection at all of the artist who played Perón at my concert version a few years ago... Now, if it's true that Perón only had a very brief song of his own ('She's a Diamond', in Act Two) it's also true that Eva was constantly interacting with him, which meant that Quast was onstage practically as long as Eva herself! And it must be said that his lines were often the hardest ones, very clear-cut, with almost no melody. They reminded me at times of the numbers he sings in the Listen Up album. I also noticed that the vocal range required for the role of Perón is almost as wide as Eva's, and PQ got away with both the deepest and the highest notes with flying colours. And even in his "silent moments" - Eva sings a few songs to Perón - PQ did an excellent job in filling the stage with his usual elegance and charisma without distracting the audience from the main focus of attention, ie Eva. Kudos to him!
Some comments about Che: I've always liked Matt Rawle in all his previous roles, but I wasn't 100% convinced by his performance in Evita. Though his voice was strong, his reading of the character was IMO too "neat", not punchy enough... There were moments when I realised he was onstage just because I heard his voice singing. Too bad, because Che has some of the best songs in the score and Rawle didn't perform them as aggressively or provokingly as I expected.
A few final points:
- The costumes: beautiful and so many of them! I lost count of Eva's ones, and all of them were superb… As for PQ, in the initial scenes he wears two different kinds of military uniforms, one kaki/beige and one completely white. Then, after Perón resigns from the army, he wears several different suits, in various shades of grey, and also a tuxedo in the opening scene of Act Two (the 'Don't Cry for Me...' one) .
- The curtain calls: first the ensemble - male and female - came out in two rows, followed by Magaldi and the Mistress and then by Che and Perón (Rawle took his bow first, then Quast). Everybody left the stage and Eva came out and took her bow alone centre stage. Finally the whole cast then joined again, all the leads standing in one row. Unfortunately I must point out that on my night (a Monday) the audience were disappointing to say the least… It's true that it's hard to find the right "clapping moments" in a new show, but IMO they were rather thrifty anyway… And at the curtain calls I was one of the very few who gave Elena the standing ovation she deserved. I was furious against my fellow-patrons!!!
