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The musical has been restyled in a rich and emotional staging, says Michael Coveney
When Evita - the last, alas, of four collaborations between Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber - was first produced in 1978, we were in the middle of a World Cup summer in Argentina, where the host nation stormed to glory. And here we go (here we go) again, with Evita restored and Argentina the favourites to win the championship.
Such excitement, like avian flu, can be contagious. And I fear hysterical side effects from the Evita revival at the Adelphi Theatre, where an unknown, bird-like Argentinian, the overnight star Elena Roger, has assumed the mantle of Elaine Paige and Patti LuPone with aplomb and a plum (exotic South American variety) in her great gash of a mouth.
