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Why did Evita cause such a stir back in 1978? Partly because the best-selling double album had familiarised us with the Andrew Lloyd Webber score and Tim Rice lyrics. Partly because of the Broadway dazzle of Hal Prince's production. Partly because of Elaine Page's performance. But, watching Michael Grandage's perfectly decent revival, one becomes aware of the dramatic insubstantiality of the show itself.
I am convinced this is because of its bookless form: the attempt to tell the story of Eva Peron purely through a succession of songs. We see little Eva quitting the Argentinian countryside for fame and fortune in the company of a tango-singer, rising horizontally through Buenos Aires society and in 1944 meeting Juan Peron. It's business at first sight; Peron becomes president and Eva, through her drive, charisma and populism, turns into a political star. But, by the early 1950s, the economy is in ruins, the dream has faded and Eva is dead.
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Grandage's production, with its shadowy tango-dancers and high-stepping military, also evokes the sinister context to the Perons' political rule. And Philip Quast makes a dubiously imposing Peron while Matt Rawle emerges as a much more subversive, sceptical commentator than I remember from the original.
© Guardian Newspapers Ltd.
