Evita

Her country loved and despised the complex woman they called Evita, a vivacious conniver who married the man who was to become Argentina’s leader and became a glamorous symbol herself. This has been a good Broadway season for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, who are following their revival of Jesus Christ Superstar with a new look at Evita at the Marquis Theatre. Both shows are sung-through musicals, both title characters are superstars (of different sorts), and both died at age 33. Like Jesus Christ Superstar, it is Lloyd Webber and Rice’s vividly haunting songs that make Evita memorable, painting an arresting portrait of the iconic Eva Duarte de Perón, showgirl and politician.

Argentinian Elena Roger, a multi-award winner in the West End, plays Eva Duarte with nuance and energy in her rise from a rural go-getter to Buenos Aires’s manipulative actress who sleeps her way up the ladder and then into politics, taking time out for a tango or two. Roger brings a dancer’s taut flexibility and rhythm to the feisty character who focused her sights on a loftier life that is clearly spelled out in the propulsive “Buenos Aires” (“Put me down for a lifetime of success/Give me credit--I'll find ways of paying”). Eva’s promiscuous background is illustrated in “Goodnight and Thank You,” performed with Che and her lovers.

With a light, feathery vocal tone, problematic in the highest register, Roger’s singing is less impressive than her dancing, yet her Still her portrayal of Eva Peron is persuasively complex. Eva zeroes in on politics as more fertile ground for her ambition and evolves into a captivating woman, bewitching not only Juan Perón (Michael Cerveris), but eventually the populace. Perón hasn’t a chance when they join for the tantalizing “I’d Be Surprisingly Good for You.” After erAfterEvaEEva tosses his mistress’s clothes out onto the piazza, she morphs into a poised and glamorous fashionista, with the haute couture just a shell covering the same fiery girl who became Argentina’s First Lady, now with a product to sell – “Evita.” Her trademark anthem, “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” is strong, evoking an audacious, but enigmatic, sense of seduction.

Cerveris is always a dependably effective actor and singer, and proves no less so in Evita. He is the ambitious politico, arrogant and demanding but with a hint of indecisiveness. Pop prince Ricky Martin plays the narrator, Che, wielding a cigarette, numerous arm gestures and a grin that stands in for irony. His voice is not intense, but serviceable, and his “Waltz for Eva and Che” is eye-catching. But, when the focus is not on him, he is forgettable, lacking the cynical sharp snap of a hovering revolutionary worker. Two secondary roles to notice are Eva’s first lover, Mageldi (Max von Essen), singing “On This Night of a Thousand Stars,” and Rachel Potter, Perón’s mistress who ends up alone and resigned, with “Another Suitcase in Another Hall.”

Michael Grandage’s direction is fluid and extravagant, with Lloyd Webber and David Cullen’s tango-flavored orchestrations and dazzling choreography by Rob Ashford. His tango moves, especially in Act I, are flashy and exotic, the kicks are high, the flexibility is splashy, and the ensemble dancers are electrifying whether moving as soldiers or as civilians. Christopher Orem designed commanding sets ,with Neil Austin’s lighting adding fascinating shadows to the piazza and to the Casa Rosado. Oram’s costumes are on-target for the late ‘40s; notice Dior’s “new look” in Eva’s tiny-waisted ball gown with the voluminous skirts – Argentina’s poor would not be crying for her, not with those clothes.

At the end, though, it is Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s ebullient songs that scores, insinuating itself in your brain and making this grandiose staging of Evita well worth the bucks.

(Pictured: Michael Cerveris and Elena Roger; photo by Richard Termine)

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
April 5, 2012
www.cabaretscenes.org