Reviews 2005
Reviews 2005
✭✭✭✩✩
music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Tim Rice, directed by Larry Fuller after Harold Prince
Sovereign Entertainment, LLC/Mirvish Productions,
Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto
April 28-June 5, 2005
The 25th anniversary tour of Evita has finally rumbaed into Toronto. On the plus side, choreographer Larry Fuller has reproduced Harold Prince’s original direction and Prince himself has supervised the entire production. Prince makes full use of Brechtian alienation effects including caricature, stylized action and projections of newsreel footage of the historical Eva Peron. It makes one look back with nostalgia on a time when musicals were more than staged family movies and audiences could welcome such heavily ironic political subject matter.
On the minus side, Kathy Voytko makes a very unappealing Evita. She harsh and brassy from the start and stays that way until her melodramatic death scene. It’s hard to see how she could seduce anyone, let alone a nation. Her overbearing manner is in complete contrast to vulnerability we see in the real Evita of the newsreels. She has a strong voice but has to screech to hit the high notes. Bradley Dean is a hyperactive Che Guevara with a watery voice that he subjects to increasing bizarre contortions. Philip Hernandez seems to have been hired for his resemblance to Juan Peron rather than his ability to act or sing. Luckily, the chorus plays a major role and they are truly superb.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2005-05-19.
Photo: Philip Hernandez and Kathy Voytko. ©Joan Marcus.
2005-05-19
Evita