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<b>by Andrew Lloyd Webber, directed by Gary Griffin
Stratford Festival, Avon Theatre, Stratford
June 10-November 6, 2010</b><b>
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</b>“How Do You Solve a Problem Like Evita?”
“Evita” is Stratford’s first ever production of a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber. With the exception of Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” (1987) in 2005 and Marek Norman’s “Dracula” (1998) in 1999, it is the most modern musical to appear at Stratford and the first pop opera, since there is virtually no spoken dialogue. Musically, it is excellent, infinitely better sung than the 20th anniversary touring version that came through Toronto in 2005. Gary Griffin, who helmed Stratford’s hit “West Side Story” last year, directs with vigour and precision. The one aspect that is missing is a consistent view of the title character.
“Evita” follows the rise to power and death of María Eva Duarte (1919-1952), who was born out of wedlock to a poor mother in rural Argentina and went off to Buenos Aires at the age of 15 to become an actress. She met Colonel Juan Perón in 1944 and married the next year. When Perón was elected president, she became a First Lady who, as Minister of Labour and Health, connected with working class people through her speeches and her charitable foundation. When she died she was accorded a state funeral that reflected her enormous popularity. The musical’s portrayal of Evita is heavily influenced by the anti-Peronist biography “Evita: The Woman with the Whip” (1952) by Mary Main. The musical accordingly portrays Evita as a woman who slept her way to the top and bilked the country of millions through her foundation. Librettist Tim Rice reinforces this view with the character of Ché Guevara (1928-67), an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, who later aided Fidel Castro in his overthrow of the US-backed government in Cuba. Ché serves as narrator and cynical commentator who constantly undercuts any attempts at Peronist hagiography.
A director of “Evita” must achieve a delicate balance. The libretto shows her as a grasping power-hungry woman but she must also have enough charisma to explain her quasi-saint-like status to the Argentine people. Griffin does not solve this problem. In some scenes Evita is undeniably calculating as when she blackmails the tango singer Malgaldi into taking her to Buenos Aires or when she boldly sleeps her way into the entertainment business. In other scenes, most notably in “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina”, he makes her appear entirely sincere. He never encourages actor Chilina Kennedy to show both sides of Evita at once or suggest how they could even coexist.
It’s too bad that Griffin has not solved the central riddle of the musical, since Chilina Kennedy is such a fine performer she certainly could have gone one step further than she does. She has the charisma, the looks, a warm, exciting voice. She can show deviousness and earnestness, but Griffin has her display these traits serially not simultaneously. If this had happened the show would be unbeatable.
Josh Young’s Ché is another asset. He, too, has a fine voice and sings rather than speaks his lines unlike many others playing this role. He manages the difficult task of giving variety to Ché’s single stance of outraged derision. Juan Chioran is an excellent Juan Perón. He gives Perón enough of his own charisma that for once we can think that Evita is attracted to him as a person as well as to his access to power. In smaller roles, Vince Staltari gets the level of the tango singer Magaldi’s sleaziness just right. Josie Marasco has a fine turn as Perón’s ex-mistress singing “Another Suitcase in Another Hall”. The large chorus are impressive in all their roles, whether as Argentine generals, the snooty English upper class or as the “descamisados”, the working class who idolize Evita as one of their own.
Douglas Paraschuk semicircular colonnade is neutral enough to function well as the musical’s many settings indoors and out, aided in this by Kevin Fraser’s precise light. The idea of having the balcony of the Casa Rosada rise from the orchestra during “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” might have seemed exciting, but it is worryingly wobbly and thus distracting. Maria Blumenfeld has designed a huge array of period costumes along with a series of attractive gowns for Kennedy. Griffin has decided to use video projections to emphasize certain themes. The “The Art of the Possible”, usually staged as musical chairs he stages as a game of poker with the cards turning up in sequence above the stage. Fortunately, Sean Nieuwenhuis’s work always serves the narrative, especially in the scenes of Evita’s European tour, rather than overpowering the design. Rick Fox conducts the work as if it were opera and makes such pieces as the Act 1 finale “A New Argentina” sound both triumphant and menacing.
Griffin’s production made me appreciate the potential in “Evita” more than any previous production. The show is basically an updated parallel to Monteverdi’s “Coronation of Poppea” about the rise of Nero’s courtesan to power, kitted out with a pop music sensibility and the middle-brow need, absent in Monteverdi, for an explanatory chorus. It certainly more musically ambitious and assumes a far more intelligent audience than the piffle currently on Broadway. The libretto’s satirical link of acting and politics seems more relevant now than ever before. If Griffin hasn’t not solved the problem of Evita, he has caught the story’s sweep, and with such powerful performances, you may very well get swept up in it yourself.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Chilina Kennedy, Juan Chioran. ©David Hou.
<b>2010-06-29</b>
<b>Evita</b>