While I was in New York, I had the Opportunity to see Evita starring Elena Roger as the title character, (normally) Rickey Martin as Che, (but the night I went I saw Max von Essen fill in), and Michael Cerveris as Juan Peron. Other notable performances by Daniel Torres as Magaldi, and Rachel Potter as the Mistress. The show featured a fabulous ensemble who all had such believable relationships, and were very in sync the entire show.
Now for brief synopsis. (If you know the storyline, skip the synopsis, it is just full of the story you know and my rapier wit.)
Eva is a 15-year old girl who is in love with a dashing young tango singer, Agustin Magaldi. He is preparing to leave for Buenos Aires, and Eva, the little dear, blackmails him into taking her with him, and once there, she subsequently ditches his ass for practically other guy in the giant city, and eventually sleeps her way to the top, with her final conquest being Colonel Juan Peron. When she finally beds Juan Peron, she kicks his mistress out, and she sings a heart breaking song "Another Suitcase in Another Hall", an honestly show stopping number.Eva, who is now a very influental radio talk show host, uses her power to get her lover elected President of Argentina and they seal the deal with a marriage vow.
The second act starts with Eva in a jaw dropping gown singing the ever famous "Don't Cry of me Argentina." Che, the ever friendly narrator, then reminds Eva that she promised to help the lower class because she hates the middle class, because her father was middle class and because of that she was disowned because her mother was lower class (quite a bit of family drama eh?) So she throws money at the thankful peasants until all of the money runs out. Then she goes on a European tour to promote Peronism- her husband's very own brand of government. An illness, Cervical Cancer, starts to cripple her but she confides to narrator Che that she won't last much longer. Even so, Peron promotes her for the Vice Presidency, but she turns it down and pledges her undying love for her people, and then she dies.
Now, as I mentioned before, this show had a truly terrific ensemble that really helped with furthering the story and creating a realistic world for the main characters to live in. I was honestly so impressed, and at times, their relationships with each other were more realistic than the relationships of the main characters.
As I mentioned earlier, I did not have the opportunity to see Rickey Martin in action in this piece, but his understudy Max, was fabulous. He had such a great energy that even from my back of the theatre seat, with the lively and wonderful ensemble swirling about the stage, I could always find Che and he was always doing his part to try and help me understand the story.
(This is him as Magaldi, but he was a wonderful Che)
Now, in terms of having trouble understanding the story, that came primarily from not being able to understand anything that Elena Roger's said. Granted, the part of Eva is writing in a crazy high decibel and is sometimes wicked fast, these are challenges that HAVE to be met, if the show is going to be a success. Now, I assume the problems came from the fact Ms. Rogers is an authentic Argentinian, which on principle is really cool! But technically is a very hard thing for most American audiences who can understand the beautiful, but heavy accent. Quite honestly, I went into Evita not knowing the story, and came out... not knowing the story.
On all other levels, Evita was a great show, fantastic vocals, beautiful sets and costumes, great ensemble and supporting leads.
The main thing I was reminded from this performance was to always ask myself when performing: "Am I communicating my story to the audience?" If the answer is no, then I'm not doing my job and I need to fix something.
Think about that.
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