(seen at the performance on 31st July 2023)
Hal Prince, late Broadway director and producer extraordinaire, must have been looking down on this performance last night with deepest satisfaction. For this “concert” revival is as close to the original show’s staging as it could be within the logistical requirements of a very limited concert run.
No balcony, and fewer costumes and cast members; but the simple “black box” empty stage and focus purely on character and story are present, just 1996 film number “You Must Love Me” added as now seems compulsory.
The result is an unqualified ‘yes’ for the success of this rainbow of a tour-de-force by producers Fourth Wall Live, the on-stage London Musical Theatre Orchestra under Ben Feguson’s enthusiastic conducting and particularly Bill Deamer’s often inspired direction and choreography.
Bright designer Rebeca Brower starts us off with eight simple black cane chairs face out into the auditorium. They fill with chatting dating couples, a movie plays. We can see the black coffin behind, they cannot. The movie grinds to a halt. Anger turns to shock, then grief. Their beloved Evita entered immortality that evening, the reaction is howling, hysterical sorrow...
Or so cynical commentator Che (Matt Rawle) would observe. This Che is an intellectual, more mature man than the young rebel often cast. Always a mocking presence as we recount Eva Peron’s life, a more truthful bridge between her and the working Argentinian than she could be, a genuine representative of his country.
Auli’l Cravalho’s Eva Peron absorbs him with a mixture of benign tolerance, wary distrust and anger. A very inventive bus journey to the Big Apple of Buenos Aires, melting into a tango – opiate of the working class in this country – explains her ambition. We do know instantly how far this leader will go. All the way to the top.
Later, the huge “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” emerges from centre stage into a period microphone as a hymn to selfish realisation of that dream she strived for. It is self-justification on the grandest scale, delivered in a stunning cream gown (costume supervisor Chaja Nadia Verkerk’s taste excellent) eyed with clear envy by all present.
Husband Juan Peron (Jeremy Secomb) cannot resist the wearer, and draws his political strength and public profile from this diminutive dynamo of popularity. Their perfectly-staged “You Must Love Me” duet finally gets this awkward number to work as bed-ridden and dying we understand that there really is a little more to their love than mere political advantage.
Before we reach it near the end of the show, there are many, many, highlights. Nathan Amzi scores a massive hit early on as Eva’s first love, corny lounge singer Magaldi. Amzi gives everything in his performance, selling a deliberately brilliant Tim Rice / Lloyd Webber parody number as if it meant everything... and the ladies in the scuzzy club respond, Eva most of all.
The other key act one solo, “Another Suitcase In Another Hall” falls to Emily Lane as “funny face” teenage mistress evicted from Peron’s bed by a woman ruthlessly ambitious. Lane fools herself for a few moments, before admitting with a gulp that she will not in fact be that fine, but will survive anyhow. Che’s presentation of her suitcase at the end is sympathetic, a life preserver on which to cling as our sympathy carries her up the stairs and out of the story forever.
Further chances for the ensemble to shine come in the second act, as Emily Langham steps in for the usual ‘children’s choir’ to sing the simple hymn “Santa Evita” to sweet and worrying effect.
The all out “And The Money Kept Rolling In” leaves all eight gasping for breath from exertion, and the audience likewise from the visual spectacle Deamer conjures up by engaging Latin Dance gear enhanced with Tim Deiling’s burning South American lighting design.
“Evita” remains a triumph for its creators, simplifying complex politics in a country few truly understand. The 1978 score and lyrical word-play feel as fresh and inventive as if composed today, the sexual manoeuvres in tune with current mores.
Given this lavish presentation equalling those seen in last year’s August Drury Lane season under different producers but with the same orchestra, the result in an unforgettable evening celebrating an enormously important moment in British musical theatre history in remarkable style.
In a final note, the original home of the show, the Prince Edward Theatre in London, is unexpectedly vacant from the middle of next month... that is all...
5 stars, standing ovation.