Skip to main content

Evita 

Edinburgh Playhouse
Four stars
First ladies have been much in the news of late. Yet the contemporary 
soap opera allure of these sometime powers behind the thrones of male 
politicians is mere tittle-tattle compared to the dramatic life of Eva 
Peron. Lyricist Tim Rice and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber were clearly 
drawn to such interesting lives, as both Joseph and the Amazing 
Technicolour Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar had made clear. 
Almost forty years after the pair's final and greatest collaboration, 
Evita remains both of its time and profoundly prophetic in its 
depiction of one woman's unflinching ambition and her ascent to 
greatness.

The brush-strokes may be broad in Bob Tomson and Bill Kenwright's fine 
touring production, but is full of well-choreographed nuance as it 
flits through Argentina's volatile mid twentieth century history that 
so shaped Eva before it killed her. As played by a vibrant Madalena 
Alberto, Eva has a drive to escape her humble roots that's akin to 
Margaret Thatcher, yet who captures peoples hearts in a way that only 
the likes of Princess Diana has done since.

Making Che Guevara the show's narrator was always a stroke of genius. 
Like Eva, Che was an iconic pin-up, particularly to Lloyd Webber and 
Rice's generation, and having real life former pop star Marti Pellow 
don Che's beret as the conscience of the masses is equally inspired. 
While Rice's words can sound very much of their time, the ennui of 
songs such as Another Suitcase In Another Hall, High Flying Adored and 
Alberto's show-stopping take on Don't Cry For Me Argentina is in no way 
diminished in a show that's about glamour, power and how the pursuit of 
both inevitably corrupts.


The Herald, January 31st 2013

ends
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Losing Touch With My Mind - Psychedelia in Britain 1986-1990

DISC 1 1. THE STONE ROSES   -  Don’t Stop 2. SPACEMEN 3   -  Losing Touch With My Mind (Demo) 3. THE MODERN ART   -  Mind Train 4. 14 ICED BEARS   -  Mother Sleep 5. RED CHAIR FADEAWAY  -  Myra 6. BIFF BANG POW!   -  Five Minutes In The Life Of Greenwood Goulding 7. THE STAIRS  -  I Remember A Day 8. THE PRISONERS  -  In From The Cold 9. THE TELESCOPES   -  Everso 10. THE SEERS   -  Psych Out 11. MAGIC MUSHROOM BAND  -  You Can Be My L-S-D 12. THE HONEY SMUGGLERS  - Smokey Ice-Cream 13. THE MOONFLOWERS  -  We Dig Your Earth 14. THE SUGAR BATTLE   -  Colliding Minds 15. GOL GAPPAS   -  Albert Parker 16. PAUL ROLAND  -  In The Opium Den 17. THE THANES  -  Days Go Slowly By 18. THEE HYPNOTICS   -  Justice In Freedom (12" Version) ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Myra Mcfadyen - An Obituary

Myra McFadyen – Actress   Born January 12th 1956; died October 18th 2024   Myra McFadyen, who has died aged 68, was an actress who brought a mercurial mix of lightness and depth to her work on stage and screen. Playwright and artistic director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, David Greig, called McFadyen “an utterly transformative, shamanic actor who could change a room and command an audience with a blink”. Citizens’ Theatre artistic director Dominic Hill described McFadyen’s portrayal of Puck in his 2019 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London as “funny, mischievous and ultimately heartbreaking.”   For many, McFadyen will be most recognisable from Mamma Mia!, the smash hit musical based around ABBA songs. McFadyen spent two years on the West End in Phyllida Lloyd’s original 1999 stage production, and was in both film offshoots. Other big screen turns included Rob Roy (1995) and Our Ladies (2019), both directed by Mi...
1 comment
Read more

The Passage – Hip Rebel Degenerates: Black, White and Red All Over

Prelude – The Power of Three   Fear. Power. Love. This life-and-death (un)holy trinity was the driving force and raisons d’être of The Passage, the still largely unsung Manchester band sired in what we now call the post-punk era, and who between 1978 and 1983 released four albums and a handful of singles.    Led primarily by composer Dick Witts, The Passage bridged the divide between contemporary classical composition and electronic pop as much as between the personal and the political. In the oppositional hotbed of Margaret Thatcher’s first landslide, The Passage fused agit-prop and angst, and released a song called Troops Out as a single. The song offered unequivocal support for withdrawing British troops from Northern Ireland.    They wrote Anderton’s Hall, about Greater Manchester’s born again right wing police chief, James Anderton, and, on Dark Times, rubbed Brechtian polemic up against dancefloor hedonism. On XOYO, their most commercial and potentially mo...
Post a Comment
Read more