I don't have time to search for it but there's an Evita tour thread around here somewhere, and I posted a review about this tour last month. The actress playing Evita is... not good, but the supporting cast is formidable and the actor who plays Che is fantastic. I don't regret seeing the show.
act 1 was ok, i was not overly excited about it, but i didn't hate it either. the girl playing evita was borderline for me and i was hoping her acting and voice would mature for act 2.........i was wrong.
Act 2 requires acting and she could not do it to save her life. i mean are we suppose to want evita to die at the end? it was terrible. don't cry was a disaster, then it got kind of good, then when eva gets sick, it was all over!!! i liked seeing some of the original staging, but that was it!
i literally heard people behind me say, "Hurry up and die!"
I don't know how much of it was inspired by the original, but it was pretty dated. grant it, we are in a differnt time, but it just did not have the pizazz i was expecting.
one question, to anyone who saw the original, after eva's final broadcast, is there always a reprise of different songs and scenes added right before she dies, cause there was, and it was horrible!
Yes there is a montage in the score that happens around the "Final Boradcast". Peron sings high flying adored, there is an eva body double on the Casa Rosada,etc.
Other than that, did you enjoy the play Mrs Lincoln?
The tour must have improved a lot since the above reviews, because I saw it last night and I thought it was fantastic. I'll post a more in depth review later, but Che and Eva were both great, and the guy who played Magaldi stole the show.
Has anyone seen Gabriel Rodriguez go on Che? Please PM if you have.
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
I saw Evita this week and I really wanted to like it but I couldn't understand much of what was said and I grew bored. The "big" musical numbers were not big or inspiring. Cameron Wade who played Eva was cute and blond with too bright of a belt voice, she sounded about twelve. She has a nice voice for something like Legally Blond. Omar Lopenz-Cepero who played Che was very good and Philip Peterson was great as Peron. I hear that some re-casting took place on Jan. 31st, I sincerely hope that they found someone more mature with a more legit voice to play the part of Eva.
After seeing this production, a friend of mine referred to it as "Thoroughly Modern Evita." That was an accurate assertion.
As far as the Hal Prince staging, it was worth seeing as a reminder of how briliant it once was. You can see the creativity behind it, but it has grown stale with time.
I had to present on the Deadly Theatre portrayed in Peter Brook's book THE EMPTY SPACE a day after seeing this show and it proved to be a great example.
Read LETTERS TO A YOUNG ARTIST by Anna Deavere Smith!
STOP!!! DON'T SEE IT! I went when it was here in Long Beach and the lead girl was a disaster! We actually heard people laughing as she died and two people behind us said "Hurry up and die so I can go eat!"
Her voice was unable to grow with the character and by the end of the show I was bored. The rest of the cast and chorus were ok and the staging and costumes were good, but the choreography was elementary.
A friend of mine saw it the next night and the understudy was performing and he said she was amazing so if by any luck you get to see the understudy, please post your review
I saw it a couple weeks ago, and my friend sitting next to me said "Jump" when she got on the balcony for "Don't Cry for me..." Everyone around us agreed.
The thing is she (the actress playing Eva) is talented, she is just horridly miscast. She comes across as too young for the role, and she sounds like a 9 year old when she sings. The actress playing Peron's Mistress would be much better in the role.
And as far as that casting notice, I heard it was seeking an emergency replacement.
"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it." -Stephen Colbert
I completely agree about the mistress. Throughout the show, as I hoped for Eva to pass on quickly, I wondered why the mistress wasn't playing Eva. Her voice was quite good and she was also able to act which is nice what with this being theatre and all.
It's been my experience that they always miscast Eva. The mistress always seems to be a better singer/actress/what-have-you.
Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia
gtothefloflo, you'd be surprised how much industry experience many of the people on this board have. Having said that, you don't need to be any kind of expert to realize how bad Cameron Wade is, not as a performer, but as Eva in this particular tour.