Review: EVITA TOO, Southbank Centre

Rollerskates, Elaine Page, ducks, puppets, corpses, puppet corpses, and a DJing Andrew Lloyd Webber. Evita Too is worlds away from the Jamie Lloyd hit that swept London this summer, but it has just as much to say, if not more.

Fringe legends Sh!t Theatre were last seen on London stages with their show Or What’s Left Of Us, which was maybe the most devastating show of 2024. The grief and uncertainty that defined that piece is still present here, but hidden beneath something much more exuberant, over-the-top, and laugh-out-loud funny.

Performers Rebecca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole take us on an upside-down rollercoaster ride through the life of the world’s first female president, and Evita’s successor, Isabel Peron. She meets Juan Peron while working as a gogo dancer in a club called Happyland in Madrid, moves back to Argentina, and eventually finds herself in charge of a country after her husband’s death. Evita Too is as much about Isabel herself as it is about Sh!t Theatre’s relationship to her, a woman who has been strangely obscured by history, as they pose the question: what does a woman have to do to be remembered? 

If this all sounds a bit heavy and historical, the actual fact is that Evita Too couldn’t be further from it. From naked rollerskating in the first few minutes, to audience members being invited onstage to serve mojitos, to puppet Elaine Paige, Sh!t Theatre consistently delight and surprise, with every song and every scene more out-of-the-box and unbelievable than the one before. This is a show so chaotic and hilarious you can barely catch your breath – it’s easily one of the year’s funniest.  

It’s also, however, exceptionally well-conceived. Every song, despite the tongue-in-cheek lyrics, is at worst an earworm, and at best a musical theatre banger, and the video design (also by Biscuit & Mothersole) is slick and cleverly funny. Evita Too also has a fondness for its namesake musical that shapes the show, mocking parts of it while acknowledging its longevity and excellence. Parts of the score echo the music of Evita, and the questions at the centre of the piece, about legacy and womanhood, are actually quite similar... But at the same time, we see emails from the Lloyd Webber legal team and quips about ALW and Tim Rice's political affiliations. There’s also plenty of digs at Starlight Express’ rollerskating trains, because why not. 

With a trip to Madrid, a fake art exhibit, and lots of flyering, it’s impossible not to marvel at the lengths Biscuit & Mothersole go to for Isabel, and for this show – and their skill in crafting their escapades into a brilliant piece of theatre. The pair’s self-referential and self-aware style really shines here, bringing the audience immediately on side.

There’s no big message or call to action here, but there is a poignancy running through the piece, tying together the performer’s own lives and worries and those of this far-off, near-forgotten woman. The show is quietly meaningful, occasionally stripping back the madcap mayhem to explore how the quest to learn about Isabel has had a meaningful impact on the performers’ lives, especially in times of loss and doubt.

Evita Too may not have the star power and budget of the West End hit, but London is just as lucky to have it. It’s joyous, silly, and bordering on genius – all in all, a show not to be missed or, indeed, forgotten. 

Evita Too runs at the Southbank Centre (Purcell Room) until 31 December.