I enjoyed this production (after seeing the Ricky Martin version and the movie). I had liked (but not loved) Solea Pfeiffer in "Songs from a New World" and had been a little worried about her casting in this, but she was incredible. She hit the "star quality" notes that were missed in the last Broadway revival, but I found her ending of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina: a bit lacking.
As others have said, this production puts Eva front and center from the very beginning, and Solea gives her Eva an intensity and determination that I enjoyed. The way I interpreted Che was mostly as an apparition in Evita's mind, so having the ensemble as a party scene in "Waltz for Eva and Che" worked for me. I liked watching Jason Gotay, and felt his singing was good. My sister enjoyed him because she said she could understand him, and she had not been able to understand Ricky Martin at points in the revival. I didn't mind the "wandering spirit" effect of young Eva showing up and found the finale with the two Evas on stage touching. I also enjoyed the monochromatic theme, with Eva in white and Che (and Peron) in black, and the ensemble in mostly grey.
While I always like seeing the orchestra on stage, I wish the conductor had not been wearing a "batwing" dress, it was distracting at time. Oh, and this may be sexist of me, but Enrique Acevedo looked really nice without his shirt....
this is the first production of Evita I have seen, and I absolutely thought that the show's POV was that Eva was corrupt but sincere and saintly. that is, of course, a lie- she was at best complicit in atrocities, and at worst, protector of nazis. but it didnt occur to me that THIS production lionized her more than the original...
JDonaghy4 said: "this is the first production of Evita I have seen, and I absolutely thought that the show's POV was that Eva was corrupt but sincere and saintly. that is, of course, a lie- she was at best complicit in atrocities, and at worst, protector of nazis. but it didnt occur to me that THIS production lionized her more than the original..."
Hmm. I think Tim Rice and ALW actually stumbled backwards into a portrait of Eva Peron that was probably close to real life. She was the ambitious ruthless with of a corrupt South American politician. But she also enacted some reforms like women's voting and mandatory education that likely would not have happened without her strength of will.
Really disappointed that I'm missing this -- just could not get a night off to get into the city to see this -- which is a shame. I saw the Elena Rogers production a few years ago and thankfully saw Max Von Essen as Che (rather than Ricky Martin) who was great - but Elena was way off. The few clips I've seen of Solea really depressed me to miss this. Hopefully this won't be her last time in this.
Was hoping that the much-lauded Open-Air production from the West End might make its way over here - perhaps uniting that production with this Eva? One can dream :)
(not even going to express my disappointment that there won't be a new recording...its amazing it's so much easier to record things nowadays and there's less recordings of broadway/musical theatre in general than 15-20 years ago)
joined:5/6/11
joined:
5/6/11
Posted: 11/23/19 at 9:00pm