Review Roundup: EVITA Opens in the West End

Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita returns to London's West End for a strictly limited season at the Dominion Theatre. The musical considered by many to be Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's masterwork will play for 55 performances only in the West End, with musical theatre and pop icon Marti Pellow playing Che, Ben Forster playing Augustin Magaldi, and newcomer Madalena Alberto in the title role. Evita officially opens tonight, 22 September.

EVITA charts the story of Eva Peron, wife of former Argentine dictator Juan Peron, from her humble beginnings through to the extraordinary wealth, power and iconic status which ultimately led her to be heralded as the 'spiritual leader of the nation'.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph: I have to confess to a terrible case of "love-hate" about Evita...I admire its ambition. I am grateful for its existence. But I think it's equal parts beauty and bombast...It takes a long journey -- if fluently and lavishly co-directed here by Bob Tomson and Bill Kenwright -- to get to a place where [Evita] means something...It's as if Lloyd Webber and Rice are so ambivalent about whether Evita is a good soul underneath her populist airs and graces that she's kept at one remove. The air of hollowness around her is passed off as a critique of the smoke-and-mirrors world of politics but it makes for quite arid viewing...You may end up feeling that the show's heart is in the right place - and that Evita's was too. But it's a close call.

Quentin Letts, The Daily Mail: It was hard not to think of Scotland while watching the return of Evita to the West End last night -- and a good production it is, too...This too-brief revival...reminds us of Andrew Lloyd Webber's superb melodies...It also, thanks to recent events, has an unexpected topicality, for does the example of Juan Peron in Argentina in the 1940s and 50s not show us the limits of nationalism?...Miss Alberto is superb as Eva, feeding off the crowds, her voice sure. Matthew Cammelle is good as Peron, Ben Forster does splendidly as nightclub singer Magaldi. Sarah McNicholas makes the most of her solo as the mistress. The dance sequences are crisp and energetic. Marti Pellow plays the onlooker Che, beret-clad everyman. He has a quavery voice and I kept worrying that he was a smidgen off the rhythm. No matter. Senora Peron, with her fox stole and eyebrowed allure and ailing hunger to be adored, retains her special hold.

Marianka Swain, TheArtsDesk.com: Like their divisive protagonist, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice could reasonably be accused of valuing style over substance: indelible extravaganza Evita subscribes to the cult of celebrity without truly interrogating it, nor are we given enough dramatised information to make a real judgement about a woman equally lauded and vilified. Bill Kenwright and Bob Tomson don't address these failings so much as largely distract from them in their marvellously fluid revival...This may not be the definitive Evita, but it certainly dresses the part...Alberto...is a revelation, effortlessly projecting Eva's vaunted "star quality" and producing a fascinating portrait of gradually constructed identity...Evita stumbles when attempting incisive satire -- its level of nuance is somewhere between medieval morality play and Downton Abbey -- yet if not profound, it is at least resonant, illustrating overlap between politics and showbiz and the use of those in the spotlight to distract from hardship, gulf in fortunes reframed as aspiration and escapism.

Sophie Bredbere, LondonTheatre1.com: With such a rich story, you need to have a cast to do the show justice. The leading lady Madalena Alberto shines as Eva Peron, continuing on from the tour. She gradually transforms from the lively, vivacious fifteen year old wanting to see Buenos Aires, to the physically broken but still determined thirty-something Eva in the last moments of the show. Her voice is astounding, managing to captivate the audiences throughout. Also continuing his role is Marti Pellow as Che, and had improved since seeing the show on tour. He was more confident, his voice stronger and overall far more comfortable in the skin of the character; there was undeniable chemistry between the two lead characters...The staging is slick, the choreography perfectly synchronised under Bill Deamer, and the overall design of the show by Matthew Wright is on point for the decades that the musical covers.

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Photo Credit: Roy Tan

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