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Evita
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW “Evita” at the Fox Theatre.
If your only acquaintance with “Evita” is Madonna’s 1996 flick, please lose the memory right now.
The award-winning stage musical in town through Sunday is Hal Prince’s “Evita,” pulsing in three-dimensional blood, smoke and fire as it did when he brought it to Broadway in 1979.
Prince, whose producing-directing résumé includes “Cabaret,” “Company,â€? “Sweeney Todd,â€? “Follies,â€? “West Side Story,â€? “Fiddler on the Roof,â€? “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,â€? “The Phantom of the Operaâ€? and more, supervised this effort, which is directed and choreographed by original dance man Larry Fuller.
Although we can only guess at Prince’s input, his imprint is everywhere: in the spare staging that uses scaffolding, projections and a few movable pieces to tell an epic story of political intrigue; in a high-stakes game of musical chairs played by the military elite; in the way a haughty band of aristocrats is stripped of furs and jewels then absorbed by the working poor; in the appearance of Argentine soldiers, all spit and polish in bright blue uniforms but wearing dark glasses and bushy mustaches a la Groucho Marx (are they laughing at Eva?).
“Evita” tells the story of Eva Duarte, born poor but determined in 1919, a second-rate actress who slept up, eventually marrying dictator Juan Perón and becoming first lady of Argentina. She was compared to Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini in life. In death, supporters sought her canonization.
The Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice rock opera, among the first, works as history lesson, biography, political commentary and entertainment. At a time when America’s president is losing popularity, it makes us wonder how much we can know about a leader’s agenda.
Three characters form “Evita’s� core: Eva, Juan Perón and Ché, patterned after revolutionary Ché Guevara, although there is no proof he and Eva ever met.
Philip Hernandez makes a facile Perón, slipping in and out of danger like a lucky snake. He’s got a deep, lush voice and a telling way with an inflection or facial tick.
We first see Ché (Bradley Dean, in the role created by Mandy Patinkin) in sweaty fatigues, sucking on a stubby cigar. He’s unmoved by Eva’s death, skeptical of her achievements in life. In one of musical theater’s toughest roles, he is narrator, commentator, tour guide and conscience, popping up here and there to portray bit players, analyzing the action and, at times, addressing the audience. Dean is the real deal — his accents and gestures, his shrieking high notes and mournful low ones never feel false.
Eva (Evita was a nickname) must be bigger-than-life, charismatic, mercurial, believable, likable. We must see why Perón fell for her, why she was worshipped and despised. We do much of the time with Kathy Voytko, in the impossible role that made Patti LuPone a Broadway name. Voytko’s eyes can be incendiary, deflating. A flip of her head dismissive or flirtatious. Her smile a gift from on high. Voytko sparks and smolders, but she never really ignites. And Eva, ultimately, must be a flame-thrower.
The backbone of this “Evita� is its ensemble of 26 singer-actors who throw out gorgeous, dissonant harmonies and change costumes as often as Eva changed lovers (the dancing, though, feels more by-the-numbers than devil-may-care).
Still, in less than 2 1/2 taut hours, Theater of the Stars proves how vivid, wrenching and smart musical theater can be. In a world of “Hairsprays� and “Spamalots� and “Mamma Mias,� we must always make room for “Evitas.�
“Evita” 8 p.m. Aug. 3-5; 2 and 8 p.m. Aug. 6; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Aug. 7. $20-$59. Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 404-817-7000, www.foxtheatre.org.
The verdict: Like Eva Perón, imperfect but often mesmerizing.
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