Evita

I am indeed no stranger to Evita and so was very much looking forward to attending Romiley`s production of Evita at Stockport Plaza. We entered the auditorium to see an open stage looking very stark bathed in a cold blue light. A central longways draped lower rostron was home to a draped black coffin, a huge video wall was immediately behind, above and slightly back from the video wall was a mezzanine walkway and then behind that another huge video wall. There were stairs at  each end of the stage leading up to the mezzanine walkway and two balcony type sections complete with scaffolding pole type railings  jutting out towards the audience. The structure of this fixed set took up at least half the stage area, as we found out later in the production the coffin was on a lifting system which moved seamlessly .

Lighting design by Ian Legate was sympathetic to the scenes and at times really quite beautiful, in particular when Eva and Peron are performing “You Must Love Me” – very simple pin prick spot allows the beauty of the song and the harshness of the situation to come through. Sound by Adam Taylor and Tube Uk was good, there were no gremlins, drops or missed cues. The video screens supplied by MSL played video`s taken by Steven Bailey of the cast in character, they were very effective and certainly stood out well against the black set .  Costumes by Janet Newcombe and Annabel Reyes were loosely of the era , I saw a youth in a jumper with a zip up – he should have had a shirt on really but that is me being picky.  Props by Dannielle Barton-Crump, Donna Barton-Simms and Matt Brindle were very fitting to the scenes portrayed and handled very competently by the cast.

Dawn Leigh as Director certainly put her stamp on this production by taking the brave option of having all the cast use a strong Argentinian accent all the way through instead of just using Argentinian influenced dialogue as most west end productions do. This did make for some difficulty in understanding dialogue and I did hear some mutterings from audience members about it  but well done Dawn for taking a risk. There were also some other steps away from the norm which was refreshing – Ava (Louise Colohan) wore a much looser styled wig than the traditional severe scraped back bun that we are used to seeing, the iconic balcony scene was done on an angle instead of front on, costumes in the” Rainbow Tour” were more muted instead of the traditional bright and vibrant.

Gary Jones as Choreographer had a mammoth task in that half his dance space was taken up with set so he had to condense all his movements and make them take up less space without seeming to look smaller, at one point  he had 60 + people on stage  which did look a little crowded.  He had a group of 15 dancers that showed some stunning lines, back bends and leg extensions during some of the numbers - in particular  “Charity Concert/ I`d Be Surprisingly Good For You” and “ Waltz For Eva And Che”.  Tall boys who can dance elegantly and confidently always stand out but these boys were also showcasing their dancing partners well too. The ensemble also moved well with purpose and conviction, personally I would have liked to see a bit more passion  in their shouting of “Peron”  during “A New Argentina” .

Paul Lawton as Musical Director had to deal with the musical side of things and Evita is a big musical with more than just one central big song . Evita is based in Latin America and that shows in an awful lot of the musical numbers in the show – the fast latin beat is running through which calls for some vocal acrobatics and some great pace, his baton was definitely going ten to the dozen as he controlled his fabulous sounding orchestra and cast with ease.

Gary Jones as Che gave us a very physical performance right from the start, he showed some strong energy and angst  interspersed with some solid vocals. He had some good chemistry on stage with Eva (Louise Colohan) and their voices melded nicely together, I particularly enjoyed “Goodnight And Thank You” as Eva slept her way up the chain of powerful men. Scarlett Bailey took on the part of very young Eva Peron – she had a nice stage presence. Evie Moran took the part of young Eva Peron  and she sang  “ Buenos Aires”, unfortunately on the night I visited her voice cracked during the vocal but her physical performance of the song was good. John Harrrison played opposite her as the smooth crooning Augustin Magaldi – Eva`s ticket to New York in her search for fame. He had some lovely strong vocals with nice tone. Paul Allison portrayed Peron`s legendary coldness well, he  oozed a detatchment to everything  until he met Eva. One of my favourite songs from the show is “I`d Be Surprisingly Good For You” as it shows the build up of interest then passion. Paul and Louise built the fire and fanned the flames beautifully, they actually listened to the lyrics and and acted and reacted instead of just singing, there was lots of light and shade. When it got to “ You Must Love Me” I will admit to them making me cry – the intensity of their performance in that moment was superb. Louise Colohan as Eva Peron certainly brought her singing chops! This part is vocally exhausting but at no point was there any drop in energy within Louise`s performance or any extra four bars thrown in for a breather. She looked beautiful and sounded strong as she sang to Argentina on the balcony of the Casa Rosada, when it came to it Louise  as Eva died well .

The white rose petals were a nice touch and very much matched the overall aesthetic.Well Done to the Stage Crew for getting that coffin to rise.  Thank you for inviting me, myself and my guest enjoyed your performance of Evita. I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.