Storyhouse Live, Chester – until Saturday 21st April 2018
Reviewed by Julie Noller
5*****
Evita the powerful 1976 musical penned by the gods themselves, Sir Tim Rice and Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber has rolled into Chester bringing with it just a touch of star quality. I like many in the audience I’m sure have seen Evita before but I wanted my teenage daughter to hopefully enjoy what is essentially a history lesson but with quite easily some of the best known stage songs of all time. Plus I have to mention that dress, how it dazzled in the lights, the ultimate prom dress. For yes it was a welcome distraction from revising and exams. It’s fair to say she loved it, I heard many a whispered Wow and although at her age she struggled with some wording, she said she’d understood the story and thought it amazing and totally knows now why I was humming all day, high praise indeed from my teenager. I had previously seen Evita on a large stage where the theatre roof was high and was raised even higher. I wanted to see how it would compare within the smaller setting at Chester. I had no reason to worry, the stage came alive and as I am sure when I see Evita again for this masterpiece of theatre deserves to be seen many times and each as fresh as the first time. Evita as a story itself has so many components, a young girls struggle with rejection, her dreams to become famous; an actress. How she rises like a phoenix from the flames of abject poverty to lead women’s suffrage. Finding a strength like no other and becoming the Queen of the people she understood so well. Juan Peron may have been the political leader of Argentina but his power was ultimately nothing without the woman who guided him and shaped him into a more perceivable believable figure much to the disgust of the upper classes and his generals.
Directed by Producer Bill Kenwright, thankfully we the masses are able to enjoy Evita all over again. Madalena Alberto is magnificent as Eva Durate de Peron. From young fifteen year old looking to escape. Was it by fluke with added luck or was she calculating and manipulative? She brings class and strength to the role with a touch of vulnerability not truly seen. Don’t Cry for me Argentina is of course a highlight, the stage moves even closer to us the audience. We inhale there’s an audible silence because we all know whats about to be leashed on us will be powerful. I have to bend my neck to see Evita clearly and for those few minutes I feel like I’m stood in the crowd seeing the Saint Evita address her people. How incredible to have witnessed history. The emotion of Evita, the cries of Juan Peron are clear for all to see thanks to the small stage and closeness of the audience, it was incredible to see Evita with tears of sadness, her distraught husband. At that moment they connect with us in a way that anyone who has battled that despicable disease cancer will feel. Madalena is tiny she is petite yet nothing could stop her belting out those well known classics, my hairs stood on end, my goosebumps had chills, my mouth may have dropped open. Jeremy Secomb plays the bold and dashing Juan Peron from General to President, I see an actor who knows his character. He knows he has ridden his luck and escaped the death squads. Peron is played with charm and yet a questionable side as if uncertain of his own future. Is it really possible that Evita is the driving force behind his rise? How did Evita keep herself safe in a time where she could quite possibly be committing political suicide and risking her own life too, after all she is merely a woman and from the shirtless classes too! Peron has a ruthless side too though, he plots and allows Evita to speak to the masses, rides on her coat tails. For she is loved and adored by the masses and can do no wrong. Che as usual is our storyteller quite possibly the conscience of the people. He tells things as he sees them and equally brings a touch of eye candy to the stage. Gian Marco Schiaretti quite simply owned the Chester stage, with an unbelievable confidence and aura that lit up the stage and had you watching his every move. You listened to him for the alternative point of view, saw him conflict with Evita. He asked us despite what we saw, just who was this saintly Evita as she had done nothing for years.
Special mention must go to the children from Stagecoach in Chester, for they once again as in Manchester have been incredible and unfortunately we do not know our small child’s name but to stand on stage night after night and sing a solo so well at such a young age is remarkable and what a smile. Young Cristina Hoey as the mistress brings the fickleness and uncertainty of the era alive, this is 1940’s post war Argentina and nothing is guaranteed. She is alone and frightened but a mistresses life is quite often that when faced with the ultimate diva and power crazed Evita.
Evita is truly special, it’s history, it’s storytelling but it’s also power ballads and rock. Can you witness perfection too many times? When it comes to Evita the answer is no