Friday, April 6, 2012

Evita Opens on Broadway

The first Broadway revival of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita has opened on Broadway to mixed-to-negative reviews.  Variety said that the production comes off well and is "graced by an impressive performance by Argentine actress Elena Roger."  Ben Brantley of the times mentions a similar thing but in a different, more pointed way.  He writes in his New York Times review:

"As it did when it was first staged on Broadway in 1979, this bio-operetta begins and ends with the funeral of its title character.  But, unlike that earlier incarnation, this version by [director] Michael Grandage never seems to whip up any human life in the intervening two hours of sung-through flashbacks.  Despite the hard work of its spirited leading lady, the Argentine actress Elena Roger -- supported by a barely there Rickey Martin and a sterling Michael Cerveris -- this musical combination of history pageant and requiem Mass feels about as warmblooded as a gilded mummy."

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