British Critics Love New ‘Evita’ Star

British Critics Love New ‘Evita’ Star
London theater critics heaped praise Thursday on a tango-tinged revival of “Evita,” the Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical about Argentine icon Eva Peron – and on its Buenos Aires-born star, Elena Roger.

Many consider the show, first staged in 1978, the strongest work written by Lloyd Webber and his lyricist collaborator Tim Rice. Its centerpiece song, “Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina,” is certainly one of the most memorable.

The role of Evita, who rose from poverty to become Argentina’s first lady as wife of dictator Juan Peron before dying of cancer at 33, has proved the making of several divas, including original star Elaine Paige and Broadway Evita Patti LuPone. Madonna starred in a 1996 screen version of the musical.

For the show’s first West End production in two decades, British director Michael Grandage has cast Argentine performer Elena Roger – a star in her homeland but unfamiliar to English-speaking audiences – in the central role.

Nightingale felt Roger’s vocal power was “at times so jarring that I thought my ears were being attacked with an electric screwdriver.” But he reckoned that was a plus _”then again, wasn’t that Evita?”

Nightingale and others praised the infusion of tango rhythms into the show’s arrangements and in Rob Ashford’s sensuous choreography.
Almost three decades after its premiere, many critics remained troubled by the show’s ambivalent attitude to its heroine – was she a quasi-fascist demagogue or a champion of the people?

Sources: Associated Press / www.broadwayworld.com.