Review: A pulse-racing ‘Evita’ at Drury Lane Theatre
Productions like the Drury Lane’s full-throttle “Evita,” replete with a hell-for-leather company of 30, a bonanza of fresh notions, far more choreography than is traditional with this show and enough costumes changes to need an extended intermission to sort out all the racks, still feel to me like a small miracle in these lingering days of COVID-19.
Drury Lane Theatre, like many of its peers, has made it through the rain. As unbowed as Eva Perón herself. Huzzah for that. The late, great Tony DeSantis who built the joint would have expected no less.
I have to confess a singular affection for this particular musical, which I’ve see more times than I can remember, deriving from my dad taking me to see it back in its original production when I was a teen. “Evita” was a big deal in its day and it was my first taste of musical theater at the highest level.
The score by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice is an unapologetic pastiche, of course, filled with anachronisms and appropriations, but its variety and melodic drive make it eminently listenable. Many lovers of this show, and the pop-opera form, would be quite happy with an evening of just closing our eyes and listening to the score, especially when it is sung as well as it is with this particular company of vocalists. If that’s your bag, roll up to Oakbrook Terrace and enjoy. Both Sean MacLaughlin, who plays Juan Perón, and Richard Bermudez, who plays Che, have fantastic instruments. And on opening night, Michelle Aravena, who plays the title role, didn’t miss a single note. Add in these young ensemble voices (some making their Equity debuts) and you’re all set.
The director, Marcia Milgrom Dodge, invariably shows up at this theater with fascinating ideas for fresh ways to get an older material and this show is no exception. There are no echoes or homages to the original Hal Prince production, with the only exception the look of the title character, but that’s grounded in newsreels.
The production is, at times, over-staged. It’s a forgivable phenomenon of the moment as theater professionals bust back out on to the stage, but the cost here is the show’s built-in cynicism. Take for example, the famed song “Another Suitcase in Another Hall” (once a pop hit), nicely sung here by Keila Hamed-Ramos. Dodge stages the number with several mistresses leaving several military leaders, making a point about the ubiquitousness of their plight, for sure, but also pulling focus for a beautiful composition wherein the artistic power lies almost entirely in its simplicity. That’s just one of several examples: Bermudez is saddled with all kinds of physical business, especially early on in the show, when all he really needs to do is look us all in the eye and sing his song and find its attitudinal truths. Che is way too showy, and Che can’t be showy, given that every lyric out of his mouth is lambasting politics as theater.
Aravena’s vocal mastery of this part is hugely impressive and in the less frenetic Act 2, she settles down nicely into its crucial more reflective moments. I’d say her challenge going forward is to find more spontaneity of feeling and fresh discovery. That’s the key to true excellence; MacLaughlin is offering rock-like support.
All that said, this is one immersive, involving “Evita,” told with a life-or-death imperative. That doesn’t always gel with the sardonic remove the writers built into their material, nor the show’s prescient awareness of the sardonic tango of showbiz and politic power, personal branding and the possibility for genuinely populist adoration by those craving relief from being ignored.
But it sure grabs your gut. And for many, it’s been a while.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
Review: “Evita”
When: Through March 20
Where: Drury Lane Theatre, 100 Drury Lane in Oakbrook Terrace
Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes
Tickets: $59-$74 at 630-530-0111 or drurylanetheatre.com
