A story about a time in Argentinian history when common folk were at their lowest, hungriest and most desperate. Through the darkness shone a beacon of light and her name was Evita.
The show opens with a fantastical musical introduction, displaying the love and admiration the Argentinians had for their beautiful First Lady. While the set design was minimal, it helped highlight both the vocal and physical talents of the cast. While the first half of the show was a little draggy, especially due to the over the top narrator, the second half was where the cast began to truly shine in their roles.
It’s not very often that the supporting cast outshines the lead cast (in a good way), but the supporting cast were absolutely amazing. Their execution of choreography, songs and play multiple roles with such conviction was admirable. They play their characters so well that you often question yourself if it’s truly the same actors on stage in different costumes.
The score by Andrew Lloyd Webber was phenomenal and the vocal talent of the cast really brought it to life. This was especially demonstrated during, “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina”, which was performed beautifully and eerily, reminiscent of a time when all one could do was hope to be pulled out of the despair of poverty.
The weak points of the show was that the acting for Evita felt ungenuine and somewhat forced and the Narrator is overly flamboyant in the first half. While these problems were rectified in the second half, the issues had already left a bad impression.
A special mention has to be made for the sound engineers and AV department. The background was more than just a backdrop, it was a character on stage. During the recreation of one of Evita’s famous rallies and speeches, the crowd of people who would have been in attendance is brought to life by the perfectly timed sound of cheers and wails of what sounded like 100’s of thousands of people eating up her every word.
The sound effects used felt as if they were taken straight from the rallies themselves and remastered for the show -impressively prepared to coincide with pictures from the time. Be prepared for some rather explicit imagery of both death and desperation.
Evita is a fantastic musical totally worth a visit as it transports you to a time when the world was just a dark place in need of a shining light to show us the way.
Tickets for Evita are now available on Sistic!