Through the years of seeing nearly a hundred productions of Evita, and
talking to hundreds of people, one thing is clear: your favorite cast is usually
the first one you saw. To some degree, that is true with me.
I spent weeks with the Broadway cast during its out of town tour and you
appreciate the nuances more when you've seen them evolve--in performances, the
increasing smoothness of the crew's operation, the refining of choreography and
costumes. In many ways, that company and crew will always represent Evita
to me. Yet my journalist's training and a lifetime of theatregoing has hopefully
given me a certain objectivity.
The first question people usually ask is "who is your favorite
Evita/Che/Perón/whatever?" Talk about a loaded question. I'll answer it
this way.
Elaine's sheer energy and force onstage gave me the sense of what the real Eva
Perón must have had to do to accomplish what she did. Elaine was a bundle
of dynamite onstage and you thought she would explode at any moment. She and
Julie Covington probably sang the score with more clarity and crispness than any
other Evitas.
The Peróns--this one's easy. Two words. Bob Gunton. He conveys more with
his back to the audience than most actors do facing it. His wonderful mix of
power and weakness was perfection. Nobody's done it better.
The Ches--also easy. I have never cared for Hal's hysterical, spitting take on
Che. Mandy is a tremendous talent, and his 'High Flying, Adored' and 'Peron's
Latest Flame' were superb. But my favorite? Patxi Andion in Madrid. He argued
the case like the educated man Guevara was. You saw Eva, then he told you what
was wrong with this picture, all the while his smoldering eyes told you of his
passion to come in other places. In the Hal Prince-driected companies, I
especially enjoyed John Herrera and Tim Bowman. In Vienna (and later in
Germany), the show suffered from a bad translation. But Alexander Goebel
re-translated his part and delighted in playing with the audiences who seemed
unable to deal with Eva Perón as a character, but he forced them to.
Fascinating performance.
Now the rest of the Evitas: Patti--oh, what to say about Patti's Evita? Dynamic,
charismatic, powerful--needy, psychotic, frightened. She was an Evita to be
reckoned with. Her struggle to 'get it right' equaled Eva's. But oh, that night
in San Francisco when it all came together! And remember Patti's 'Don't Cry
for Me' on the Grammys? Sheer perfection. She can and has always delivered that
song in a way unequaled by anyone else.
Flo Lacey's Evita was magical. Her
capability of totally changing her voice from first act to second was amazing.
She gained ten years in experience and maturity during intermission, as Eva must
have. I could watch Flo do Evita endlessly (and have) without tiring of
her interpretation. Valerie Perri was one of the youngest Evitas and always
effective, she has grown even more beautifully into the role as she's done it
around the country during the 90s.
The Two Mexico City Evitas, Roccio Banquells and Valeria Lynch (the first
Argentine-born actress to play the role) brought a wonderful Latin flavor to the
piece and the rest of the cast was excellent. Remarkably, Akiko Kuno in Japan
exhibited a real understanding of the woman she was playing and her performance
was stunning.
But nothing will ever match the thrill of the Madrid cast. Paloma San
Basilio--with no formal training in acting--her Evita sliced through the air of
the
Teatro Monumental like a knife. I saw many people in the audience whose hands
gripped the arms of their seats so tight during her balcony speech that their
knuckles turned white. Her young Eva was skittish as a colt, and during 'The
Money Keeps Rolling In,' the staging had huge crowds pressing against her
during the 'freezes' nearly pushing her off the stage, and in her eyes, you
could see the panic Eva must have felt sometimes: 'Have I created a monster?'
The superb orchestrations (by an Argentine) and hearing the story sung in the
language in which it was lived was wrenching.
But the London production--with its Britishness--was also great. The British
were a huge presence in Argentina before Perón and the audiences there,
unlike those at first in America, at least knew who those people on the stage
really were. There was always the flavor of 'the sun never sets on the British
Empire' about the company at the Prince Edward and it felt right.
My favorite Evita moment? Stranded in Venice during an Italian railway
strike while enroute from seeing the Viennese to the Spanish productions, a
conductor walking down the platform singing--in Italian--'Don't Cry for Me,
Agentina.'
Through dozens of countries and tens of thousands of performances, Evita
is one of those near-perfect shows. Actor-proof, critic-proof. It always works.
Whom have I left out? It's been a long 22 years. From world capitals to
Hollywood High and Santa Monica City College where they did the Requiem with a
dozen crosses suspended in the air over a cemetery. And to each and every actor
in every performance I have seen, you have brought your very special magic to
the show and I thank you all.
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