By MIKE CHAIKEN EDITIONS EDITOR When I saw “Evita” nearly 30 years ago in the West End of London, the production was sparkly and shiny like a ride at Disney World. Even though the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical was about the fascist dictatorship of a Latin American country and the misplaced adoration for that nation’s corrupt first lady, the musical was a tourist attraction. It almost made you want to be in that universe in the 1940s where the peasants would chant requiems for their oppressors. And the music in that corporate production was given a “Tops of the Pop” sheen. Which one of the “tunes” would make the Top 40, “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” or “Another Suitcase, Another Hall?” It was a different world and a different “Evita” then. After three decades, when the current national tour production rolled into Hartford’s Bushnell on Sept. 23, I wondered how the years would have treated this musical, which was Webber-Rice’s follow-up to their breakthrough show, “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Fortunately, this particular production takes note of the gravity of the story. This isn’t love song to Eva Peron and her dictator husband Juan Peron. This time, the audience […]
By MIKE CHAIKEN EDITIONS EDITOR When I saw “Evita” nearly 30 years ago in the West End of London, the production was sparkly and shiny like a ride at Disney World. Even though the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical was about the fascist dictatorship of a Latin American country and the misplaced adoration for that nation’s corrupt first lady, the musical was a tourist attraction. It almost made you want to be in that universe in the 1940s where the peasants would chant requiems for their oppressors. And the music in that corporate production was given a “Tops of the Pop” sheen. Which one of the “tunes” would make the Top 40, “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” or “Another Suitcase, Another Hall?” It was a different world and a different “Evita” then. After three decades, when the current national tour production rolled into Hartford’s Bushnell on Sept. 23, I wondered how the years would have treated this musical, which was Webber-Rice’s follow-up to their breakthrough show, “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Fortunately, this particular production takes note of the gravity of the story. This isn’t love song to Eva Peron and her dictator husband Juan Peron. This time, the audience […]