On August 6th, 2012, my cousin, her husband, and I saw the a Monday evening performance of the Andrew Lloyd Webber / Tim Rice musical "Evita" at the Marquis Theatre. This was the first Broadway Revival of "Evita." There hadn't even been a return engagement of the musical to grace the Broadway stage with its presence since the original production closed in 1983. Still, while "Evita" was nominated in 2012 for a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, it lost to "The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess." That might be because this production of "Evita" played the West End stage six years before. The production also starred Argentinian actress Elena Roger, and performed at London's Adelphi Theatre in 2006.
Anyway, like I wrote earlier, we saw "Evita" on a Monday. The only reason I remember it was a Monday performance was because Ricky Martin did not perform the role of Che on Monday, which was his night off. The role of Che was played by Max von Essen, who usually played the role of Magaldi in this production. Seven years later, I saw Max Von Essen in the National Tour of "Falsettos, and left during intermission.
The revival had its West End premiere in 2006 to mark the 10th anniversary of the movie. While Elena Roger starred in both the 2006 and 2012 productions, the rest of the casts differed from one another. The 2006 production co-starred Matt Rawle as Che, and Phillip Quast as Juan Perón. The 2012 production co-starred Ricky Martin as Che, and Michael Cerveris as Juan Perón. Michael Cerveris was the only cast member of the 2012 Broadway Revival to receive a 2012 Tony Award nomination. A highlights cast recording of the 2006 production was made, only for a complete, two-disc cast recording of the 2012 production to be made six years later. Both cast recordings feature the "Montage" number, which is probably my favorite number besides "A New Argentina." Wbile the productions were basically identical, and featured the song from the movie "You Must Love Me," I think the 2006 recording had stronger vocals.
On the same trip that I saw the 2012 Revival of "Evita," I went to the TKTS Booth in Times Square with hopes of getting an inexpensive matinee ticket to "The Phantom of the Opera," which was celebrating 25 years on Broadway that year. I ended up getting a half-price ticket to Phantom, but I almost purchased a matinee ticket to "Evita." That way I would have gotten to see Ricky Martin perform the role of Che. The alternate performer of Eva Perón, Christina DeCicco, would have performed that day, so I could have compared and contrasted the two Evitas. Do theatregoers still do that?
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| Elena Roger as Eva Perón and Michael Cerveris as Juan Perón (photo by Sara Krulwich). |
Besides Elena Roger, Michael Cerveris, Ricky Martin, and Max Von Essen, the cast of this production of "Evita" included Rachel Potter, Ashley Amber, George Lee Andrews, Eric L. Christian, Kristine Covillo, Colin Cunliffe, Margot de la Barre, Bradley Dean, Rebecca Eichenberger, Melanie Field, Constantine Germanacos, Laurel Harris, Bahiyah Hibah, Nick Kenkel, Brad Little, Erica Mansfield, and Sydney Morton.
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In September of 2013, Theo and I went to see a performance of the Andrew Lloyd Webber / Tim Rice Musical "Evita" when the National Tour played at the Oriental Theatre (now the Nederlander Theatre) in Chicago. I remember being surprised that the production was going to go on tour. When the 2012 Revival of "Evita" lost the Tony Award to "Porgy and Bess," I figured "Porgy and Bess" would go on a lengthy National Tour. Nope. "Porgy and Bess" embarked on a limited National Tour, skipping Chicago as a tour stop.
This was a decent Touring production. Although, some of Christopher Oram's scenic design from the Broadway Revival was either altered or missing altogether. Still, it was fun to see the show with a different cast. Caroline Bowman played the title role except for Wednesday and Saturday matinee, when Desi Oakley performed the role. The part of Che was played by Josh Young, who I had seen play Judas in "Jesus Christ Superstar" the year before at the La Jolla Playhouse. While this touring production of "Evita" was in town, I saw it twice, once with Caroline Bowman as Eva Perón, and once with Desi Oakley as Eva Perón. The role of Juan Perón was played by Sean McLaughlin. The National Tour performed in Chicago for three weeks, and I went back to see a matinee performance so I could see Desi Oakley play the part of Eva Perón. Both actresses gave strong performances.
Just like in the 2012 Broadway Revival, one of the things that was different in this production from the Harold Prince production was that the song "You Must Love Me" (written for the 1996 film) was in the production. It was sung right after "Waltz for Eva and Che." In the Broadway Production, that was Elena Rogers's strongest number. In the National Tour, Caroline Bowman sounded strongest in "A New Argentina" and "Rainbow High." Tbe song "Buenos Aires" is towards the beginning of Act One, so it wasn't the strongest song for either actress.
This touring production of "Evita" was called "The Rainbow Tour," having been named after the song in Act Two (not to be confused with the song "Rainbow High"). The Oriental Theatre was the second tour stop of this production. The first stop of "The Rainbow Tour" was at the Providence Performing Arts Center. When the production left Chicago, it went on to perform at the Fox Theatre - St. Louis; the Pantages Theatre- Los Angeles; the San Diego Civic Center; the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts; The Smith Center - Las Vegas; ASU Cammage - Tempe; Segerstrom Center for the Arts; Paramount Theatre; and many, many more venues until the tour's final stop at the Kennedy Center Opera House at the end of September, 2014. That was a year after the Chicago tour stop. Interesting how the National Tour ran longer than the 2012 Broadway Revival, which ran for about nine months. The Third National Tour of the Harold Prince production of "Evita" ran for years, running longer than the original Broadway Production. Go figure. Or don't.
Looking back, I was probably too critical about the tour's scenic design. I mean, the Broadway Revival didn't win a Tony Award for... you guessed it... Best Revival of a Musical. There was really no reason for the Really Useful Group, or whoever, to haul around a touring production that was exactly identical to the production that ran on Broadway for such a brief period of time. It didn't even run long enough for there to be cast replacements. With that being said, I'm glad I got to see the Broadway Revival when I could, as well as the touring production twice, which I think had equally powerful performances from its leading players, if not more so.
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| Caroline Bowman as Eva Perón and Josh Young as Che Guevara (photo by Richard Termine). |
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