Deja vu all over again. I saw the first preview of EVITA (9/10/79 I believe), remember the dishing at Ted Hooks (those little lampshades with names on 'em) afterwards, and then saw the show again in December. On both occasions, the star performance, as has been noted by Lupone, was Patinkin's. The reception afforded Lupone both times was lukewarm; respectable as befits the role but devoid of standees and whistles. In January of 1980 I saw Terri Klausner at a Saturday matinee, and was more excited; Among other virtues, her take managed to make the front half of act one work in ways that defeated Lupone. She looked better in that hideous "Buenos Aires" dress and wig, and found some sexual heat that was not in Lupone's work, no matter what Brantely opines. (The most bizarre element in his review, the "white hot" and "sexy" references. Whatever the original EVITA was, it was about as sexy as, well, a lecture on fascism. Watching Lupone and Gunton in bed wasn't up there with someone screaming "Stella")
What's forgotten about then vs. now: in our youth many of us were devotees of the double white album, and the rock-pop sound of the original orchestrations (not just "Ladies Got Potential," but that song is a reminder of where Lloyd Webber was in his composing trajectory at that point). Julie Covington had made an extraordinary impression, and her young pop sound was thrilling and, not to sound like Randy Jackson, not "so Broadway." So when we arrived on September 10th and heard the Lupone vocals, we felt as some did about the Mazzie takeover in NEXT TO NORMAL, that a pop-belt sound, still fairly unique in the musical theater in 79, had been replaced by a legit Broadway actor's, and in our youth, thought the show had sold out in some ways by employing this serious musical theater actress. Remember, post JESUS pre-CATS, Lloyd Webber was the bad boy of musicals, not someone to mock because his nagging melodies were impossible to remove from your eardrums. So many of us felt that Hal Prince had taken a hip show (on disc), a successor of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, and over-Broadway-ized it (more Randy Jackson). It wasn't "cool" anymore, and we dished its formal, too traditional feel, despite the staging.
I ended up touting Klausner's Eva to many that first year because she sounded more like my beloved Covington. As is widely known, documented with painstaking honesty in Lupone's memoirs, Patti had a helluva time negotiating the score from day one, and resorted to her head voice to protect it. That belt you hear on the recording, on the Tonys, wasn't employed 6 times a week, certainly not in the opening months. She was still learning how to find her way with the music, and as she freely admits, didn't locate a comfort zone until she performed it in Australia. She famously states that one blown note early on could damage her voice for a week (I paraphrase, but read the book; it's there.)
So it's quite interesting to read the current role occupant's singing compared unfavorably to the legendary Lupone vocals. Lupone stayed with the show 18 months, and won the Tony (barely, as many voters were in the Sandy Duncan camp for her winning PETER PAN). But at the time, Mandy Patinkin was the performance event, the show was dissed by most press.
I will now inflame many, but I have grown to see the show as seriously flawed in ways I never could in my youth. What's always been the challenge, in casting, staging: whom do we root for in EVITA? With Mandy and now Ricky, we have the most appealing person on stage, the one the audiences likes the most, deride and denigrate a heroine for 2 hours. Not a single kind thing does he say about this woman. Che's POV is the audience access, and he is introduced as the absolutely reliable narrator, a casual acquaintance for the night on hand to show us a good time. It's as if in CABARET we are told by the MC that Sally Bowles up there singing is really a non-talent whore, unworthy of our time. (Maybe a stretch, but my POV issue is relevant.) With Patinkin, the sheer power of the performance only made his rage at this woman more thrilling, his words more damning. Che was downstage center most of the evening as tableau vivants behind him played out the tale he was so appalled to relate. At the end of act one, he's dragged off by thugs. To the audience, our "star" (in terms of our connection) was in trouble. We liked this guy, he's smart, he's got the goods on this egomaniac, and her husband's henchmen took him away. It's simply the way the show plays. Then we get to act two and are shoehorned into an emotion-tinged arc built on a dying young woman. By the end, what are left to feel, to think? How, exactly, has this entertainment ... entertained? Esoteric discussions raised by Prince and others about the use of media in politics and other sidebar issues miss the bigger point: what do we root for? Who wins? Who loses? The material tries to have it both ways, to get us to side with Che and Eva, and for two hours enjoy a debate we really don't want to have in that theater seat. A young man castigates a woman's rise, she gets cancer and dies. The casting, starting with Mandy, stacks the deck. It's a great score, a fascinating "concept," but a bizarre piece of musical theater for a commercial audiences. These reviews reminded of how confusing EVITA really is.
It will be most intriguing to watch this production's box office, and to find out if the brand and Martin's name being attached suffice. This is the first EVITA with top-billed stars, at least in the US. The show itself used to be the star, or at least the event, the reason to go. A year from now, we will have more to talk about.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
Updated On: 4/6/12 at 03:19 PM
