Is Troika's Evita Tour worth seeing?- Page 2

[EVIE]

Posted: 2/5/08 at 4:33pm

Is this the same tour that started a few years ago with a Kathy something as Eva? I saw it in SF and it was ok at best.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 2/5/08 at 4:36pm

Kathy Vaytko was in the last tour. She was terrible, as well. Don't they learn?

Updated On: 2/5/08 at 04:36 PM

[lildogs]

Posted: 2/5/08 at 4:54pm

This is how the legendary Di2 Meltdown began--just a lil BWW history.

gtothefloflo--we know you're a cast member--don't take this too seriously--but they are paying folks, you know.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 2/5/08 at 5:09pm

I saw the tour with Sarah Litzsinger as Eva (she replaced Kathy Voytko). I felt she was too you for the role, and she looked like a little girl playing dress-up (the horrible wig didn't help matters much).

[lovinlife2]

Posted: 2/17/08 at 10:34pm

Who is the new Eva on tour now that Cameron Wade is leaving?

[gtothefloflo]

Posted: 2/18/08 at 4:02pm

Malia Tippets. There is a short clip of her on youtube.

[BroadwayBuff08]

Posted: 2/21/08 at 12:32pm

Yea, Cameron Wade had to leave the tour for personal reasons I heard. Her understudy Malia Tippets is taking over the role. Good call if you ask me.

[boyturnstOz822]

Posted: 3/3/08 at 4:24am

The new Eva, Malia Tippets is ridiculous! Her voice compares to any broadway female that could tackle the role. I'm sure audiences will enjoy her.

[Dancin Thru Life]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 6:33pm

DAMN!

Who even knew this tour was still alive??? HAHA!
It's in town this week, but only playing at the University of Buffalo stage becaue HAIRSPRAY has the big theatre downtown booked.

Those who saw it - including this Buffalo News Theater Reviewer were calling for "Just a Little Bit (MORE) of Star Quality!"

UGH!...and YAWN!

P.S. They LIKED Malia as Eva!!!!

===========================================

Touring ‘Evita’ fails to sparkle
By Colin Dabkowski NEWS STAFF REVIEWER
Updated: 04/12/08 6:54 AM

“Evita” comes to the University at Buffalo Center for the Arts today and Saturday.

Just a little bit more star quality — that’s what the tour of “Evita” that came to the University at Buffalo Center for the Performing Arts could use.

The long journey that is Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Evita” direly needs breathtaking staging and some truly outstanding performances to distract audiences from Tim Rice’s sometimes yawn-inducing lyrics.

But this production’s xeroxed choreography, perfectly nice set pieces and chintzy video projections don’t quite manage that trick.

The musical, presented Friday night and tonight, tells the complex and heartbreaking story of Eva Peron, Argentina’s beloved first lady who rose to power in 1945 and died in 1952.

Though the show uses Harold Prince’s widely hailed original staging, it relies on what far too many productions have inserted and overused for “contextual reasons”: the video screen of doom. That screen, periodically lowered to present images of Eva Peron herself in various phases of her sordid life, distracts us from the task at hand, which is to tell a story on a stage with live music and choreography. In a story about Peron’s image and perception, it’s easy to see why the screen made sense, but it comes off as less than effective.

The show also includes some moments of cluelessness, as in the epic song “A New Argentina,” when an actor dressed in a mining outfit stands beneath a sign for Argentina’s meat packing union.

As for the performances, things fare somewhat better.

As Evita, Malia Tippets exudes the kind of fierce, goal-oriented performance that is appropriate to her character — and the slightly unhinged stare of her character’s modern political equivalent. But in the sometimes shrill, sometimes sweetly sung songs — many exceedingly challenging and largely well executed — little of the so-called “star quality” that supposedly made Peron herself so beloved shines through.

Omar Lopez-Cepero’s performance of Che, on the other hand, was the hands-down highlight of the otherwise dimly lit show. His Che, as called for, is one of supreme disenchantment, and Lopez-Cepero is obviously having fun with it on-stage. He has perfected his own brand of cavalier apathy, which is one of the few exciting things about it. And that’s not to mention vocal chops, which are impressive.

For anyone curious about the original staging of “Evita” and how it differs in some positive ways from the 1996 film version starring Madonna, a trip to the Center for the Arts is worth it. But for most others, it might be better to save your tears for the next time around.