'Evita' On Broadway Draws Mixed Reviews, So We Thought We'd Make The Critics Talk About It

The reviews are in for the Broadway revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Evita," and it feels like everyone went to a different show. The AP is swooning over Ricky Martin and no one else, the Wall Street Journal says it's Michael Cerveris who steals the show as Juan Peron, and the New York Times isn't really into any of it. The only thing anyone seems to agree on is that Evita's voice needs some work. Yikes. With all this dissension in the air, it seems the only way to pull a meaningful assessment out is by starting, as they say, a dialogue. To make it happen, we're launching a new structure we'd like to call "E-Chatting With The Critics," in which we, your humble moderators, make our way through the reviews from the biggest dailies and fashion a conversation out of the standout lines. Like with any worthwhile game, it gets less confusing once you start to play. Shall we?

Hello Mark Kennedy, theater critic for the AP. It seems like you have something to say about Ricky Martin, who plays Che. Oh there you go talking already!

"He sings beautifully, dances gracefully, athletically climbs ladders, plays his role with a knowing sneer and elicits drools in his suspenders and tight white shirt. He even makes a mustache work."

Well! Sounds like you loved Ricky Martin! Any other thoughts?

"Ricky Martin is easily the best thing about this revival. In fact, maybe it's time for Broadway to have a new rule: Put Ricky Martin in everything. He would fit in happily at "Newsies." He would definitely enliven "Death of a Salesman." Heck, put him in "Mary Poppins" and watch the roof really lift off."

Ok! Think we've got it then. Ricky Martin...totally 100 percent good. What about the other people though? Say, Elena Roger, the acclaimed Argentinian stage actress who plays, you know, Evita? Or Michael Cerveris as the fiery Juan Peron?

"Roger's 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina' is good without being brilliant, and her 'You Must Love Me' is lovely, though a tad angry. Tony Award-winner Cerveris is typically solid, able to add a neediness and tenderness to a Juan Peron who is thinly written. But Martin, whose repertoire of pop songs includes 'Shake Your Bon-Bon' and 'Livin' La Vida Loca,' outshines them both with a youthful vigor that escaped Antonio Banderas in the film. Martin seems to catch the eye whatever he does: prowling the stage, mocking the Perons or just leaning against a wall."

You...are a focused man, Mark Kennedy, and we're going to have to cut you off. Ben Brantley, from the New York Times, how's it looking from your vantage point? Bonus points if you talk about someone other than Ricky Martin.

There’s little variety or seductiveness in Ms. Roger’s singing voice, which is sharp and nasal, especially in the upper registers of the vocally punishing part. (You can see how she would have been good as Édith Piaf, whom she portrayed to acclaim in London.)

It looks like the uncredited reviewer at the New York Daily News is nodding. Yep, yes, he or she is. Daily News Reviewer: you also felt Ms. Roger's singing failed to meet expectations?

"Her voice can get thin and reedy — “Rainbow High” is a low."

Ouch. Howard Shapiro, at the Philadelphia Inquirer. Is that your raised hand? Go right ahead sir, and congrats on the prestigious new editorial management.

"Roger’s Evita, when she’s singing like an operatic butterfly, can be sweet and moving, but she continues to sing that way as the passion grows in the lyrics, and when she’s finally at full force — don’t cry for me! — she’s shrill or tinny, a problem that could be hers, or Mick Potter’s sound design, or both."

Mr. Teachout at the Wall Street Journal -- what do you think was the issue?

She's a good actor and a wonderful dancer, but her voice is small and shrill, and she hasn't an ounce of star quality.

Oh my. Business Week's Jeremy Gerard is violently shaking his head right now.

"Roger has plenty of the star quality Evita sings about."

Melissa Rose Bernardo from Entertainment Weekly, you seem to have a charming counter-argument/pop cultural reference on the tip of your tongue.

"She's a fierce dancer. But more often than not, she's shrill and — as an American Idol judge would say — pitchy. Not every Evita needs to produce aural pyrotechnics like original Broadway star Patti LuPone. She does, however, need to hit every note with laserlike precision, and Roger misses too many."

It sounds like that's how most of you felt (but kudos to you, Gerard! Way to take the road less traveled). Unfortunately though, we're going to have to leave things slightly unresolved. Time is running out, or as it were, the post is getting too long. Can we get closing thoughts all around? Melissa, let's start with you since you spoke last.

"Judging by the curtain-call squeals, [Ricky Martin] fans are packing the house — and going home happy. On that level, Evita succeeds brilliantly."

I'm sure Mark Kennedy would agree with you. Jeremy Gerard is indicating that he didn't write one of those statements that encapsulates all his thoughts on the show in a few well-chosen words, so we'll move back on down the line to Howard in Philly.

"The 1979 Broadway debut of Evita catapulted the careers of Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin, and the 1996 movie version gave pop singer Madonna a boost in respect. I’m not sure this revival will do much for anyone, except for the people who would come see Ricky Martin whether he were performing in Evita or a one-man concert."

Real talk. NY Times writer Ben Brantley?

"Despite the hard work of its spirited leading lady, the Argentine actress Elena Roger — supported by a barely there Ricky Martin and a sterling Michael Cerveris — this musical combination of history pageant and requiem Mass feels about as warmblooded as a gilded mummy."

"A barely there Ricky Martin?" Surely Mark Kennedy, you will address this in your closing remark.

"There's one thing 'Evita' has that its sibling does not, and that's a guy named Ricky. Hugh Jackman has some competition as king of Broadway."

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Comments

[Dave As]

10:39 AM on 11/06/2012

I love the broadway Evita. I watched it 2 days after Sandy hit NYC. I'm just so happy to see Ricky Martin! He's the real show!

[Bobby5000]

11:15 PM on 09/15/2012

This was a wonderful show, skillfully staged, with beautiful voices, a striking story, and of course, Ricky Martin. Probably the best show I ever seen, much better than the mediocre movie by Madonna.

[Karlis Streips]

04:47 AM on 08/14/2012

To me the comparison of Mandy Patinkin and Ricky Martin depends on their rendering of "Oh What a Circus" and "High Flying Adored," and I'm afraid that the scales tilt 100% in the direction of Mandy Patinkin. His snarling, fierce and utterly, utterly sarcastic rendering of the songs was pitch-perfect, while Ricky Martin, for all of his talents and beauty, is a pop star and not a Broadway performer. He sounds thin-voiced and reedy, and I suppose that it's just his bad luck that Mandy Patinkin put such a stamp on the role 30 years ago (and Antonio Banderas did absolutely, absolutely, absolutely nothing to change that fact in the movie). If you haven't heard Mandy Patinkin in Evita, look it up -- I'll be you agree that Ricky just falls flat. Alas.

[JumpStreet1983]

05:00 PM on 07/18/2012

Why do we have to deal with remake after remake? Disney movies turned into Broadway shows? things as dreadful as Priscilla Queen of the Desert? When will the next Diva decide she wants to play Mama Rose in yet another production of Gypsy? The Broadway musical, much like Jazz, is strictly an American invention, America turning the opera into something bearable. There is original stuff out there. Support it. Stop with these remakes. We've seen them, we've even seen the movies of them, and now they're back again.

[Kretina Kirchner]

01:53 AM on 07/12/2012

Why anybody would want to see this show is beyond me. Eva Perón was a populist demagogue and master of deception and her and her crooked husband Juan Domingo Perón are responsible for the disaster of a country that Argentina is 60 years later. They colaborated with Nazis and Mussolini. A good amount of Eva Perón's jewelry belonged to Jews that were killed in concentration camps and was given to her by Nazi's that escaped Germany and the Peron's allowed them to hide out for the rest of their lives in Argentina. And then they make Broadway shows about these criminals!

[georgebhaven]

03:57 AM on 06/14/2012

The new staging of Evita was painful to sit through because of the leading lady. Rick Martin, Michael Cerveris and the ensemble cast did a good job. However, the show just did not have the WOW impact the original show did many years ago. The fact that this production only received 3 Tony Award nominees and was totally snubbed with zero awards is proof that this show is flat and fizzles. I don't know what the producers thought of in Elena Rogers for this big role. Her voice was painful to hear for over 2 hours. Here voice is nasally, to thin and she shrills when she sings. She just doesn't have the big voice this role requires. The big balcony moment with Don't Cry for Me Argentina was nothing but mediocre. Compared to the excellent and powerful Patti Lupone in this role Elena Rogers is just not the right person for this role. She lacks the star quality that this show needs. Also, her stage presence is so weak to be portraying such a powerful woman.

The best moment in the show is "And the Money Kept Rolling In" song when Ricky Martin and the rest of the cast sing while Elena Rogers is quiet and just awkwardly walks around the stage looking pretty.

The show needs a new Leading lady. Go see another show.

[JumpStreet1983]

05:02 PM on 07/18/2012

Agreed! Kudos for getting a real-life Argentine to play a real-life Argentine, but that's where the buck stops.

[3fingerbrown]

09:46 AM on 04/10/2012

Well, at least the divergent opinions about the cast has distracted attention from Lloyd Weber's banal score and Rice's almost willfully dumb lyrics.

[sensimilla]

02:24 PM on 04/09/2012

Glad Ricky Martin is doing well. He is an awesome entertainer, and now has found a new art.

[GreenSpot]

02:06 PM on 04/06/2012

New York Post

You must love Che

Last night, “Evita” returned after a 30-year absence from Broadway. The wait was worth it: This is a big, fat, juicy blockbuster of a show.

Naturally, everybody’s flipping out over the hot new bombshell in town. Usually we mean the actress in the title role, but this time it’s the guy who plays the narrator: Ricky Martin — you may have heard of him?

And does he deliver! Despite being vocally underpowered at times, Martin is a supernova of charisma in the key part of Che, a Zelig-like Everyman always hovering on the side of the action.

This is just one of the many things that Michael Grandage’s lavish, large-scale revival gets right, another being Rob Ashford’s energetic, tango-inflected choreography.

And “Evita” deserves no less than a full-on, high-octane deployment.

Packed with memorable tunes, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s propulsive, challenging sung-through musical is a modern masterpiece. The only relatively weak bit is “You Must Love Me,” which was written for the 1996 movie and feels generic compared with the older tunes.

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/you_must_love_che_WMFrjwJmuK264KxT8MjTOM

Overall, the show has lost the subversive edge of Harold Prince’s original staging, trading a stylized, minimalistic black box for Christopher Oram’s outsize, realistic sets.

But there’s no denying the nearly physical impact “Evita” has on an audience. The woman and the show are back for good. Don’t keep your distance.