cktimes.ca

Chilina Kennedy as Eva Perón
Photo by: David Hou
Josh Young as Che
Photo by: David Hou Juan Chioran as Juan Perón and Chilina Kennedy as Eva Perón
Photo by: David Hou

Each year, my wife and I anxiously await our first trip to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Over the years, we have come to expect only the very best at Stratford and have rarely been disappointed. Unfortunately, our first trip this year was to see Stratford’s production of the Tim Rice/Andrew Lloyd Webber rock musical Evita, the story of the rise to fame of Eva Duarte in the Argentina of the 1940’s.

The production was widely billed as Stratford’s first “rock” musical, and perhaps the “rock” was the problem. We found the musical completely and totally too loud, to the point where we felt like we were in a biker bar around last call. In fact, when the chorus broke into song to open the play, the music was so loud that about all you heard was distortion. Very disappointing when you consider that it was Stratford and the people who attend have come to expect more.

Admittedly, we did settle in and our ears did eventually adjust to the volume, and there were some really great performances. I’ve been looking forward to seeing Chilina Kennedy in the title role since the announcement was made over the winter. I saw Kennedy in West Side Story last season and she was dazzling.

She was very good in the role of Evita – she has a wonderful voice and terrific stage presence and really pulled it off. One of the problems she had with this piece is that it’s not nearly as strong as West Side Story, and even though it has been heralded as a great musical by those in the know, I’m not completely sold. I found most of the music repetitive and not really of the noteworthy variety. The exception of course is “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina”, which is simply a great number.

The real shining light of this production was Josh Young, who played the narrator Che. He has an outstanding voice and tremendous ability to pull the audience more into the part he is playing. I didn’t really know Young’s reputation before reading the Evita program, but can see why he is one of the future stars of musical drama in the years ahead.

I was somewhat disappointed that Juan Chioran was not part of the performance on the day we attended. Kristian Truelsen played the part of Juan Peron and did a commendable job, but I have been a big fan of Chioran since seeing him play the lead role in Man of La Mancha many years ago at Stratford.

Overall, the volume aside, the production was extremely solid and was done very well. It didn’t give me goosebumps or really move me at all and I’m one of the most emotional theatergoers around. And I really wonder if that didn’t have more to do with Rice and Webber’s book and music. It just didn’t pick me up and carry me away the way I thought it might….

I have already noted that the Festival will produce Jesus Christ Superstar next year. I am much more familiar with Superstar than Evita, and, in fact, detected a lot of similarities between the music in the two shows. I can only hope that before next year, the Festival sound crew realizes that just because it’s a “rock” musical, it doesn’t have to be performed at the sound level of a Metallica concert.

I would advise folks to take in this production of Evita, but make sure you’ve got your hearing aid set at low volume. And if you haven’t got a hearing aid, well, settle in and prepare yourself for some really loud entertainment. It’s good stuff, just a little too much volume for this old pair of ears….