Broadway review: ‘Evita’

I have two words for why the revival of Evita will probably stick around a while: Ricky Martin. There's not another compelling reason to go, and even Martin, a superstar of American-Latin pop with great looks and a winning smile, doesn't snugly fit into the notion of compelling. He sings appealingly and dances very well, but the accent he uses comes and goes, his smiley interpretation of the show's truth-telling narrator is devoid of irony, and he plays the role without generating heat.

Heat may be what many women on the arms of their spouses, lovers or pals came to see the other night when I was at an Evita preview, and some of the guys, too — specifically Ricky Martin heat (and a good thing, too, since the show itself has little). Even if Martin didn't play the pulsating romanticized version of a revolutionary, chomping at the bit to see the downfall of the Argentine establishment and its leading lady, he was able to lead the ladies of the audience on. They seemed happy to be with him.

Which was not enough for me. The pageantry in the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice is impressive at the beginning, but it fills the stage at a constant high pitch in a storyline with too little swagger. Its effect wanes — if you want real bang for your pageantry buck, go see the other Lloyd Webber-Rice revival on Broadway, Jesus Christ Superstar.

Evita is about Eva Perón, whose picture was on the wall of homes, right there beside the Madonna's image, when she was the charismatic first lady of Argentina – the best role she had in a career than began in acting. While playing that role, she died of cancer in 1952, a 33-year-old woman elected to no office but given a state funeral. (A decade later, when the military was ruling Argentina after overthrowing Eva's husband, Juan, people were forbidden to have her picture, or even utter her name within the country's borders.)

It's a great story, really — poor girl grows up to be a star player in a game of musical beds, then a star player on the stage, then a stellar manipulator, then an international political star who is the light of Argentina. That's the way Evita tells it.

Can anyone tell that story for what it's worth in a sung-through show carried largely by the Latin-like melody of a single song — "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" — and its variations? That's the cast's task, and in Michael Grandage's production they do it without portrayals that shine through the singing, and in accents that make President Juan Perón (Michael Cerveris) seem vaguely German and obfuscate some of what Evita (Elena Roger) is saying. Roger is Argentinian and the pronounced accent she uses, while lovely, does not always serve the libretto.

Put it all together and we get a sort of Evita Bland. It's bad enough that the musical merely reports on Evita's many sides — divisive, pragmatic to a fault, glamorous, out clearly for herself, yet a voice for labor and the poor — but doesn't show them convincingly. Worse, then, that the production has its own set of disappointments.

Cerveris' poker-faced characterization of Juan Perón gives the man a stiffness that seems to say his marriage was a pragmatic sham – maybe it was, but I don't think Evita's libretto means to treat it that way. 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.  She does get to wear Christopher Oram's attractive costumes that accentuate the lines of her body, and she moves with brio on his imposing set that turns from palace façade to the interior, and accommodates basic street scenes.

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. Come to think of it, for them he may be performing in what essentially turns out to be both.

Contact Howard Shapiro at 215-854-5727 or hshapiro@phillynews.com, or #philastage on Twitter. Read his recent work at go.philly.com/howardshapiro. Hear his reviews at the Classical Network, www.wwfm.org.

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Evita is at the Marquis Theatre, Broadway at 45th Street, New York.