Evita in Concert - Drury Lane

[toomasj]

Aug 1, 2023 9:54:13 GMT FrontroverPaul said:

Aug 1, 2023 7:39:59 GMT toomasj said:

Anyone else attending today’s matinee? The trains are a nightmare travelling from East Sussex, goodness knows what they’re like elsewhere!

Yes, my booked train to London from Kent is currently on time and no delays. Hope you make it.

I was sitting at this PC when the £25 ticket offer came through and managed to get stalls row B side block for a fraction of the original price

Nice one - just got on train too - I got centre of row D in the royal circle for £25 too. Even if I hate it, can’t go wrong with that price!

[ceebee]

Aug 1, 2023 10:26:46 GMT toomasj said:

Aug 1, 2023 9:54:13 GMT FrontroverPaul said:

Yes, my booked train to London from Kent is currently on time and no delays. Hope you make it.

I was sitting at this PC when the £25 ticket offer came through and managed to get stalls row B side block for a fraction of the original price

Nice one - just got on train too - I got centre of row D in the royal circle for £25 too. Even if I hate it, can’t go wrong with that price!

You won't hate it - there's plenty to like about this concert, particularly the orchestra, Peron, Magaldi, the Mistress.

[justafan]

Enjoying Jeremy Secomb hugely - great voice and presence - a hardworking ensemble but the rest … glad I only paid £25 thanks to A.Ham - I’m also surrounded by kids which is hugely irritating as they can’t seem to sit still

[bobbievanhusen]

The actress who played The Mistress was excellent. Another Suitcase was a definite highlight.

[toomasj]

Ooof. Review to follow.

[A.Ham]

Aug 1, 2023 14:39:25 GMT justafan said:

Enjoying Jeremy Secomb hugely - great voice and presence - a hardworking ensemble but the rest … glad I only paid £25 thanks to A.Ham - I’m also surrounded by kids which is hugely irritating as they can’t seem to sit still

Glad you got the offer price, but apologies about the children - I’d be annoyed too 😞

[westendboy]

Saw this last night. This was my first time experiencing 'Evita' in any shape or form and I wasn't disappointed!

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler - click to view}
Everyone in the cast was on top of their game and even though the ensemble was small, the choir certainly made up for it. Auli'i Cravalho's Eva was a right mixture of powerful, sassy, sympathetic and captivating and her 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina' made me hear a pin drop it was so good! Matt Rawle's Che started off okay for me personally, but got better as the show went on. I really liked how at the start, he's dressed as just an average joe (similar to Antonio Bandaras in the film), before really personifying Che Guevarra at the end. Jeremy Secomb was perfectly cast as Juan Peron, truly embodying the man himself and making him seem both strong when needed and vulnerable towards the end..

A truly wonderful production and a great first time experience of this classic show! I'm now looking forward to 'Love Never Dies' this month!

[AddisonMizner]

I went to the matinee of this today. I had seen the film some years ago now, but had never seen EVITA on stage until today.

My overall view is that it was just okay. To be honest, some of my issues are to do with the material itself. I just don’t think that the storytelling is very clear (unless I am missing something), and I feel like you need to know something about Eva Peron before you watch it, as otherwise you miss some of the intricacies of the piece. There were many in the audience around me who didn’t have a clue what was going on! For me, you shouldn’t need to know anything before you go in, and the material should do the heavy-lifting for you.

I’m afraid to say that Auliʻi Cravalho was out of her depth and just not good as Eva. Again, not entirely all her fault. Her music is poorly written for the voice, requiring her to belt at the top of it for a sustained period of time. She was frequently either under the note or lent into the acting more so that she didn’t have to sustain them. She looked like she was in a high-school production compared to the ensemble around her, and this created a vacuum at the heart of the piece itself.

There were some saving graces however.

As said above, the actress playing the Mistress was good, and her ‘Another Suitcase in Another Hall’ was very pretty.

There were some nice visual moments for a semi-staged concert, particularly at the start of ‘Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina’ when she comes down the staircase in the white dress. I also liked a lot of the mise-en-scene around Eva’s bed near the end.

However, the performance really belongs to the orchestra. They were sublime, and the music sounded glorious! I really cannot wait to hear LOVE NEVER DIES now with that orchestra later this month. I think it really is going to be something special (I’m pretty sure I saw Celinde in the audience this afternoon too).

Glad I went, but it could have been better. I much preferred ASPECTS OF LOVE. I’ve booked for the Leicester Curve production of EVITA, so we will see if that fares any better.

On another note, it is my first time going to the Theatre Royal Drury Lane since the refurb. What a beautiful theatre! They really have done an astonishing job with it. Worth going just to be in that building.

[mrbarnaby]

Who is this famous ‘Actress who played The Mistress’ ?

[toomasj]

“Concert version” is a strange term, isn’t it? One never knows quite what to expect. Is it neutrally dressed performers standing at a microphone in a line - or is it costumed stars giving performances which beg for sets behind them to match their brilliance?

I attended today’s matinee. It is neither.

The money is on stage from the get-go. A brilliant on-stage 30(!!!!) piece orchestra play Evita as it is meant to sound. In that sense, this is a one off “production”. It sounded amazing - if the quality of the orchestra is the sole measure. The orchestra - yes, orchestra - NOT “band” - sounded incredible.

Then everything falls apart.

Auli’i Cravalho is incompetent vocally and professionally to lead a production at this level. At the performance I attended (today’s matinee) she was desperately poor - my assessment of her terrible performance is a lot crueller than previous reviews in this thread. She missed the starts and ends of sentences, she commanded less presence than the perpetually annoying drunken patron three seats down from me. She couldn’t sing the part. She screamed. It was very, very bad. She couldn’t sing the high notes, she sang with a poorly realised Elena Roger impression (when she remembered). She shouted. It was bad.

That is disregarding the missed cues (entire lines missed in Rainbow Tour), mess ups inducing on the fly lyric changes, and being late/early constantly. It was bad. I wouldn’t accept that from an amateur group.

But then she literally missed a cue to be on stage, while Secomb’s Perón looked confused and replied to the empty space where she was meant to be stage left (with conspicuous spotlight) with “I’m not underestimating you, just do the same thing in Italy please” as written.

But she wasn’t alone in constantly blowing entrances. The chorus did it five or six times too.

Matt Rawle, who I really like as a performer normally, was dreadful. His diction was appalling, he threw away key phrases and emphasised irrelevant ones. His dreadful performance was the big surprise of the night because I hugely admired his Che in the Grandage production. I also love him usually in other shows. Today was a disaster.

And before everyone jumps on me, I realise the performers had limited rehearsal. I remind them that a lot of people paid £175 EACH for this. This was worse than am-dram productions I’ve seen.

Nathan Amzi wasn’t great either to my tastes as Magaldi, despite the good notices here. The humour was completely lost compared to the patronising Gary Milner in the Grandage production. I had a quick look around actually at this point, everyone looked very bored to be honest - and this was 20-30 minutes in.

The standout from the cast is undeniably Jeremy Secomb’s Perón. He had presence, sings the song as written, and even acted in character. But really it’s about the orchestra because this “production” has nothing else going for it.

Specifics? It’s hard to give just one because everything was wrong. Missed pickup (mic) cues are a given but every scene?! Seriously?! Early entrances. Late entrances. It needed another two weeks of 10 hour rehearsal days. It was dreadful.

So the boring facts; the stage are onstage throughout, behind them is a backdrop with three LEDs showing Christian crosses. There is a coffin in the opening scene, a few cheap looking props throughout and small set pieces here and there. Nothing you wouldn’t expect from a church hall production.

The direction of the actors, by Bill Deamer, is pretty much identical to the Kenwright production. But worse. The choreography is IDENTICAL to the tour but scaled down for 8 ensemble members. This is because Bill Deamer (director) choreographed the Kenwright tour and copied absolutely everything. His own work, the previous director’s work. It was the same but worse and thinner.

This was a production that aspired to be as good as the Kenwright tour. Let that sink in.

Now; normally I’d write this off in the context of being a discounted preview performance of a full production as teething issues. I wouldn’t even have the heart to review it because I knew nobody was happy with it within the production.

But as a reminder of the cost of this “concert production”, if you paid full price, you could’ve had a budget weekend away in Europe. This was worth less than a wet weekend in Bognor.

This was bad. Very, very bad.

1*

[ceebee]

Aug 1, 2023 20:57:37 GMT toomasj said:

“Concert version” is a strange term, isn’t it? One never knows quite what to expect. Is it neutrally dressed performers standing at a microphone in a line - or is it costumed stars giving performances which beg for sets behind them to match their brilliance?

I attended today’s matinee. It is neither.

The money is on stage from the get-go. A brilliant on-stage 30(!!!!) piece orchestra play Evita as it is meant to sound. In that sense, this is a one off “production”. It sounded amazing - if the quality of the orchestra is the sole measure. The orchestra - yes, orchestra - NOT “band” - sounded incredible.

Then everything falls apart.

Auli’i Cravalho is incompetent vocally and professionally to lead a production at this level. At the performance I attended (today’s matinee) she was desperately poor - my assessment of her terrible performance is a lot crueller than previous reviews in this thread. She missed the starts and ends of sentences, she commanded less presence than the perpetually annoying drunken patron three seats down from me. She couldn’t sing the part. She screamed. It was very, very bad. She couldn’t sing the high notes, she sang with a poorly realised Elena Roger impression (when she remembered). She shouted. It was bad.

That is disregarding the missed cues (entire lines missed in Rainbow Tour), mess ups inducing on the fly lyric changes, and being late/early constantly. It was bad. I wouldn’t accept that from an amateur group.

But then she literally missed a cue to be on stage, while Secomb’s Perón looked confused and replied to the empty space where she was meant to be stage left (with conspicuous spotlight) with “I’m not underestimating you, just do the same thing in Italy please” as written.

But she wasn’t alone in constantly blowing entrances. The chorus did it five or six times too.

Matt Rawle, who I really like as a performer normally, was dreadful. His diction was appalling, he threw away key phrases and emphasised irrelevant ones. His dreadful performance was the big surprise of the night because I hugely admired his Che in the Grandage production. I also love him usually in other shows. Today was a disaster.

And before everyone jumps on me, I realise the performers had limited rehearsal. I remind them that a lot of people paid £175 EACH for this. This was worse than am-dram productions I’ve seen.

Nathan Amzi wasn’t great either to my tastes as Magaldi, despite the good notices here. The humour was completely lost compared to the patronising Gary Milner in the Grandage production. I had a quick look around actually at this point, everyone looked very bored to be honest - and this was 20-30 minutes in.

The standout from the cast is undeniably Jeremy Secomb’s Perón. He had presence, sings the song as written, and even acted in character. But really it’s about the orchestra because this “production” has nothing else going for it.

Specifics? It’s hard to give just one because everything was wrong. Missed pickup (mic) cues are a given but every scene?! Seriously?! Early entrances. Late entrances. It needed another two weeks of 10 hour rehearsal days. It was dreadful.

So the boring facts; the stage are onstage throughout, behind them is a backdrop with three LEDs showing Christian crosses. There is a coffin in the opening scene, a few cheap looking props throughout and small set pieces here and there. Nothing you wouldn’t expect from a church hall production.

The direction of the actors, by Bill Deamer, is pretty much identical to the Kenwright production. But worse. The choreography is IDENTICAL to the tour but scaled down for 8 ensemble members. This is because Bill Deamer (director) choreographed the Kenwright tour and copied absolutely everything. His own work, the previous director’s work. It was the same but worse and thinner.

This was a production that aspired to be as good as the Kenwright tour. Let that sink in.

Now; normally I’d write this off in the context of being a discounted preview performance of a full production as teething issues. I wouldn’t even have the heart to review it because I knew nobody was happy with it within the production.

But as a reminder of the cost of this “concert production”, if you paid full price, you could’ve had a budget weekend away in Europe. This was worth less than a wet weekend in Bognor.

This was bad. Very, very bad.

1*

I agree with you on most points. I didnt want to be too scathing as I didn't want to spoil things for people seeing it today, but aside from the orchestra it was a steaming pile of dung. And yet some folk loved it - I found it a totally lazy effort and blame the director.

[FrontroverPaul]

Just by way of contrast I thoroughly enjoyed it and would award four stars.

[intoanewlife]

Aug 1, 2023 21:04:50 GMT ceebee said:

Aug 1, 2023 20:57:37 GMT toomasj said:

“Concert version” is a strange term, isn’t it? One never knows quite what to expect. Is it neutrally dressed performers standing at a microphone in a line - or is it costumed stars giving performances which beg for sets behind them to match their brilliance?

I attended today’s matinee. It is neither.

The money is on stage from the get-go. A brilliant on-stage 30(!!!!) piece orchestra play Evita as it is meant to sound. In that sense, this is a one off “production”. It sounded amazing - if the quality of the orchestra is the sole measure. The orchestra - yes, orchestra - NOT “band” - sounded incredible.

Then everything falls apart.

Auli’i Cravalho is incompetent vocally and professionally to lead a production at this level. At the performance I attended (today’s matinee) she was desperately poor - my assessment of her terrible performance is a lot crueller than previous reviews in this thread. She missed the starts and ends of sentences, she commanded less presence than the perpetually annoying drunken patron three seats down from me. She couldn’t sing the part. She screamed. It was very, very bad. She couldn’t sing the high notes, she sang with a poorly realised Elena Roger impression (when she remembered). She shouted. It was bad.

That is disregarding the missed cues (entire lines missed in Rainbow Tour), mess ups inducing on the fly lyric changes, and being late/early constantly. It was bad. I wouldn’t accept that from an amateur group.

But then she literally missed a cue to be on stage, while Secomb’s Perón looked confused and replied to the empty space where she was meant to be stage left (with conspicuous spotlight) with “I’m not underestimating you, just do the same thing in Italy please” as written.

But she wasn’t alone in constantly blowing entrances. The chorus did it five or six times too.

Matt Rawle, who I really like as a performer normally, was dreadful. His diction was appalling, he threw away key phrases and emphasised irrelevant ones. His dreadful performance was the big surprise of the night because I hugely admired his Che in the Grandage production. I also love him usually in other shows. Today was a disaster.

And before everyone jumps on me, I realise the performers had limited rehearsal. I remind them that a lot of people paid £175 EACH for this. This was worse than am-dram productions I’ve seen.

Nathan Amzi wasn’t great either to my tastes as Magaldi, despite the good notices here. The humour was completely lost compared to the patronising Gary Milner in the Grandage production. I had a quick look around actually at this point, everyone looked very bored to be honest - and this was 20-30 minutes in.

The standout from the cast is undeniably Jeremy Secomb’s Perón. He had presence, sings the song as written, and even acted in character. But really it’s about the orchestra because this “production” has nothing else going for it.

Specifics? It’s hard to give just one because everything was wrong. Missed pickup (mic) cues are a given but every scene?! Seriously?! Early entrances. Late entrances. It needed another two weeks of 10 hour rehearsal days. It was dreadful.

So the boring facts; the stage are onstage throughout, behind them is a backdrop with three LEDs showing Christian crosses. There is a coffin in the opening scene, a few cheap looking props throughout and small set pieces here and there. Nothing you wouldn’t expect from a church hall production.

The direction of the actors, by Bill Deamer, is pretty much identical to the Kenwright production. But worse. The choreography is IDENTICAL to the tour but scaled down for 8 ensemble members. This is because Bill Deamer (director) choreographed the Kenwright tour and copied absolutely everything. His own work, the previous director’s work. It was the same but worse and thinner.

This was a production that aspired to be as good as the Kenwright tour. Let that sink in.

Now; normally I’d write this off in the context of being a discounted preview performance of a full production as teething issues. I wouldn’t even have the heart to review it because I knew nobody was happy with it within the production.

But as a reminder of the cost of this “concert production”, if you paid full price, you could’ve had a budget weekend away in Europe. This was worth less than a wet weekend in Bognor.

This was bad. Very, very bad.

1*

I agree with you on most points. I didnt want to be too scathing as I didn't want to spoil things for people seeing it today, but aside from the orchestra it was a steaming pile of dung. And yet some folk loved it - I found it a totally lazy effort and blame the director.

PMSL

[toomasj]

ceebee thank you for your consideration but as someone who trusts your opinion I’d rather you gave it. @frontoverpaul I am glad you had a great time and this is why we are all entitled to share our opinions! ❤️

[toomasj]

Don’t let my patience in trying to write a review which is as balanced as I can manage fool you. I loathed this.

[anthony]

I’ll post full feelings later, but I enjoyed it for what it was. I actually didn’t think the staging was too bad for something advertised as a concert. Was more than I was expecting in that regards, to be fair.

[longinthetooth]

Well, I was at the matinee and loved it, as did the vast majority of the audience! I'm not saying it was perfect, but I left happy. 4.5 stars.

[dan28]

Reading all the reviews I wonder why they didn't choose to hire a strong, capable and suitable Eva.

[anthony]

Aug 1, 2023 21:26:02 GMT dan28 said:

Reading all the reviews I wonder why they didn't choose to hire a strong, capable and suitable Eva.

I thought she was wonderful this evening. I’d go as far as saying probably one of the stronger performances.

I don’t think she was helped by the outfit direction, as odd as it sounds. Having her dressed like every other female ensemble member during the entire first act made it much more difficult for her to stand out when she wasn’t the focus point.

[FrontroverPaul]

Aug 1, 2023 21:26:02 GMT dan28 said:

Reading all the reviews I wonder why they didn't choose to hire a strong, capable and suitable Eva.

IMHO, and judging by the standing ovation which only became near-total when Auli'i came back on stage, they did hire a near-perfect Eva.

[FrontroverPaul]

Aug 1, 2023 21:16:42 GMT toomasj said:

Don’t let my patience in trying to write a review which is as balanced as I can manage fool you. I loathed this.

It must be rotten to buy a ticket and be looking forward to a show, use a fair chunk of a day and money to travel to the theatre and back, but then not enjoy it at all.

All I personally want and expect when I go to the theatre is to be entertained by people who have more talent in one finger than I have in my entirety.  I guess I'm lucky because that's fulfilled in 99% of the 200 + shows I choose to see each year.

[ceebee]

Aug 1, 2023 21:50:06 GMT FrontroverPaul said:

Aug 1, 2023 21:26:02 GMT dan28 said:

Reading all the reviews I wonder why they didn't choose to hire a strong, capable and suitable Eva.

IMHO, and judging by the standing ovation which only became near-total when Auli'i came back on stage, they did hire a near-perfect Eva.

London audiences give standing ovations to everything. Hardly a measure of success.

[vickyg]

I would have thought you would aim, at minimum, to cast someone who has the range to sing all the notes in the score.

[141920grm]

surprised to hear about the apparent mistakes at the matinee- just back from the evening show and thought it was very slick and cleverly staged, especially impressed with the ensemble, not one step out of place (and i WAS looking). score sounded gorgeous with the orchestra, but i struggled to make out quite a few of eva & che’s lines- not sure if it’s the sound mix or diction issues.

thought auli’i’s high notes could be stronger at the beginning, where she either struggled slightly or got too shouty, but i felt that tone/approach worked for the character the further the story progressed. matt was charismatic but unintelligible at times. echoing others, jeremy’s peron was perfectly sung/acted, and emily’s mistress was another standout, her ‘another suitcase in another hall’ gorgeously vulnerable.

[theatremadhatter]

I really enjoyed this, I thought the cast all had moments of brilliance.to be fair. Yes Auli’i struggled at times and at other times she sounded great. But considering the amount of time given and little direction I think it’s unfair to hold them up to previous productions such as Grandage. This is a concert after all. I’m not a huge fan of all the British accents and laid back delivery of Che but again this is a concert so should we expect more?

What I am more disheartened by is how these ‘concerts’ are thrown up, according to the cast at stage door in 4 days with one orchestra rehearsal before a show. They thought they’d be standing with sheet music and instead the producers choose to go for this semi staged version which inevitably leaves them with less time to learn and really gel with the characters and music. Then the cast members like Jeremy and Matt who have done the show before many many times will of course shine out.

Of course I like seeing a semi staged concert over one just stood and sung but I think it’s ridiculously hard to hold up any of these performers performances when put in that position.

My reservations & thoughts I had when watching (what I agree with some this evening was a 4.5 star show) were completely dissipated when I learnt that they’d had so little time to rehearse. Good on them for pulling through. It’s not an easy piece.

So the blame lies with the producers. They want to set high ticket prices so they then have to deliver more than a concert but then they can’t afford to pay for proper rehearsals which inevitably affects the quality of the show. Which then essentially leaves us feeling short changed as it wasn’t as good as it could have been. Sound balance issues etc would have all been ironed out with a proper rehearsal and preview period.

Some of the prices were ridiculous as you can see the producers attempt to recoup and make a profit in 3 shows. Maybe they need to do a series of Monday / Tues concerts to make it viable enough to have a proper rehearsal.

Of course the Orchestra have an easier job as they sit playing and reading the music so less likely to make mistakes. They were glorious.

Anyway like many here I still enjoyed it and enjoyed the orchestra. But I know in the future I’d just rather see a properly rehearsed show than the trend of these pop up ‘concerts’ that attempt to be staged.

Fairer on all all around.