Evita

[michalnowicki]

This is a quick post from the first half of the first night in Edinburgh Playhouse. First time I am seeing Evita live (after listening to original Broadway cast for ages). I am enjoying it, but I find Che's manierism slightly annoying (nevertheless very handsome man) and I was really disappointed with Emma Hatton speaking parts in 'New Argentina' and singing parts of 'Buenos Aires' octave down.
Off to th second act!

[BurlyBeaR]

Feb 7, 2017 20:50:36 GMT michalnowicki said:

This is a quick post from the first half of the first night in Edinburgh Playhouse. First time I am seeing Evita live (after listening to original Broadway cast for ages). I am enjoying it, but I find Che's manierism slightly annoying (nevertheless very handsome man) and I was really disappointed with Emma Hatton speaking parts in 'New Argentina' and singing parts of 'Buenos Aires' octave down.
Off to th second act!

Come back and tell us the rest! 

[michalnowicki]

I'm back! The second act was really good! I was surprised by Gian Marco's voice! In the first act all his "soft" lines sounded unnaturally squeaky and weird, but when he started belting in Act 2, I thought that he should have played Eva As someone mentioned before the tank-top bit of the "Money kept rolling" - very enjoyable (I'm all for objectification of men!). As for Emma Hatton, she is a good actress and singer and really impressed me in "Rainbow high".

That was the first time I watched Evita live and I really enjoyed it. If it's near you, it's worth watching!

[zsazsa]

I have seen most of BK's tours of Evita but have to say this is probably the best cast I have seen.

Emma Hatton really transforms through Eva's journey and her vocals are great, although I do miss the higher sections of 'A New Argentina'. At times I thought she looked uncannily like a young Elaine Paige when she took on the role.

Gina Marco's Che is reminiscent of Antonio Banderas. 'High Flying Adored' is so sexy, I was clutching my pearls.

Peron and the mistress were also excellent.

I found some of the direction a bit bland in some places. Also the keyboard sounds felt a bit naff in places, particularly during the introduction of 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina'.

[zsazsa]

Feb 13, 2017 15:31:47 GMT @theatremonkey said:

Are they using the "Latino" orchestration, or the original?

The Latino orchestration

[Sue]

"You Must Love Me" always makes me cry 😢 Such a sad song.

[tsxmitw]

Is this tour any good?

[tsxmitw]

Sod it, I'm giving it a miss - saw this production a few years back and thought it was very tacky. Plus I'm no Emma Hatton fan. Love Evita though.

[Sue]

Saw this last night and once again, we both left grinning!

Never seen Emma Hatton before and she was very good. A teenie bit riffy and jazz hands-y early on but she soon remembered her character. Her voice is really strong and she's got a lovely tone to it, none of this 'singing down nose' that so many professionals seem to do and her portrayal of Eva was spot on.

Gian Marco Schiaretti as Che was fab - he sings, he acts and he's gorgeous to boot! Such a good Che and such a relief he wasn't Marti Bloody Pellow.

The orchestration has been tweaked a bit since the last tour but still cracking and in no way did it detract from this fabulous show...unlike the idiot family sitting behind us 😡 but I'll leave that for my post in Bad Behaviour.

[BurlyBeaR]

Feb 16, 2017 20:52:48 GMT Sue said:

Saw this last night and once again, we both left grinning!

Never seen Emma Hatton before and she was very good. A teenie bit riffy and jazz hands-y early on but she soon remembered her character. Her voice is really strong and she's got a lovely tone to it, none of this 'singing down nose' that so many professionals seem to do and her portrayal of Eva was spot on.

Gian Marco Schiaretti as Che was fab - he sings, he acts and he's gorgeous to boot! Such a good Che and such a relief he wasn't Marti Bloody Pellow.

The orchestration has been tweaked a bit since the last tour but still cracking and in no way did it detract from this fabulous show...unlike the idiot family sitting behind us 😡 but I'll leave that for my post in Bad Behaviour.

Have you been in that Wicked thread again? 

[romeo94]

Hoping to catch this at the New Wimbledon this week. Any ideas on how to get a cheaper ticket for the stalls? They don't do dayseats here, am I right?

[lou105]

Feb 21, 2017 6:49:57 GMT romeo94 said:

Hoping to catch this at the New Wimbledon this week. Any ideas on how to get a cheaper ticket for the stalls? They don't do dayseats here, am I right?

If you're an ATG member, you'll be able to get half price tonight and a few pounds off on other nights. Otherwise, despite being outer London, this counts as regional and discounts can be harder to find. Day seats rarely exist so far as I know, though Theatre Monkey and others will confirm?

[theatremadness]

Feb 21, 2017 9:01:19 GMT @theatremonkey said:

BTW, what's the running time?

Should be about 2hrs 15 including interval

[daniel]

Wimbledon were doing £20 day seats during panto, but I don't think that's normally a thing.

I would gamble and book Upper Circle - doesn't look busy enough for them to open it!

[BurlyBeaR]

Feb 21, 2017 6:49:57 GMT romeo94 said:

Hoping to catch this at the New Wimbledon this week. Any ideas on how to get a cheaper ticket for the stalls? They don't do dayseats here, am I right?

It won't be easy....

[romeo94]

Feb 21, 2017 8:57:58 GMT @theatremonkey said:

Yep, no day seats. The back stalls is the same price as the upper circle, and is fine at Wimbledon. Shame you didn't book earlier, though, jordandn, as they sell the outer pairs in the front stalls at second price, which is the best bargain in the house (it's where I'll be later this week, I always sit there - just don't take the ones in row A, as they have no legroom at all).

Just looking, I wonder if they will open the upper circle at all at some performances - so maybe buying up there and chancing getting moved?

May be last minute offers around, but I've not seen any at the moment.

Oh, forgot to add, it's an ATG venue, so they do "dynamic price" - they've already reduced the ends of the back rows in the stalls at some performances.

Thanks for this theatremonkey. Yeah I wish I had grabbed an Upper Circle seat now, they're off sale for the Thursday matinee so I guess it isn't open. 

[tal]

I saw it yesterday from row A in the upper circle. I am glad they did not close the upper circle (despite it being only about 10% full), since otherwise I probably would have been moved to some row further in the back in the dress circle.

The show was great. Emma Hatton gave a spetacular performance - I really loved her 'You Must Love Me', and in my opinion Gina Marco is a terrific singer but an average actor. Having only seen Evita before in the production they had in New York a few years back (with Elena Rogers and Ricky Martin), I feel the production I saw yesterday was much less frenetic than the other one, for which I am glad. The first time I saw it, if felt like there was too much dancing, enough to distract you from the songs themselves. The amount of dancing yesterday was on point. The only thing I wish was different is that yesterday they barely waltzed in 'Waltz For Eva And Che'.

[theatrefan77]

Saw this on Monday. Thought it was a very decent production of a great show with a fine cast. Really enjoyable night. The only let down was the choreography which was truly dreadful and didn't quite get the latino spirit of the show. Pity because the orchestrations were brilliant and sounded really good.

Emma Hatton sang the score beautifully and acted well. Gian Marco Schiaretti was great, really like the way he portrays Che having mixed feelings towards Eva, being very critical but at the same time fascinated by her charisma, strength and relentless determination. The view from row C in Stalls was fantastic, allowing you to appreciate more the two leads' facial expressions.

[longinthetooth]

I was there for yesterday's matinee. Sadly I didn't get to see Emma Hatton, as apparently Eva is played by Natalie Langston (what is it with all these understudies called Natalie!) "at certain performances" according to the programme. Now I'm not averse to seeing understudies/covers, don't get me wrong, but unless I missed something somewhere I didn't know that Ms Hatton wasn't going to be doing all the performances (barring illness and scheduled holidays, obviously), so I was a bit miffed as I wanted to see her.

The first couple of times I saw Evita I was completely blown away. This time, I liked it but didn't love it. Natalie Langston was overall good. At times her voice was great, other times rather shrill. I wasn't all that keen on Peron or Che either - but maybe I was in a bad mood!

However, I thought Sarah O'Connor's Mistress was superb. One to watch, I feel.

[Scswp]

The role of Evita almost always has an alternate performing 2 of the performances every week (often the matinees). It has been like this since the original production back in the seventies. The role of Evita is a very demanding one (although it has been made slightly easier on recent U.K. Tours). Strangely enough, the only UK Tour where Evita had no scheduled alternate advertised was the 1996(??) Tour starring Marti Webb. Ironically, she was far too old for the part, but could still belt the score as written for all eight shows a week. She was probably in her early-mid-fifties then.

[longinthetooth]

Ah, as usual, the matinees. A pet gripe of mine. Nuff said.

[Scswp]

Feb 23, 2017 21:33:51 GMT longinthetooth said:

Ah, as usual, the matinees. A pet gripe of mine. Nuff said.

I agree with that gripe! The matinees are often more popular than some of the weekday evenings and matinee audiences have often been given a raw deal! Not sure this is always now the case though.

[daniel]

Saw this tonight. Emma Hatton...hmm, not entirely convinced. There's no doubting that she's got a good voice, but I found her incredibly screechy on the higher notes and her diction, especially on the more wordy lines, was terrible, I had no idea what she was saying half the time. Same for the chap playing Che. Very strong voice but equally poor diction. Still, VAST improvement on Mr Pellow.

Thought it was okay overall, audience seemed to enjoy it so maybe it's just me, but it just didn't really click for me.

3 stars

[Deleted]

I'm seeing the tour tomorrow in Wimbledon, first time ever experiencing Evita, so am rather intrigued. The only song I know is Don't Cry For Me Argentina! Mainly going out of intrigue of Emma haha.

[Deleted]

Feb 24, 2017 14:24:35 GMT danieljohnson14 said:

I'm seeing the tour tomorrow in Wimbledon, first time ever experiencing Evita, so am rather intrigued. The only song I know is Don't Cry For Me Argentina! Mainly going out of intrigue of Emma haha.

Ooh, well if you know 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina', you'll also know 'Oh What A Circus'. They're the same song, different words. And yes, it took me a LONG time to work that out for myself back in the day. You must know 'You Must Love Me' from the film by Madonna? They usually shoehorn that into the stage version now.

Oh and there's this one (one of my favourites from the score) performed at the Tonys with Ricky Martin looking particularly foxy:



And of course, the one, the only, Dame Patti LuPone singing my favourite song from the whole score as only Patti can (check out the hair flick at the beginning). Seriously people. Do not mess with this woman.: