2003-02-16 - 7:45 p.m.
EVITA
The question whether a high school can do a good production of Andrew Lloyd Webber�s �Evita� has been answered. The answer is yes. The question whether a high school should do a production of �Evita� remains open. But, because Kat is in the play and I�m not willing to rain on her parade, I�ll stick to the answered question.
�Evita� is an opera with difficult part singing. It makes incredible vocal demands on the lead actress. It requires not only amazing singing ability but also acting ability. It turns out that our high school has someone with that much talent. I saw �Evita� on Broadway with Patti LuPone. I liked this girl�s Evita better. This Evita remained very vulnerable under the hard exterior. It worked. It worked very well.
Che�s part also requires good acting and singing. We had a senior who could do it. He was no Mandy Patenkin (the originator of the role) but he was not very far behind. Although I would have liked to see just a little more cynicism and edge to him, he had enough to provide the needed counterweight to Evita. (He�s also a very nice young man who gave Kat a ride to the cast party.)
The boy who played Peron also did a solid job. He did not use an accent but I prefer no accent to a bad one so I was not bothered. The best acting moment of the night was the look on Peron�s face when Evita clearly was fading. He looked absolutely stricken. It wasn�t too much. It wasn�t too little. It was perfect.
Kat herself made a wonderful aristocrat, worker, and general chorus member. When the aristocracy appeared, I could not pick out her individual voice but I could hear enough soprano so I knew she was singing strongly and loudly. (There are only two sopranos in the aristocracy.) As an aristocrat, she had a very striking black dress. As usual, the stage lights caught her blond hair and made it glow.
All-in-all, it was an excellent production�which is a good thing because I�m committed to seeing it again next Saturday night.
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LAST FIVE ENTRIES:
Everything I Need to Know About Homeland Security I Learned at the Seton Camp-Out
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Copyright 2006 by Ellen |
