Following on from last year’s excellent production of Priscilla comes Romiley Operatic Societies presentation of the popular and multi award winning Lloyd-Webber classic, Evita! This society perform here each year and completely utilises this beautiful, Art Deco theatre with its huge, and I mean huge, proscenium and luxurious auditorium with fabulous sight lines and acoustics. And did they use it well? Oh yes and some. I counted 50 performers on stage in some of the numbers which takes some enormous artistic direction and choreography and logistics to make that work but boy they did and with aplomb. I counted a mind blowing 64 cast members in the programme and that in itself is a remarkable cast size for any production.
Evita tells the meteoric rise to fame and popularity as the first lady of Argentina – the wife of Juan Peron. Starting out as Eva Duarte a poor girl with big aspirations to be famous, she meets a tango cabaret singer (Magaldi) and moves to Buenos Aires with him to find stardom at just 15. Their affair ends but her dreams don’t, and she goes through several affairs and prostitution before meeting Peron and marrying him. She was highly unpopular with the government as they saw her poverty would cause problems. Her popularity and social climbing was far greater than her husband’s as the people of Argentina idolised, adored and worshipped this Santa Evita (their pet name for her). Tragically, she died from cancer aged just 33.
Romiley had staged their show on a largely open front stage with a rear, elevated platform and towers either side with stairs, all black and industrial. The show relied heavily on projections for the atmosphere of place and time. These were split directly behind the main stage and then again, a higher one. This has fast become the modern staging technique and is an effective and less costly and speedier way to move a show on than heavy scene changes. Director Dawn Leigh had some really great and clever ideas, and the tower was absolutely perfect for the balcony where Evita performs her iconic song. The funeral scenes and the hydraulic platform on which her casket lifted was only used twice at the beginning and the end and did take quite a bit of depth of the front area. Some of the projections worked better than others, The enormous candles in the church scenes were distractingly big but the fireworks at the party and the confetti falling were gorgeous. In the opening prologue there was a period where no signposting of images was given, and I didn’t know where we were (in time and place) but it may have been a first night glitch. I struggled with the rear, elevated platform, centre stage as there were some scenes where Peron’s political entourage looking a little out of place and the time taken to get performers up and down the stairs seemed a little clunky in timings, on occasion.
The strengths of this show were the exquisite characterisations of its leads, the ensemble work, the stunning dancing and choreography and the musical direction. MD Paul Lawton had to work with many performers to sing classical, choral and rock. It was stunning and the sound and balance was incredible. Sound and mics were perfect. It was a joy to watch a full band play such a challenging score so well and the MD to handle it and that enormous cast with precision and perfection. The ensemble knew exactly what to do and did it, even with some space constraints they all interacted and had a role and had been clearly directed and understood the text and the place and time really well. The movement and dancing were an absolute triumph. Such creativity from Gary Jones; so much energy and style in all the numbers.
But the ensemble numbers were a joy. You could see there were dancers and movers but to get everyone to dance to that level of energy and enthusiasm and skill was remarkable. And the Money Kept Rolling In was my personal favourite and the tango where Eva meets Juan Peron were exquisite. Director Dawn Leigh had drawn out some fabulous performances from all her actors, but the leads were outstanding.
Firstly, Louise Colohan as Eva Peron – stunning. She looked right, her dialogue was spot on, and her singing was magnificent. Such a well observed performance. Her persona was a masterclass in leading lady, and I had quite a few moments during the show where I actually forgot that this was an amateur performance. She was divine. She was well supported by Paul Allison as her president husband Peron. Paul used every ounce of his experience to provide a solid foil, in this show he is majorly overshadowed by the Evita role, but he looks and sounds great and the scene where she was at the end of her life was tender and reflective and kind with just the right amount of tension. A lovely performance. Che – played in military fatigues (minus the beret) was Gary Jones. The more I see this man perform, the more I see what an enormous talent he is. So versatile and he oozes charisma in an effortless narration and social commentator on Evita throughout. Through his acting, he guided the audience in a crystal-clear narration. A flawless performance. All other performers played their parts to a high standard and contributed to the overall effectiveness of the story telling.
Lighting was by the creative and effective Ian Legate and I saw some gorgeous cross lighting with lovely colour choices. Overall, it was a little gloomy, but this was the stark staging choices. Costumes were terrific and all in keeping I loved the footwear and even the wigs were right. A mention must be to the standard of the vocals of the children who sang in the Santa Evita number and the very young soloists with so much presence and ability. The show was a real team effort and that shone through. Everyone working together on and offstage to make this enormous show come to life on the Plaza stage.
Evita is playing at Stockport Plaza Theatre until Saturday 29th March. Tickets from: Romiley Operatic Society Present: Evita
Reviewer: Kathryn Gorton
Reviewed: 25th March 2025
North West End UK Rating:
Rating: 4 out of 5.
