Waterford Musical Society's epic, enigmatic, 'Evita'

Evita is epic. It has a cast of millions, massive backdrop, and multiple storylines of political and sexual betrayal, economic ruin and vaulting private prosperity, military dictatorship driven by personal ambition. It’s no wonder that it’s Trumps favourite musical. A nobody becomes a political icon driven on by populist rallies from the descamisados (the shirtless ones) that mix show business and strong right wing appeal and that dumps on the weak and vulnerable. Now where have we heard that before?

The enigma of Evita unites the storyline. Eva Duarte, a ruthlessly ambitious but beautiful peasant girl sleeps and manipulates her way into Buenos Aires military high society, becomes incredibly rich and powerful and ultimately marries Col. Juan Peron, President of Argentina. The enigma of Evita is her purpose in doing so. Does she really intend to improve the lot of los descamisados and the general workers or is she only interested in her own promotion? Or both? Can personal greed and a duty to the public good sit as bed-fellows in one small person? Imagine…a young and vulnerable woman, exploited for her beauty, exploits, in turn, the exploiters.

After Juan Perón was elected President of Argentina in June 1946, Eva Perón became powerful within the pro-Peronist trade unions, primarily for speaking on behalf of labour rights. Over the course of six years, she ran the Ministries of Labour and Health, founded and ran the charitable Eva Perón Foundation, championed women's suffrage in Argentina, and founded and ran the nation's first large-scale female political party, the Female Peronist Party.

In a tour-de-force performance as Evita Peron, Paula Weldon captures the enigma of Evita’s character with a mix of cynicism and charity, power and appeal, vulnerability and survivor, loving wife and conniving mistress. Enemies find to their cost that she is not one to be betrayed. She dumps those who are no longer of value to her. Like night-club singer Magaldi (the excellent Timmy Maloney) who brings her to the Big Apple, or Argentine high society ladies that lunch with tiny tea cups and elbow-high gloves find themselves elbowed out of fashionable Buenos Aires society in a marvellously camp “Chorus girl hasn’t learned the lines”. Evita’s fashionable and sensual tango in ‘Stand back Buenos Aires’ summarises her ascent to power. 

Dermot Keyes is excellent as the cold and ruthless Peron who also sidelines other ambitious military officers in a clever game of musical chairs in the cynical ‘The Art of the Possible’. Similarly, Evita eliminates the mistress opposition … “I’ve just unemployed you”…leaving Peron’s “mistress-with-no-name” Lauren Cardiff to reflect on her position as the owner of “Another suitcase in another hall”. Lauren’s fragile performance in this one scene is magnificent – a waiflike child with no control over her future, uncertain and terrified where fortune will dump her. The simplicity of the number and the raw emotion Cardiff generates stands in complete contrast to the high energy of this incredibly busy show. Brian Tuohy is outstanding as Che Guevara, a one-man Greek chorus, whose ironic and bitter commentary on Argentine society is one of the show’s main drivers.

Musical Director Wayne Brown works wonders with a very difficult score that sees multiple key and tempo changes throughout and a vocal range for Evita that makes huge demands on the singer. The 13-strong band is a delight and the musical director’s tempo is key to the pace of this vibrant musical.

Director Liam Butler, handles this complex plotline with great skill using chorus groupings and pictures, along with screen footage of Evita newsreels, to tell his story. Choreographer Ali Reville, moves large groups of diverse background – army guards and officers, union officials, shirtless ones, Buenos Aires high society, mourners – in groupings that constantly change and re-invent themselves. At times on opening night, Ben Hennessy’s set design, with its constant movement, confuses. However, I’m sure that this would be rectified with performance. Rita Loncke Drohan’s massive costume plot is bang in forties character and must have challenged the wardrobe racks in the Royal with multiple glamorous changes for Paula Weldon as Evita.

So…as Tuohy’s Che constantly questions…just who exactly was this Argentine enigma? Peron’s ruthless, manipulative mistress and society interloper? Or…Eva Duarte, the darling of the shirtless ones, who crawled her way out of the barrel of Buenos Aires poverty to become their heroine? As always, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Paula Weldon’s Eva Duarte is Evita – a woman, schooled in poverty and bad luck, that uses the very quality others exploited, her own beauty, charm, intelligence and ambition – to find her way in the world and survive.

A great night on the Mall from Waterford Musical Society and a big shout out to young Luke Brown for this marvellous picture of the cast and crew of Evita.