St. Mike’s Evita: An Odd Choice, but it Paid Off

St. Michael’s Troubadours performed Evita, a musical by Tim Rice (music) and Andrew Lloyd Weber (lyrics), at Hart House this past weekend, with director Jeffrey Kennes and producer David Carcasole. The musical focuses on the ascension of historical figure Eva Perón (Madeline Foley), the wife of the Argentinian President Juan Perón (Daniel Newton), who won the presidential election after becoming a general in the army. While the decision to perform Evita is a little questionable—the musical is based on a somewhat biased biography of Eva Perón by Mary Mion, which has since been challenged by a more “neutral” biography by Nicholas Fraser and Marysa Navarro—the performance was solid, with amazing vocals and a captivating performance by the cast.

Leads Eva and Juan Perón, together with the narrator, Che (Shak Haq), were all played to perfection, with stunning, powerful vocals and equally captivating acting. Foley’s singing was truly amazing, especially as she managed to convey her character’s very operatic personality; she shifted from melodic to roaring with ease and precision, perfectly calibrating her movements and expressions to the music. With her nuanced singing and acting, Foley managed to portray Eva as an ambitious teenager, a calculating public figure, a humble actress, an impassioned nationalist, a devastated wife, and a gentle and caring advocate for the lower class, while remaining utterly believable in her many guises. She used the stage to almost always put herself physically above the “masses.” Meanwhile, her costuming accentuated her different personas; a simple change from loose hair to an updo, or from red clothes to gray and white, facilitated her move up the classes and eventually towards being Argentina’s darling.

Shak Haq was extremely charismatic despite his sometimes-aggressive lines. Although Che’s function was as much that of critic as of narrator, Haq managed to navigate the character masterfully, allowing the audience to see him as worthy of sympathy rather than too harsh on Eva and the lower-class’s obsession with her. Che truly seemed to be taking the audience with him, instead of merely preaching to them, and while he made some cutting comments to Eva—“Get them while they’re young” comes to mind—Haq managed to convey Che’s genuine desire to understand Eva. His costuming changed little, representing his existence outside of the timeline of Eva’s timeline. His slightly scruffy but approachable appearance did, however, serve to make his revolutionary stance apparent, as did his move to the top of the stairs in the present, when he is “above” the others’ slavish love of Eva, and his move to the bottom in the past.

Although he had fewer songs than Foley and Haq, Newton as Juan Perón managed to make the most of his appearances. Despite his chilling introduction as a man who assassinated his way to leadership, Newton manages to humanize Perón. In fact, his defence of his wife and his protection of her even as she edges towards political uselessness is quite sweet, mostly because Newton acts as if he is genuinely in love. His anguished delivery of the line, “I am trying to tell you that you are dying,” and his devastated look as he hastily tries to comfort his wife by saying, “Of course, you’re not dying,” goes a long way towards making the character seem real. Newton’s costuming, too, remains static; he remains a military man, while his wife becomes a true public figure, making him a leader more by association with her than by any action of his own. Indeed, he only ever climbs the stairs when he is with Eva.

While Evita is historically questionable, it did seem like an appropriate musical for the St. Michael’s Troubadours simply because it allowed the whole cast to have multiple singing roles. There were several songs sung exclusively or almost exclusively by the cast, and some small solo roles such as that of Perón’s spurned mistress (Madeline Dawson), Migaldi (Rami Ashtar) the womanising musician, and a little girl (Faith Delamasa) who asks for Eva’s blessing. The costuming of the greater cast, which varied greatly, showed each cast member as an individual as well as part of a group, seeming to symbolize both Eva and Che’s inability to decide whether they were dealing with individuals or a homogenous mass. The production thus managed to give a resounding performance, complete with amazing vocals and symbolism, that practically compelled the standing ovation they received.