Broadway Rose Theatre
July 29 - August 16, 2009
Summary:
The story of Evita, told entirely through song and dance, follows the life of Argentina's infamous Eva Perón. Blessed with charisma, she uses her feminine powers to charm and scratch her way up the ladder of success to share the power and the bed of her country’s leader, General Perón.
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Focusing on the Portland, Oregon theatre scene in precisely 50-word increments. followspot@hotmail.com
29 comments:
It's about time Broadway Rose brought S.Marrs to play one of they're leads...way to late but it's nice to see that maybe there more open to high end portland talent.
Susannah was absolutely fantastic in this production. The pit, the ensemble, and Ron Harman (sp?) as Peron were all lovely. I was not so excited by Che - it's an high energy role, but there was so much pushing and movement, I couldn't get a clear flow of "his" story. I really enjoyed this production overall. The technical elements were also handled beautifully.
Stunning.
Achingly beautiful.
Now that's entertainment.
I got goose bumps.
To me this was better than anything PCS has ever produced.
It is notable that this was done in a High School Auditorium and not even a $37 million theatre can help hapless PCS.
As a counterpoint, while it's true this show is being performed in a High School auditorium, it is by no means only using their equipment.
Interesting first comment. Who, exactly, do you consider "high end portland talent" ? And where does that leave the rest of the performers in this show?
Susannah could sing the phone book and sound magnificent. I was less impressed with the rest of this production, unfortunately. Felt Green mugged his way through the show and the night we were there the orchestra was pretty bad, frankly. They need better AC at this facility, know that's probably not their fault.
I liked Green's energy.
I was not aware of orchestra gaffs
(and I am sensitive to them)
and I have no problems with the temperature in the room.
The choral work is great.
Beautiful show.
Many "WOW" moments.
What was it that you did not like about the production itself? I hate it when people say things like "I was less impressed with the rest of this production, unfortunately." without giving reasons why they did not care for the show. Could you be more vauge? If your going to say anything make it worth while.
Also how could the air conditioning be the theater companies fault? Honestly, they rent the space from a public high school.
Anonymous 8/7 8:27, perhaps if you read more carefully, you would have seen clearly that I said I felt Green mugged and the orchestra was in pretty ragged shape that night. Also, it's "vague," not "vauge."
P.S. To anon 8/7 8:27, what part of "They need better AC at this facility, KNOW THAT'S PROBABLY NOT THEIR FAULT" didn't you understand?
Far from my favorite show, so take that into consideration, but wanted to see Susannah in this role and she did not disappoint. There were some balance issues, wondering if some of the mic batteries were wonky. Nice set, lights, agree with above poster that Green tries too hard. Lackluster orchestra that didn't adequately match Susannah's finesse.
posters:
when you correct another's spelling on this site, it is a cheap shot.
it does not help your cause.
it makes you seem supercilious.
What I mean to say is:
Typos happen.
It does not make your opinion more valid than another just because you point them out.
Typos happen, snark is choreographed.
Good thing no one pointed out that same post meant to say "you're" (not your) and "company's" (not "companies"), LOL. If you're going to take a shot at another poster's opinion, your post becomes fair game, as far as I'm concerned. The state of literacy in this country is something that all artists should be concerned about.
Ron Harmon's shuffling feet and hand acting finally seemed appropriate.
For the love it all can’t you people focus on the show! This is not the place for you to play the game of snide remarks. I would rather read about the opinions of people who have seen the show. If I wanted a lesson in grammar and punctuation I would go back to school.
I have seen the show and found it overall enjoyable. I thought the choreography was quirky yet work for Buenos Aires. Mars delivers a strong performance even as she had to at times battle the volume of the over mic’d orchestra. Green gives a fairly good performance but I think he could have done so with more conviction and fire under the belt.
The ensemble gives great vocals and delivers some very well done dance.
The sound had some issues with some leads cutting in and out.
I enjoyed the design of the set, very different from the Broadway production; I think that is why I enjoyed it as I did. The directors take on this show was very creative in the way he used the set to help tell the story of Eva. Minimal yet effective at the same time.
Overall I would give this show solid B.
I see the show is now sold out for all remaining performances.
Note:
the choral singing was abetted by some pit singers....
Re: typos and such:
Well ok, not that this site will change the world, but one writer at i time i guess.
As for the real world out there, I regularly hear grammar, syntax and usage errors on the news, both local and national, so in a way, i doubt there is much hope.
in fact as we continue to abuse the language it changes to acommodate us, which is the way it should be i guess....
There are two pit singers in total. The rest is all the ensemble.
Still two more than I have ever heard of in local theatre before.
IIRC, BRTC also had pit singers (and maybe more than 2) in WILL ROGERS FOLLIES.
I was wondering if some of the people who have seen the show would care to share their thoughts on the scenery. One post mentioned "minimal but effective" and another used the term "stunning". Did you feel the unit set was used effectively? Did you feel it was appropriate for the overall staging of the show? In a wider range of questioning, do you like this form of staging for musical theatre or do you prefer a more traditional form of staging? As an audience member, do you like being given a chance to use a little imagination to fill in what isn't there, or would you prefer a more conclusive stage picture? As a designer, NOT for this production, I would be very interested to know how people feel about the visual story-telling of a production. Would anyone care to comment? (P.S. This is not an attempt to give anyone opportunity to bash someone else's work, so please keep your responses constructive, not personal)
The set, while handsome and apparently serviceable for the needs of this production, seemed somewhat adrift in terms of concept.
So, "Evita" in a tango bar... why?
There seemed no clear answer to this question.
Why are we in a tango bar?
Who are these people?
Why are they telling us the story of "Evita"?
What does it mean to them?
Are we always in the tango bar? If so, why do they move furniture on and off stage?
Why does the tango bar have a flip out staircase?
Some of the performers retain elements of their tango bar costumes throughout the show, even when enacting other roles. Does this mean they are presenting those roles as patrons of the tango bar would? On the other hand some of the characters are evoked without any use of tango bar costumes-- are they fantasy figures?
Why the inconsistency?
Re-conceptualizing classic texts and productions is an exciting form of theatrical experimentation, but ideally this goes beyond simply the look of the show and finds a coherent viewpoint for the presentation of the work.
In this case it seemed to be little more than a rather simple bit of conceptual mathematics--
"Evita" = Argentina
Argentina = tango bars
therefore "Evita" in a tango bar!
i loved it.
to me it required no explanation.
in the original, the news of evitaas death which starts the show comes in a newsreel in a movie theatre.
here we get it on a radio in a bar.
why not?
to me the set served its purpose perfectly.
i was not in the least distracted by it.
i was engrossed in the story, the music and the acting.
I liked the set design a lot.
I thought not only was it stunning and attractive in and of itself, but that it also served the various locations well as a unit set.
I did not take it to be literally a tango bar, but rather a unit set doubling as many locations, including the Casa Rosada.
THe flip-out staircase was a bit cheesy, but not unexpected from a musical like this.
I really liked the use of the "negative" space upstage behind the shutter doors, even when they weren't open, the movement of actors or crew, added depth (even if that were unexpected), but especially so when open.
It did have a BsAs tango bar feel, but one that yielded to other locales.
I did have some problems with inadequate lighting, distracting costumes and hissing mics, but the set design seemed to work well.
That's funny -- the flip out stair case to me provided the most chilling moment of the evening.
What did you think of the lighting design?
shadowy at points but no great minus or plus.
though the cross lighting on the big solo was profound i thought.
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