‘Evita’ Stirs Audience’s Emotions With Skill Touring Show Is Clearly A Lloyd Webber Production

“Evita,” Through tonight at the Spokane Opera House: call 325-SEAT for tickets

My feelings about “Evita” are strangely conflicted.

On one hand, I admired the talent and direction of this touring production. I often found myself swept up by the excitement of this epic story.

On the other hand, “Evita” made me remember exactly why I have never been able to share in the general excitement over Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musicals.

More on that later, but first I’d rather dwell on the many positive aspects of this show. The show’s biggest asset is Kerri Jill Garbis, who dominates the show the way the real Eva Peron dominated the culture and politics of Argentina.

Garbis has a big, strong commanding voice, shown off to best advantage in the number “Buenos Aires,” which is Evita’s declaration of ambition, and also in the big emotional number “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina.”

Garbis is also a good actress, filling the role of Evita with fire and passion. The strongest dramatic part of the show, by far, comes toward the end when Evita is weakened by cancer. Her body is weakened, but Garbis shows clearly that the flame still burns hotly inside.

Juan Peron, in Sunday night’s show, was played well by understudy Frank Bachman. Che Guevara was played with enormous energy and marvelous presence by Jonathan J. Clark.

The big, versatile ensemble was one of the show’s main strengths. The chorus singing was crisp, and the dancing was outstanding. I especially liked the “Peron’s Latest Flame” number where a squad of soldiers marched manically around like either toy soldiers or a Village People parody. The best production number was “Santa Evita,” a breathtaking number which demonstrated the people’s adoration of Eva Peron.

However, despite all of this good work, I just couldn’t shake my longstanding Andrew Lloyd Webber prejudices, and in fact, I had some of them reinforced. Leave it to Webber to have Che Guevara, the famous Cuban revolutionary, reduced to a prancing, dancing musical comedy character. Why is Che Guevara even in this show? Not for historical accuracy. The man never met Eva Peron. My uncharitable guess is that he’s there because Webber thought Che was hip.

The other problem is that Webber has a hard time telling a story. Much of Act One was chaotic and confusing, a problem exacerbated by the fact it was often difficult to follow the lyrics. Many people will blame the sound system, but I think the bigger problem is the songs have a muddied narrative line in the first place.

Act Two, however, had a much cleaner story line and was therefore much more satisfying.

While my prejudices - and I admit that’s what they are - made it hard for me to totally enjoy this show, I think most of the people in audience were moved, thrilled and entertained.

I don’t think they are necessarily wrong - in fact, I envy them. I can tell I’m missing something.

MEMO: This sidebar ran with story: HIGHLIGHT The exciting and moving “Santa Evita” number.