Reviews round-up for EVITA at the Dominion Theatre

A round-up of reviews for EVITA at the Dominion Theatre starring Marti Pellow.

Madalena Alberto as Eva Peron and Marti Pellow as Che in EVITA

EVITA is back in the West End – at the newly refurbished Dominion Theatre.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s blkockbuster musical stars Madalena Alberto as Eva Peron and Marti Pellow as Che.

See reviews below from The Guardian, Independent, Evening Standard and more.

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Average Critics Rating

★★★

REVIEWS ROUND-UP

The Guardian

★★★★

"If the show still works, it is largely because it boasts one of Lloyd Webber’s best, most tightly composed scores. It uses Latin American rhythms, military marches, and wistful ballads yet constantly returns to a key melodic phrase in the big number. Rice’s lyrics also offset Lloyd Webber’s inherent romanticism and contain sharp couplets such as Che’s “instead of government we had a stage, instead of ideas a prima donna’s rage”. The only problem is that I didn’t catch those lines in the vast Dominion. One day I’d like to see this musical in an intimate, studio version where audibility trumped spectacle."
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The Daily Telegraph

★★★

"Amid a world of brutal, unpleasant military types, you’re inclined to cheer her progress, and yet something checks you – and it’s not just the lurking, cynical, incongruous presence of the narrator “Che” (the revolutionary Che Guevara who’s played here with one-note heavy seriousness by Marti Pellow). It’s as if Lloyd Webber and Rice are so ambivalent about whether Evita is a good soul underneath her populist airs and graces that she’s kept at one remove."
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The Independent

★★

"The music is brilliant as ever; it’s the bits in between the songs that are the problem. The actors’ over-blown gestures seem strained. Madalena Alberto plays Eva Peron, Argentina’s “spiritual leader”. Her vocal range is fabulous as both a coquettish teenager and imposing First Lady but she lacks charisma. Her gestures come from another age of theatre altogether (Restoration perhaps?)."
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Evening Standard

★★★

"Marti Pellow, of Wet Wet Wet fame, makes an almighty hash of the part of cynical narrator Che. He can’t sustain a note and the concept of keeping in time appears totally beyond him. Yet those indestructibly fine songs — of which Don’t Cry for Me Argentina isn’t the best — wow us once more. Bob Tomson and Bill Kenwright direct slickly, employing a large ensemble to give a sense of both the lighter and darker sides of Buenos Aires life. The Dominion itself has been stylishly refurbished after the 12-year tenure of We Will Rock You. But the limited seven-week run is the best thing for this Evita."
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Daily Mail

★★★★

"Miss Alberto is superb as Eva, feeding off the crowds, her voice sure. Matthew Cammelle is good as Peron, Ben Forster does splendidly as nightclub singer Magaldi."
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