Evita at Lyric Stage Irving

Theater review from The Movie Snob

Evita. The community theater over in Irving, Texas, is doing Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Evita, one of my favorite musicals. I've seen it live twice before, both in big national touring productions, so I was a little apprehensive that the local talent wouldn't be up to the demanding vocals and fairly elaborate choreography. My fears were for naught; this is a thoroughly competent and enjoyable production, and if you like Evita you will definitely like this show. The three leads all did very well. The fellow who plays Che did an outstanding job, and it didn't hurt that he actually looks like the iconic picture of Che Guevara you see everywhere. The guy who plays Juan Peron has an excellent, booming voice; to pick a nit, I'd say he comes across as a little too genial and nice of a guy, he could stand to make Peron a little oilier, a little more menacing. Finally, the gal who plays Eva has both the looks and the voice for the very challenging role. One minor complaint--when she sings, especially when she's facing the audience, her eyes bug out in an alarming and somewhat crazed fashion. But that's a very small quibble, and probably not even noticeable if you're sitting farther back than the second row, where I was.