Anyone who still questions the value of star power on
Broadway should take a look at the current revival of Evita in which the pop
star Ricky Martin plays Che, the narrator of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s
musical about the controversial Argentinean icon Eva Perón.
The show has gotten
only so-so reviews (click here to see the roundup that averaged a B- on StageGrade) and just a stingy three Tony nominations but it is almost selling out the big 1,600-seat
Marquis Theatre each night and the majority of those tickets seem to be going
for full price.
Similarly, anyone who thinks that it is still career suicide
for gay performers to come out to the public might want to think about that
again too. Martin came out in 2010,
has become an outspoken advocate for gay rights and married his longtime beau
economist Carlos Gonzalez Abella earlier this year. The couple have
two-year-old twin sons who were born via a surrogate mother.
But none of that stopped the women in the audience at the
performance my theatergoing buddy Bill and I attended from ogling Martin’s buff
physique and loudly expressing their pleasure with it or fantasies about what
they might do with it.
“Ricky.
Ricky. Ricky,” the women sitting behind me chanted when Martin came out for the
curtain call. And they knew the real deal. “Do you think he’ll stay around to sign autographs?” one asked her
friend. “Nah,” came the
answer. “He’s got to get home to
Carlos and the kids.”
Martin isn’t a stage newbie (he played Marius in Les
Misérables back in 1996) and he’s got a good voice but he and director Michael
Grandage have reconceived Che so that the character isn’t the cynical provocateur
that Mandy Patinkin portrayed in the multiple-Tony winning 1979 Broadway
production. Instead, Martin’s Che is literally an Everyman and, as such, he
blends into the ensemble far too much.
Of course the real star of Evita is supposed to be the
actress playing Evita. It’s a
killer role that requires nuanced acting and a vocal dexterity that might give
an opera star agita. It made a star of Elaine Paige when she originated the
role in London and of Patti LuPone when she later played the part on
Broadway.
So there was a lot of anticipation about this production
which promised to bring a new authenticity to the role by casting the
Argentinean actress Elena Roger in the part. And Roger drew raves when she
played Evita in London back in 2007.
But something happened in the intervening five years because her Evita
is far less successful now. Roger's acting is fine, as is her dancing. It’s the singing that’s the
problem. She's unstable on the high notes and strains with some of the others as well.
And that’s a real shame because the music for Evita is
sublime. There’s not one clunker in the entire score. Luckily, the always-satisfying Michael Cerveris is on hand
to deliver as Juan Perón and he's earned one of the show’s three Tony
nominations (click here to read a piece about him).
Meanwhile the
creative team is firing on all-cylinders, lead by choreographer Rob Ashford,
who fills the stage with terrific tango-infused dance numbers (he got one of the Tony nods
too).