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Pop opera fails to move theater goers

BY MICHAEL OCAMPO

Daily Titan Staff

For a Tony-Award winning musical with a celebrated director, a seasoned cast and an Oscar-worthy fi lm adaptation, you’d expect more.

You’d expect to be enchanted, to yell “encore” after the performance and hum the delightful ditties on your way home, especially when leaving from a classy venue like the Pantages Theatre.

But as classy as the Pantages is, you can’t help but leave the three-city tour of “Evita” (through March 13) feeling disappointed at the mismatched performances, sore from the shoves of disgruntled theater critics and you are left wondering, “I missed Alias for this?”

“Evita,” Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice’s mega “pop opera,” is based on the life of Eva Duarte (Kathy Voytko), an ambitious social climber who, with her wit and beauty, captivated an entire nation in the early half of the 20th century.

Juan Peron (Philip Hernandez), the general who eventually becomes president of Argentina, is the fi nal man Eva climbs in her successively progressive lust for power.

Hernandez looks the part; he’s tall, dark and handsome and has the presence you’d expect a general to possess.

But in a pop opera, looking the

part is subordinate to sounding the part.

Hernandez has trouble singing over the orchestra, and when he tries to infuse emotion into songs that require a higher note, his performance seems squeamish and adolescent.

Like Peron, the character of Che Guevara (Bradley Smith), the Latin American revolutionary and the story’s narrator, is well-acted.

He’s funny, compelling and despite the fact that the character is Marxist, he’s likeable. But that voice … It isn’t until the fi nal acts of the play that Smith’s voice is passable. Until then, it’s screech after squeal and too much vibrato.

Last time I checked, pop and vibrato were mutually exclusive.

Neither can keep up with the musical’s star, Eva, played by Voytko, who does a tremendous job.

From her acting to her singing, Voytko is solid. She captures all the nuances of a character who transforms from a doe-eyed teenager to a two-faced prima donna, all the while hitting every note on key in this more than two-hour vocal marathon.

And though not as sultry as some of her predecessors, Voytko still conveys the emotions her character is supposed to be experiencing.

A strong performance was also given by Gabriel Burrafato, who plays Magaldi, the Ricky Ricardoesque lounge singer who brings Eva to Buenos Aires.

Though a relatively small part, the performance is enjoyable nevertheless.

Kudos also goes to Larry Fuller, the production’s choreographer

and co-director, who with director Hal Prince, produced the original production that swept Broadway more than 20 years ago.

With a strong ensemble at his disposal, Fuller devises dances that accent the different social groups and classes, each as entertaining as they are unique.

“The Art of the Possible” in particular showcases Fuller’s creativity. In it, he demonstrates the country’s corrupt government in a game of musical chairs.

But what defi nes this production is the lasting impression you’re left with at its lackluster end.

It’s not so much that Eva dies, you know that much from her requiem in the beginning of the story, but that what happens after her death is so randomly anti-climactic.

The fi nale is fl at and unmoving, which ultimately sums up the play; a disappointment for an endeavor with such potential.