Thursday 17 March 2011

Old Reviews 7: Evita (Apollo) Rock 'n' Roll (Duke of York's) (August 2006)

Hello! I had a good time and saw some shows, as is the way when one goes to London, as well as seeing the two shows mentioned I also saw Les Miserables which I'd never seen before and thought I'd better see. It was ok I suppose, just a bit too long with only a couple of really good songs I thought. Plus, Javert died so I was pretty annoyed. Ok, I'm sure no one cares about Les Mis 'cause it's been running for what, 20 years? I'll just say I still couldn't decide who I liked better Jean Valjean or Javert, they were both cool, the guy playing Valjean was great! Apparently he's the youngest actor to play the part as well as holding the record for the longest running Phantom of the Opera (1,400 show! Jeez!) Enough!
Anna and I went to see Evita on wednesday, Anna's never liked Evita, she hates Madonna so refuses to watch the film, which is a shame because I think the film's actually ok and I try to forget about Madonna in the real world while I'm watching it. We'd read reviews of the show, it was supposed to be nothing special, sort of average as far as shows go, all the reviews said basically the show belonged to Elena Roger. And it certainly did, that woman has such a huge amazing voice for such a tiny person!! She was the perfect Eva. I'd say Matt Rawle didn't compare to Antonio, but then, seriously folks, who could?! (Antonio fan, right here!) He was good though, and he looked the part, Anna just said it was a bit of a contrast to Elena's Argentinian singing accent to have the narrator singing it all in an English accent. One of the great things about the show was to me, as a stupid artist, the brilliant set! I'd read that it wasn't spectacular but I'd say compared to the crappy Les Mis set from the day before it was wonderful! And Anna of course loved all the dancing and I'm happy to say there was a lot of great dancing! All the songs were there (excpet of course my favourite- the Lady's got Potential), there was a lot more focus on the political I'm pleased to say, the film seems to focus on Eva as a poor little dove rather than all the corruption and ambition. I thought it was rubbish in the film that they cut Peron's mistress singing 'So what Happens Now?' and have Madonna sing it, but they did it properly and Eva was always strong, flirty, dangerous and a total bitch! That was one quibble I always had with the film, them painting her as the victim, like when Jimmy Nail drops her, in the musical she drops Magaldi, much more accurate!
So, Rock 'n' Roll. This play was so good, so funny and touching, I reccomend it to absolutely everyone! I mean, I could see people (other peeps in the audience) looking at me and Anna obviously thinking "you can't possibly understnad this, not even the bits about rock and roll which are the non-political bits!" Well to hell with you! Anna read up on the political side of it before we went, though I'd say they make it all very clear in the play! And I love rock and roll! Every scene ends with a black screen and a bit of rock and roll appropriate to what the characters have been talking about and I knew every one of those songs! I don't like music, when people ask me what I like to listen to, I don't know what to say but all the bands they talked about in the play... I had those albulms! On VINYL!!
Anyway, enough about my knowledge of rock and roll. I'll tell you about the actors, they were all perfectly cast, Rufus Sewell, Brian Cox and Sinead Cusack all standing out as the amazing performers of the day, especially Rufus and Brian, those guys were AMAZING! And wow is Rufus Sewell handsome!!! (girly moment again) That boy is AMAZINGLY HANDSOME!! I'm glad I've always based my imaginary boyfriend Max on him... And again the set was ingenious, two different back drops, Prague and Cambridge and the revolving rooms were great.

2011 Author's Note: I forgot about Max my imaginary boyfriend... He was a looker! Rock 'n' Roll was one of the best plays I've seen not at the National.

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