Evita: Over the (Big) Top

Evita: Over the (Big) Top

Zachary Scott Theatre Center,

through November 12

Running Time: 2 hrs

Poor Eva Peron. The Argentinean actress/first lady/candidate for sainthood loved the poor's spirit and the rich's couture, but she despised the middle class. As fate would have it, Evita was eventually buried amidst her oligarchic enemies and, adding insult to injury, was ultimately immortalized by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Webber has, to my mind, always epitomized the term "bourgeois"; his lavish, chain-jerking musicals embrace their subjects with a deadly mixture of flat characters and coy sentimentality. Evita the musical is, assisted by Tim Rice's clunky lyrics, consistent with Webber's pandering oeuvre, à la Starlight Express and the tourist mecca-show Cats, which just ended its seemingly eternal run on Broadway.

That said, even people who, like me, dread theatrical cutesiness (thus, Webber) like the plague, must admit that the cruddiest plays can be watchable if they're done in the right spirit. Last year Austin Musical Theatre came through with a deliciously (if accidentally) campy version of Jesus Christ Superstar, and this season Zachary Scott Theatre Center Artistic Director Dave Steakley has taken his own stab at the subtle art of Webber-interpretation.

Under Steakley's direction, Zach's Evita has a circus theme, making it completely over-the-(big)-top. Steakley works that stage and the actors such that there is always something huge going on. Stilts! A trick dog! Acrobats dressed like peacocks! My favorite is the cherubic, multicultural children's ensemble, who wear butterfly wings on their backs and emerge to mourn Eva with peacock feathers and lit sparklers.

Musical Director Allen Robertson keeps pace with a big-bigger-biggest sound scale, which is the only way to play it. The production wisely opts not to seek after depth which is not there, and instead plays to the musical's singular strength: its spectacle quotient. Michael Raiford's set design is duly phenomenal, employing banners, streamers, and paper falling from the ceiling to ensure the maximum level of crowd ecstacy. The moving platform from which Evita delivers "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" lends the moment the appropriate intimacy and majesty.

The musical's Eva Peron is something of a caricature, and there's nothing any actress can do to add more than a couple of layers to her; certainly Madonna didn't make the grade in the feature film. But Jenna Busch hits all the right emotional keys, particularly as the flouncier, younger, bigger-haired Eva. The hair and fashions, in fact, steal many a scene, and the abundance of costume changes keeps things that much more lively. Some of costume designer Leslie Bonnell's outfits are particularly creative. In one boxing-match confrontation between the snarky narrator (here ringmaster) Che and Eva, Che rips the bustle off Eva's gold dress and uses it against her as a bull-fighting cape. Olé!

As Che, Gerard Lebeda is snarlingly effective. Dan Sullivan does a fine job as the indecisive but heart-throbbingly chiseled Juan Peron. Peron's Mistress is played with wide eyes and strong voice by young actress Marita Stryker. Dino Lee, aka "Mr. Fabulous" (who also used to front The White Trash Revue), appears as Magaldi, the tango singer who discovers the pre-politics Eva while she's in the whoring-around phase of her acting career.

Steakley, in daring to formulate an answer to the question "What if Fellini had directed Evita?" has pulled absolutely no punches, and bless him for it. Brazenness in this case results in a vast-scaled sensation of a theatre experience such as Austin rarely sees. This production should make people who like Webber apoplectic with glee. And, thankfully, those who don't care for the musical itself can still appreciate the decadent flair of this particular production.