THEATER REVIEWS : Staging Corrupts Power of ‘Evita’

Is it time for a new “Evita”?

We’re not talking about a replacement for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s grand opera camouflaged as a musical. Replacing the show itself would be a terrible mistake, as this is the best work either Webber or Rice ever has done.

But have we arrived at a point where a new staging is called for? The good people at the Fullerton Civic Light Opera clearly don’t think so. Their current edition--like the one they gave us in 1985--adheres to the original Harold Prince staging of the epic tale.

For anyone who has never seen this story of the rise and fall of Eva Peron, Argentina’s unofficial saint, this production is a perfectly fine one to salute. Actually, as a colleague noted the other night, is a new staging even possible? Can you replace a masterpiece of musical staging? The odds are more than good that anything other than Prince’s would bring the show down from the giddy heights to which it soars.

But the new Fullerton “Evita” (which stars the old Fullerton Evita, Julie Waldman-Stiel from ‘85) raises the question nevertheless, partly because director Jim Whitson’s work is far from smooth and partly because this same CLO last year, with “The Most Happy Fella,” did something very gutsy. It junked the recently heralded two-piano version of the show and restored the full orchestra edition, a move that yielded wonderful artistic dividends.

Keeping to the tried and true, the 1994 “Evita” is, as revivals go, safer and clunkier. The rapid rise of Eva Duarte from lowly singer to wife and partner of ruler Juan Peron is tracked with heady excitement, but the mundane, mechanical transitions of getting on and off stage, and moving set pieces, tend to bog down Evita’s big career moves.

These transition problems are more acutely felt during the second act, which Webber and Rice have dared to construct as a serious, grave observation of absolute power corrupting absolutely. Even more daring is the winning Brechtian device of having Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara (Randy Gianetti) comment on Evita’s every step, from her show-biz failures (“Rainbow Tour”) to her deeper failure to match populist rhetoric with action.

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Where young Eva literally dances through men’s doors on her way to the top, the mature woman grips desperately to her position on the political stage, denouncing the military and wealthy oligarchies that circle her like vultures. Death comes surely, and Waldman-Stiel--who is superbly mercurial throughout--conveys Evita’s decline with the same level of acting legerdemain that Patti Lupone brought to this monstrously difficult role in the ’79 American premiere in Los Angeles.

But it all feels too painfully slow this time, as if Whitson and company want us to feel the grind of the grim mass funeral that begins the show. We still can appreciate the nerve of the Webber-Rice-Prince concept (and can wonder how Webber lost that nerve and turned to producing such entertainment machines as “Cats,” “Starlight Express” and “Phantom”). Except for Waldman-Stiel, though, there’s a lack of spark coming off the stage, as well as from musical director-conductor Benton Minor’s erratic pit orchestra.

Gianetti doesn’t maintain a consistent level of sardonic distance from events (his Che sometimes seems as if he wants to be a part of the action), and his voice fails the full comic demands of “Rainbow Tour.” Bob Lauder Jr. carries Juan Peron’s blankness to the point where he nearly becomes invisible (except during the musical chairs act of “The Art of the Possible,” still one of the gems of all Prince stage scenes). Rafael Duran as working-class singer Magaldi and Melissa Lyons as Peron’s mistress deliver fine cameos with moments of electricity that this show too obviously needs.

* “Evita,” Plummer Auditorium, Chapman and Lemon Streets, Fullerton. Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends March 6. $13-$26. (714) 526-3832. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes. Julie Waldman-Stiel: Eva

Randy Gianetti: Che

Bob Lauder Jr.: Peron

Rafael Duran: Magaldi

Melissa Lyons: Peron’s Mistress

A Fullerton Civic Light Opera production of the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, directed by Jim Whitson. Musical director-conductor: Benton Minor. Choreography: Sha Newman. Set: Todd V. Glen. Lights: Donna Ruzika. Costumes from the San Jose Civic Light Opera.