Reviewed by:

• Evita by Andrew Lloyd Webber
• Ryan McKinney

As audience members settled into their seats for the American Repertory Theater’s revival of Evita, a white, shimmering ball gown hung suspended over the Loeb Drama Center stage, floa ing with ethereal life, though unfilled by a human form. The musical’s [End Page 106] opening voiceover announcing the 1952 death of Eva Duarte de Perón rang out across the theatre, and then the dissonant chords of a requiem shattered the ensuing brief silence. A chorus of Argentines processed onto the stage, grieving the loss of Argentina’s First Lady, the suspended iconic gown serving as the only visual reference of her legacy. Who or what was being mourned here? A political figu e? A humble woman? A controversial criminal? A beloved icon? These questions remained at the forefront of this stunningly directed, performed, and sung revival of Evita.

Shereen Pimentel (Eva), Omar Lopez-Cepero (Che), and the company of Evita. (Photo: Nile Scott Studios.)

Originally released as a concept album in 1976, Evita marks one of the first collaborations between Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Later produced as a stage musical in the West End in 1978 and on Broadway in 1979, Evita served as a star-vehicle for its leading ladies, Elaine Paige and Patti LuPone, respectively. These original productions, both directed by Hal Prince, and their associated cast recordings made artistic, design, and musical choices that have become embedded in the fabric of Evita. While the ART production honored Prince’s original vision, it also strove to reimagine Evita—the musical and the woman—by creating a piece of musical storytelling that tangled with class, humanity, and memory.

Based on an earlier 2019 production in the City Center Encores! series, the ART production featured many returning cast and artistic team members, including its director, Sammi Cannold, who staged this production with a great deal of detail, thoughtfully foregrounding the theme of memory. The musical begins with Eva’s death, but the timeline then leaps backward to Eva’s humble beginnings and progresses from there in a sung-through narrative that details her life. These unfolding memories and events are filte ed through the eyes of the musical’s narrator, Che, an anti-Perón revolutionary who serves as Eva’s dramatic foil. Cannold embraced this memory framework to clarify not only Eva’s own story but also that of the mystical figu e of Che. Although he serves as the audience’s entry point into the story, the character of Che is underwritten, leaving audiences to question not only his legitimacy as a narrator but also the much more basic question of who he is. While earlier productions relied on costuming to suggestively link Che to Che Guevara in order to forestall some of these questions, Cannold turned to the device of memory to solve this dramaturgical dilemma, placing a younger version of Che (“Young Cadet”) into the storytelling. This ghost of our narrator served as Che’s memory of his younger self, an eager soldier who was initially loyal to Perón but later leaves his post in Perón’s inner circle due to the [End Page 107] corruption within. This convention was established in the opening number “Oh What a Circus” when Che sang, “And who am I who dares to keep / His head held high while millions weep? / Why the exception to the rule? / Opportunist? Traitor? Fool? / Or just a man who grew and saw / From seventeen to twenty-four / His country bled, crucifie ? / She’s not the only one who’s died!” In Cannold’s staging, Che, the narrator, sang these lyrics to his younger self, effectively establishing Che’s personal stakes in this story, transforming him from a somewhat generic narrator to a storyteller with an invested, perhaps biased, interest in how we remember “Eva.”

The company of Evita. (Photo: Nile Scott Studios.)

Cannold continued this thread of memory throughout act...

 审阅者：

• 
  艾薇塔 安德鲁·劳埃德·韦伯
•  瑞安·麦金尼

当观众在美国话剧团 (American Repertory Theatre) 重演《艾薇塔》(Evita) 时入座，一件白色的、闪闪发光的舞会礼服悬挂在勒布戏剧中心 (Loeb Drama Center) 的舞台上，虽然没有人形，但飘逸着飘逸的生命。音乐剧[完第 106 页]的开场画外音在整个剧院响起，宣布伊娃·杜阿尔特·德·庇隆 (Eva Duarte de Perón) 于 1952 年去世，然后安魂曲的不和谐和弦打破了随后短暂的沉默。一群阿根廷人走上舞台，哀悼阿根廷第一夫人的去世，悬挂的标志性礼服是她遗产的唯一视觉参考。这里正在哀悼谁或什么？政治人物？一个卑微的女人？一个有争议的罪犯？心爱的偶像？这些问题仍然是这部令人惊叹的导演、表演和演唱的《艾薇塔》重演的首要问题。

Shereen Pimentel (Eva)、Omar Lopez-Cepero (Che) 以及 Evita 的陪伴。 （照片：尼罗河斯科特工作室。）

《Evita》最初于 1976 年作为概念专辑发行，是安德鲁·劳埃德·韦伯 (Andrew Lloyd Webber) 和蒂姆·赖斯 (Tim Rice) 的首次合作之一。后来，《艾薇塔》分别于 1978 年在伦敦西区和 1979 年在百老汇制作成舞台音乐剧，分别成为女主角伊莲·佩奇 (Elaine Paige) 和帕蒂·卢波恩 (Patti LuPone) 的明星搭档。这些原创作品均由哈尔·普林斯 (Hal Prince) 执导，及其相关演员录音的艺术、设计和音乐选择已融入《艾薇塔》的结构中。虽然这部艺术作品尊重了 Prince 最初的愿景，但它也努力通过创作一段与阶级、人性和记忆纠缠在一起的音乐故事来重新想象《艾薇塔》——音乐剧和女人。

基于 2019 年早些时候在市中心安可演出的作品！系列中，这部 ART 作品由许多回归的演员和艺术团队成员组成，其中包括导演萨米·坎诺德 (Sammi Cannold)，他以大量的细节上演了这部作品，深思熟虑地突出了记忆的主题。这部音乐剧以伊娃的死亡开始，但时间线随后跳回到伊娃卑微的开端，并从那里开始，以歌声叙述她的生活。这些展开的记忆和事件通过音乐剧的叙述者切的眼睛过滤出来，切是一位反庇隆革命者，也是伊娃的戏剧陪衬。坎诺德采用这个记忆框架，不仅阐明了伊娃自己的故事，也阐明了神秘人物切的故事。虽然他是观众进入故事的切入点，但切的角色是被认可的，让观众不仅质疑他作为叙述者的合法性，而且质疑他是谁这一更基本的问题。早期的作品依靠服装暗示将切与切·格瓦拉联系起来，以预先解决其中一些问题，而坎诺德则利用记忆手段来解决这一戏剧困境，将年轻版本的切（“年轻学员”）放入故事讲述中。 。我们叙述者的这个鬼魂是切对年轻时的自己的记忆，他是一位热心的士兵，最初忠于庇隆，但后来由于内部腐败而离开了庇隆核心圈子的职位。这个惯例是在开场曲目《Oh What a Circus》中确立的，当时切唱道：“当数百万人哭泣时，我是谁敢于保持/他的头高高扬起？ / 为什么是规则的例外？ / 机会主义者？叛徒？傻子？ /或者只是一个成长并看到/从十七岁到二十四岁/他的国家流血的人，十字架？ /她不是唯一一个死去的人！”在坎诺德的舞台上，叙述者切向年轻的自己唱了这些歌词，有效地确立了切在这个故事中的个人利害关系，将他从一个有点普通的叙述者转变为一个故事讲述者，对我们如何记住“伊娃”感兴趣，也许是有偏见的。 。”

艾维塔的公司。 （照片：尼罗河斯科特工作室。）

坎诺德在整个表演中延续着这条记忆线索……