EVITA...EVITA...

EVITA….EVITA….

A review by: Colin Bruce Munro Wood – 06/04/2016 – 01:33PM ET

I’ve found writing this review to be my toughest one to put on paper, thus far in my review-writing experience.

To start, the Firehouse Stage in Johnson City is one heck of a place to put on any show, in a small atmosphere.  I’ve seen a number of different stages built and set by the talented Gene Czebiniak, and they all have their own character.  The Evita set, although somewhat simple in nature, was effective in telling the story, and the coloring was very warm.  It was a very dark show many times, lighting wise, but my biggest struggle was with the sound.  The backtracks overloaded the singers many times, and unfortunately the lead of the show most of the time, was hard to understand, especially on low notes.  Maybe a better Mic placement would solve that, as the other performers who did the typical mouth mic, were easier to understand, except again, when the music drowned them out.  For such a small space, I don’t believe the backtracks need to be so loud, and the singers should always be louder than the music!

Unfortunately, because I decided to wait to watch the show, to know the storyline, I did not look up anything about Eva (Evita) Peron, or her story, and due to the sound issues, I left still at a loss as to what I just watched.  I, of course, am quite familiar with some of the tunes from the show, but not well enough to know the lyrics any further than a few words here and there.  Neither have I been able to get through the film without losing interest, to be honest, before I move on to the actual review of SROIII’s production of EVITA.

For the first time ever, since I’ve known and seen Scott Fisher-directed shows, can I maybe say that a couple roles were miscast.  I will not point out which ones, but I do believe that there other very talented people in the area, and in the very show I watched, that may have filled a couple of the roles a bit more sassily, interestingly, and vocally stronger.  Of course, sometimes, people don’t audition, so what are you to do?

I like to shake it up a little, so I’m starting with the chorus of Evita.  AWESOME!!

I could leave it at that, but I can’t.  As usual, just like every other large chorus filled show that I’ve seen SRO put on, they truly nailed every moment and every note of every scene, and along with Che, completely carried this show to the end!  The dancing numbers were precise, interesting, and fun to watch.  I wanted each of the major chorus numbers to continue further!  Bravo to Ann Szymaniak, Kaylea Lockwood, and Jean Graham for a fantastic job in capturing not only the movements of the time, but the nuances, and characterizations of Argentinians and Spanish dancing! The vocal strength and sound of the chorus was fantastic!

A major shout out to costuming and hair & make-up design under Jan McMahon, Wilfred McDaniels, and Jessica Yonkoski Ford, respectively.  The amazing quick costume changes blew my mind, and they were beautiful, and sexy at the same time!  Hair and make-up for the women and Eva Peron were very professional, and not a strand out of place!  The women looked fabulous throughout the entire performance!  The men were quite handsome too!

Thank you to the Schoor Family Firehouse Stage for instilling a great House Manager, in an also equally talented Laura Liburdi, who took her ability to make anyone smile and spread it around the house prior to the show, and during intermission.  A nice addition to any theater for sure!

So, notably out of the chorus we had some fantastic performances.  Hannah Truman, previously seen with SRO as Cosette in Les Miserables, shared her incredible sweet vocals with us as Peron’s Mistress, who oddly has a small part where she is thrown out of the house to the street, and throws up a heart breaking ballad, when we don’t even know the character at all… Please, don’t get me started on this Rice/Lloyd-Webber concept of a show…

Eric Bill was Agustin Magaldi, a character, whom I didn’t really understand the purpose of, except he was a love interest of Eva’s I guess.  Eric was excellent though!  He was one of the few characters in the show that held a respectful accent throughout his performance, and in his singing, and played his character with a delightful humorous lightness, that caused you to really like him.  Along with his superb acting ability, he moved great, and most notably sang his heart out.  He is lovely to listen to.

Some other chorus shout outs are deserved before we get on to my star of this performance of Evita by, SROIII Productions.  In seeing Norah Ford for the first time since she performed one of the two young Cosettes that I was honored to work with in 2013/14, I was shocked at how quickly her voice had matured.  Norah had one of the loveliest sounds in the entire show, and I truly wished there had been much more for her to sing than what we got to hear.  But I can tell you right now, just as I was right about Meg Ryan in the early 80’s on As The World Turns becoming a big star one day, this Norah Jones is going to be a star herself, if she keeps that voice out in the public on a regular basis! Fantastic, my little Cosette turned Evita star! Keep up the great dancing and singing!  Another young standout was Josh Mertens, whom I’ve had the luck of seeing in EPAC’s The King and I, and I think Pippin at JCHS.  He was on my side of the stage quite a bit, and has a great voice, and showed great stage presence throughout his performance.  I hope we all see more of Josh in future shows around the area.

Over all, a well-directed show again, by Scott Fisher, he perfectly cast the role of Che, with the always amazing Andrew Simek.  This was the greatest performance I’ve seen Andrew give to date, and he only continues to get better and better, and truly has the quality of voice, energy, acting, and over-all performance that belongs on every Broadway stage possible!  Andrew was all over the stage, filled with sarcasm, anger, care, love, and many emotions which he threw around the theater like a roaring tiger!  His vocals were out of this world, without a single note missed, and a clear thorough control of his diction, and volume!  Andrew, as always kept my heart pounding, and I desired to see him on stage for every scene.  Just phenomenal!!!

Gene Czebiniak was Juan Peron, and did a fine job putting forth the seriousness of his role, and was debonair and gentlemanly in his handling of his wife, Evita.

Eva (Evita) Peron was performed by the talented Caitlin McNichol.  It was obvious that this was a role that Caitlin has wanted to perform for a long time.  It showed mostly in her eyes!  Although, she did not struggle with any pitches throughout her performance, it was tough to sometimes hear her lower register, or to make out much of her diction, and the storyline as well, to go with it.  I believe, maybe, a different microphone location would truly solve that problem, as in one scene her hat completely covered the mic, and they had to turn it off, making her close to inaudible.  However, amidst these technical difficulties, Caitlin performed well, and with the right acting choices, and facial expressions, she held the stage.

Overall, the performance by the entire cast was good, and worth seeing, if you are available tonight at 8pm, or tomorrow at 3pm at the Schoor Family Firehouse Stage in Johnson City, NY.  You may also catch it next weekend.

I will call out Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd-Webber however, for putting together, what really seemed to be a useless show, about a woman, I know scant information about, and was very hard to follow, with so many words which sometimes sounded as though they were forced to fit into the music.  To me it is not an overly enjoyable show, but to each their own.  I imagine there are many who love this show as well, and my opinion in that matter, doesn’t matter!

However, this performance was fun to watch, thanks to a great supporting cast, and an outstanding Che!

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