The reviews are in for the Broadway revival of Andrew Lloyd 
Webber's Evita, starring Ricky Martin, 
at New York's Marriott Marquis Theatre, and they're certainly mixed, at best. It appears these damn theater queens continue to hate on "Hollywood" celebs that cross to the Great White Way.Among the few clear fans of Martin in his lead role as Che is Mark Kennedy, theater critic for AP. He writes, "He sings beautifully, dances gracefully, athletically climbs
ladders, plays his role with a knowing sneer and elicits drools in his suspenders and tight white shirt. He even makes a mustache work. Ricky Martin is easily the best thing about this revival."Of course, The New York Times' curmudgeonly Ben Brantley, who pretty much hates everything, had nothing nice to say about Ricky: "Despite the hard work of its spirited leading lady, the Argentine actress Elena Roger—supported by a barely there Ricky Martin and a sterling Michael Cerveris—this musical combination of history pageant and requiem Mass feels about
as warmblooded as a gilded mummy." Blah, blah, blah... yeah, pretty much what one would expect from the ever-snippy Ben, right?The Wall Street Journal, on the other hand, thinks Roger pretty much sucks: "She's a good actor and a wonderful dancer, but her voice is small and shrill, and she hasn't an ounce of star quality.
Melissa Rose Bernardo from Entertainment Weekly, agrees: "She's a fierce dancer. But more often than not, she's shrill and pitchy."
The 1979 Broadway debut of Evita catapulted the careers of Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin, and the 1996 movie version gave Madonna a boost in respect. Ricky is packing the house. So critics be damned. *
The other bit of headline casting is Ricky Martin as Che. Moving away from the original production’s clear allusions to Che Guevara, he appears here as an enigmatic peasant worker who serves as the bio-musical’s narrator and its voice of skepticism, seeing the beatified “Santa Evita” for the ravenous spotlight-seeker she really is. His dramatic presence could be more aggressive, but Martin’s Latin-pop vocals are a smooth fit for the role, and his relaxed charm and dreamboat looks will yield few complaints. Fans eager for him to bust some serious dance moves have to wait until midway through Act II, but he eventually turns on the trademark sizzle.
ReplyDeleteThe real star, however, is Grandage, who brings his own stamp to a show forever associated with stagecraft supremo Harold Prince. No director can entirely correct the imbalance of Evita. The first act is dynamite – who doesn’t love a ruthless, low-class tart screwing her way to the top and getting an expensive makeover? But the second act deflates as Eva remains more of an emblem than a dissection of fame and power. That said, Grandage’s driving staging could hardly be more impressive.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/evita-theater-review-ricky-martin-308779
Naturally, everybody’s flipping out over the hot new bombshell in town. Usually we mean the actress in the title role, but this time it’s the guy who plays the narrator: Ricky Martin — you may have heard of him?
ReplyDeleteAnd does he deliver! Despite being vocally underpowered at times, Martin is a supernova of charisma in the key part of Che, a Zelig-like Everyman always hovering on the side of the action. (A country where every man looks like Ricky Martin must get a lot of tourists.)
Elena Roger (aloft) and Ricky Martin (kneeling, center) should keep the money rolling in.
Richard Termine
Elena Roger (aloft) and Ricky Martin (kneeling, center) should keep the money rolling in.
This is just one of the many things that Michael Grandage’s lavish, large-scale revival gets right, another being Rob Ashford’s energetic, tango-inflected choreography.
http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/you_must_love_che_WMFrjwJmuK264KxT8MjTOM