Don't Cry For Me...
 

Last night my wife and I went to the Civic Theatre to see the National Touring Production of "Evita".    We don't frequent the musical theater very often,  so it was a rare treat for us to see a Broadway winning musical. 

Not to say that we don't get out much,  but we HAVE seen our share of great musicals in the past years:   Les Miserables,  Miss Saigon,  and Phantom of the Opera.

This was our wedding anniversary gift to each other,  although our wedding anniversary was a couple of months ago,  but that was when we had originally purchased the tickets for this evening's show.

Well,  I must say that I really enjoyed myself,  maybe more so than my wife.   I was literally in tears almost the entire time,  and a few of the climax scenes...   well,  let's just say I really had to hold back. 

The music was superbly orchestrated,  and the singing was top-notch along with the computerized stage and lighting production.   What more can you ask for?  Well,  on the negative side,  I thought the orchestra was far too lean for such sweeping and grandiose music as in the Evita score.   It's not the musicians' fault,  who all mainly performed superbly,  accurately and with feeling. 

I noticed some big names from the San Diego music scene listed as being among the local musicians used for the Evita production:   Paul Sundfor is a flutist and saxophonist with whom I have gigged with in the San Diego area,  and John Rekevics,  a great saxophonist who is definitely what they call a "first call" player locally.   And Pat Pfiffner on percussion is a widely known percussionist who I've studied and performed with at San Diego State University back in my college days.   I was glad he got that gig...    Evita is a great gig for a percussionist... 

In comparing a stage production of Evita to the movie starring Madonna and Antonio Banderas,  I'd have to say that the movie was "lame" compared to the stage production.   Madonna is a pretty good vocalist,  but having heard a stage performer such as Ana Maria Andricain belt out the song,  "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" with the sophistication and years of training one SHOULD have to be in a Broadway winning musical,  there's simply no comparison.   Antonio Banderas did a fine job as Che Guevarra in the movie,  but Raul Esparza "stole" the show last night with a superbly executed performance!   Now that's the main reason why people go to the live stage shows...   there's simply nothing like it when performers are really "giving their all"  and performing their hearts out to the audience.
 

MUSIC TODAY...

The Best of Andrew Lloyd Weber
T.S. Monk ~ Monk on Monk
Enya ~ Watermark
 

1 Year Ago Today

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