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The refurbished Dominion Theatre has reopened after a 14-week dark period with Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s classic, directed unimaginatively by Bob Thompson.
It shows off the new stage apparatus; columns and staircases smoothly glide in and the live orchestra now has a pit!
But the problem with a classic is people are afraid to mess with it and the result of this revival is a perfect lesson in what Peter Brook calls “dead theatre”.
The music is brilliant as ever; it’s the bits in between the songs that are the problem. The actors’ over-blown gestures seem strained.
Madalena Alberto plays Eva Peron, Argentina’s “spiritual leader”. Her vocal range is fabulous as both a coquettish teenager and imposing First Lady but she lacks charisma.
Her gestures come from another age of theatre altogether (Restoration perhaps?).
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During her death bed scene we are meant to be moved but I was distracted by her rigid spasms of pain, oddly synchronised with the music.
Marti Pellow, the former lead singer of Wet, Wet, Wet plays a commanding Che and Matthew Cammelle is a statesmanlike Juan Peron.
There's a moving cameo from Sarah McNicholas as Peron's mistress, who manages to wring more emotion from one solo than the others combined.
Don’t cry for me Argentina? The only chance of a lachrymose audience at this production is if they’re bored to tears.
Until 1 Nov; 0845 200 7982
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