BWW Reviews: EVITA, Opening of the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation Theatre, Arts Educational Schools, London, November 14 2013

There was plenty of stardust scattered about in the foyer at the opening of the new, magnificently appointed Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation Theatre at Chiswick's Arts Educational Schools, Chiswick. There's TV's Claire Balding. And there's multi-award winning actor Robert Lindsay. And there's theatrical grandee Trevor Nunn. And, of course, the Lord himself. But if we began the evening star-spotting amongst the already famous, we finished it spotting those who will be famous.

I'd seen Evita three years ago in a big touring production and not much cared for it: too sentimental, too trite, too Dianaishly maudlin and just too much really. Stripped back all the better to foreground the story, this production is packed with politics and religion balancing the show - the big ballads naturally flowing from the high stakes in play. Director Joey McKneely gets every decision right, so right that 30-odd years of hearing those songs out of context on television or on the radio simply slid away and each felt as fresh as the day they were written, 37 years ago, just across the Thames in Barnes.

But a director needs actors and what support he gets from this cast of students. Kane Verrall's turn with On This Night Of A Thousand Stars is clever and funny; Courtney-Mae Briggs' Another Suitcase In Another Hall is beautifully sad and, at once, understated and powerful; and Olly Dobson's Che is a puckish acid presence reminding the bigwigs that they have feet of clay. Daniel Donskoy's Peron struts and postures, but is completely believable in his doubts and in his reliance on the power of his wife - the young man playing the General is very good indeed.

But it's not called Evita for nothing! Mollie Melia-Redgrave is sensational, filling the stage with her energy and the auditorium with a voice as clear as any I have heard in musical theatre. If that wasn't enough - and believe me, it is - her acting created a wholly rounded person, a real human being from a character once an icon in real life and again an icon on stage. I found myself despising Eva, then cheering Eva; being filled with admiration for her, then with disgust; pitying her followers' ignorance, then praising their good judgement. Ms Melia-Redgrave gave us all that - an extraordinary performance that reinvents one of the twentieth century musical theatre's greatest roles.

But don't take my word for it! The man who wrote the show said hers was the "...best sung Eva I have ever heard" - and he's heard a few. He also said that it was the best stortytelling in Evita that he could recall. Even allowing for a bit of gala night hyperbole, that's quite something - and fully justified too.

Evita is at the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation Theatre, Arts Educational Schools, London until November 16.

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