Last Friday, Missy, Jesse and I went to see Evita performed by the UMD Theatre Co. First let me hedge my comments by mentioning that I have extremely low standards when it comes to the UMDTC. They usually suck… big time. Usually I enter into that theatre knowing it’s going to be awful, and only go so Missy and I can gossip and blather on about how awful it was. (Hey, everyone needs an outlet for hostility every now and again.) However, this time I was feeling especially jovial… perhaps it’s the spring air, or the end of the semester… Whatever it was, it was in their favor. My relative mind took over, and I was allowed to enjoy the parts of the show that were good while only mildly mocking the other parts that still sucked. Relatively speaking, this was an enjoyable show.

The “one gesture” A. Derose (Gen. Peron) provided us with the same type of “entertainment” he always does on stage: the kind that makes an audience member wish they had brought rotten fruit or oldsmobiles to chuck on stage whenever he opened his mouth. He is always awful, so I was not surprised.

The woman playing Eva Peron (Shandy something or another… I’ll look up her name in the program), however was really good. No more Karen (their leading lady for a million years) and her clucking and caterwauling. This girl had some powerful lungs and wonderful presence. I just wish there had been cast a more appropriate Gen. Peron as a partner. Ah well. She even did the death scene without screeching or squawking (how the heck do you spell that word?)

Che (again the actor’s name escapes me) was a wonderful narrator. I didn’t know this guy could sing! He played the husband in the same company’s production of Mousetrap several weeks ago. A mellow, yet somehow intense, sounding voice. A good contrast to that of Eva’s.

The chorus sucked. The females squeaked and screeched… it was awful. The men mumbled. If the chrous had been any good I actually would have been upset that the orchestra overpowered them most of the time.

All in all a good night out. I even stood up for the finale… They really impressed me. I was expecting it to be one of the most awful experiences of my life, and I left feeling that the show was worth the three dollars and two hours that were spent. In the grand scheme of things, they still suck. But in their very small context of the world, I really enjoyed myself. And Derose’s pants are always funny.