"Evita" by Erewash Musical Society.

Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton.

Everyone should now know the story of “Evita”, the musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics and book by Tim Rice. It concentrates on the life of Argentine political leader Eva Perón, the second wife of Argentine president Juan Perón. The story follows Evita's early life, rise to power, charity work, and eventual death.

We start with Eva's body lying in state and you can really get a feel of the grief, not least through the music.

Time rolls back and we are introduced to the actress whose bedroom door is more like a turnstile who then sets her eyes on Juan Peron and what Eva wants, Eva gets, at any cost.

The cast sang "you let down your people Evita" in one of the songs. This show itself let down no one as we all fell under Eva Peron's magical spell as we all became her loyal followers for two and a half hours.

Eva Peron is played by Emma Barnes-Marriott. A powerful performance in her rise, and then the change in the way she treated some of the staff who worked for her shown subtly. Peron's big musical piece is of course "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" which she performs perfectly and easily. I don't like making comparisons but Emma's voice reminds me slightly of a young Elaine Paige, who played the first stage Eva back in 1978. 

At the end of the show there were pictures of Eva Peron projected onto the back wall of the stage and it's then that you notice how closely Emma resembles Eva Peron. 

Young Eva is played by Louise Howard.

Che Guevera, the voice of the people, is played by Martin Lewis. Cynically giving his view of the grief of Peron's death, comparing the grief as a circus in "Oh What A Circus". Great sarcasm shown in many of the scenes, and there aren't that many scenes that James isn't in. There were just a couple of times that I thought the key of the odd song may be just a little high for Martin, but I am sure that if this had been the case, it would have been rectified, so maybe it was just my ears. There's not many scenes that Che is not in, so Martin is a very busy performer with this show.

Agustin Magaldi, the Latin night club tango singer, is Eva's first affair, and is played by Jonny Cox. The song "On A Night Of A Thousand Stars" is Magaldi's song. Magaldi is the equivalent of Harry Styles when it comes to sex appeal and popularity stakes, and Jonny plays that part to show that appeal well. You also get to hear Jonny's strong vocals with this role.

Eva, after several suitors, one of whom is played by Richard Dawson, finally meets up with Juan Peron played by Martin Briggs and insists that "I'd Be Surprisingly Good For You". She is then taken in by Juan and Eva quickly dismisses Juan's mistress, played by Emma Kerrison.                   .

Two more excellent and seasoned voices with Martin and Emma; the latter sings one of my favourite songs from the show "Another Suitcase In Another Hall" with great feeling and sadness, backed by four of the male cast which just added that special something to the melancholy feel.

Martin's vocals are very operatic at times and shows great strength, as well as emotion in his vocals, and together Martin and Emma make a well matched pair of vocalists with these roles.

The Aristocrats of Evita are played by Christine Oakden, Gill Cooke and Sue Hagan.

Anna Fitzpatrick, Karen Robbins and Laura Dawson play the Reporters.

Hannah Gorton plays The President as well as The Pope.

Jack Tuxford plays The Guard.

Laurie Fitch is The Radio Producer.

Louisa Ward plays the Italian Diplomat.

Nicola Tuxford plays the Spanish Diplomat.

Ruth Walker-Lee plays the French Diplomat.

The Admiral is played by Evan Hagan.

The Commanding Officers of Evita are played by Richard Dawson, James Christian, John Fletcher and Laurie Fitch

Barbara Cole, Hannah Gorton, Jack Tuxford and Laura Dawson play the roles of The Miners.

Hayley Wood and Megan O' Sullivan play The Descamisado workers.

The Uniformed Workers are played by Christine Oakden and Ruth Walker-Lee.

The Dance Ensemble are made up by Vicky Byrne, Louise Howard, Andrea Kemish, Sophie Lewis, Kathi Ludlow and Hayley Wood.

The Santa Evita Kids are played by Betsy Stevens, Cara Crawley, Everley Meadows and Blake Hagen.

Directed  by Kim-Louise Sparks and Beth Yearsley and they have really brought out the drama in this musical and have managed to create just the right atmosphere with that drama. It's not an easy musical to stage for several reasons, and all of this produced in just fifteen weeks. There are a lot of bodies on stage quite a bit of the time and it's a practically non-stop sung through musical which creates a great pace.

Making sure that all the right bodies are on stage at the right time is Stage Manager Mark Robbins and his crew.

Choreographed by Laurie Trott, who was also the Production Assistant. Not only is this musical heavy on the music quantity, it's also heavy on the choreography, and with several changes in music style, the choreography also has to be varied. I loved the Argentine Tango section with the six ladies.

Set and Scenery Designer for this production are Mark Robbins, Bill Robbins and EMS members and friends. It's a simple but effective, and lavish looking set with some impressive props, managed by Tyna Burnett and Jayne Humphrey.

Musical Director is James Bowden. As I have mentioned earlier in the review, the music is practically non-stop so James and the band, who by the way sounded superb with this lush score, were also on the go for the two hours that the musical is performed. The harmonies with the crowd scenes are heavenly.

This rock opera, for me has several under rated songs and the flirty "I'd Be Surprisingly Good For You" simply sizzles when Eva sings this to Juan. You can feel that chemistry exploding from the stage. Another is the rhythmically exciting "Buenos Aires" and the closer for the first act, the rousing "A New Argentina" 

You'll also recognise several other songs from being chart hits - depending on your age - "Oh What A Circus" and "High Flying Adored" was a double "A" side hit for David Essex, Tony Christie recorded "On This Night Of A Thousand Stars", "Another Suitcase In Another Hall" was a big hit for Barbara Dickson, "You Must Love Me", which was especially written for Madonna when she starred as Peron in the 1996 version of the film also took her back into the charts, and of course "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" was a number one hit in 1976 for Julie Covington.

One interesting thing about Lloyd-Webber musicals is that he occasionally borrows chords from his other musicals and you can plainly hear that he has recycled sections from "Joseph" as well as "Superstar" for sections of songs in this one.

The costumes are beautiful, especially some of Eva's costumes and sourced and created by Karen Robbins, Kim Sparks and Philippa Buchanan. 

Sound Design is by Dave Dallard and Jack Clark. With a cast this size I did expect a couple of missed mic cues, and there were a couple, but I've always said that you have to be part octopus with such a large cast. The mix and the quality of the sound was absolutely spot on.

Lighting Design is by Steve Greatorex. This is a vibrant and dramatic show and that is reflected in the lighting, especially with the song "Rainbow High".

In the words of one of Che's songs "Oh What A Show!" Simply stunning.

"Evita" is at The Duchess Theatre in Long Eaton until Saturday 8 March.