“Evita” and “Driving Miss Daisy” offer audiences a study in contrasts
There’s something incredibly transporting about the production of Evita now at the Kennedy Center. It’s easy to get lost in the hubbub of the show, swept up with a similar kind of fervor that so many Argentinians felt for Eva Peron, as depicted in Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical.
It’s not a case of swooning over Caroline Bowman, the young actress playing Eva here — at least not the way you might have if you were fortunate enough to see Patti LuPone in the original 1979 production, or even Madonna in the 1996 film adaptation. Bowman is a forceful presence, especially during the show’s second act, when she sings one powerhouse hit after another, including the signature “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” as well “High Flying Adored” and the ballad “You Must Love Me,” added to this revival after its debut in the movie. But she’s not quite the all-consuming power you might have expected. At least not in the presence of Max Quinlan as Che, who effectively undermines her glory in exactly the way this objective narrator was written to do. (And in a way that, having never seen the original production, I can only assume Mandy Patinkin did.) It wouldn’t be any kind of surprise if the young Quinlan makes a more famous name for himself after this taking on the role.
And yet, Quinlan has nothing on overall staging here. A cast of two-dozen actors constantly moves all around the Opera House stage, effectively conjuring a bustling Buenos Aires — a veritable circus. Director Michael Grandage and especially scenic and costume designer Christopher Oram regularly make you feel as if you’re in the city’s gritty nightclubs and grand venues, most notably the Casa Rosada. You might not want to join the masses singing in tribute to this show — even if you love the music as I do, it does get a bit too repetitive and some of the songs are a bit too disjointed and seemingly slopped together to stand as true musical theater gems. And yet, you still might want to see it again anyway. Oh, what a circus, indeed.
DRIVING MISS DAISY MIGHT have something of the opposite effect on you. Whereas you feel transported to a large international city in Evita, Driving Miss Daisy, as directed by Jennifer L. Nelson at Ford’s Theatre, is a far more intimate and quiet show — one notably driven by the relationship at its heart.
Plenty of other shows and movies have depicted the complicated but nonetheless genuine relationship that can develop between a white homeowner and a black servant in her employ, but few have portrayed it as convincingly as Alfred Uhry does here. Surely it helps that Daisy doesn’t initially want anything to do with Hoke, who was hired by Daisy’s son to drive his increasingly senile mother around. The reason Driving Miss Daisy still resonates today is largely because the two so obviously care about each other. Daisy, after all, calls Hoke her best friend, and you have no reason to doubt it.
Of course, any regular Washington theatergoer would expect to leave Ford’s Theatre marveling at this show’s chief diva — Nancy Robinette once again subsumes herself totally into a role. Craig Wallace is equally affecting as Hoke. It might be unrealistic to wish for more from this show, especially considering it won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988 and went on to become an Oscar-winning movie. But, especially with Tony Cisek’s regularly moving parts of a set, Ford’s Theatre entertains you as best it can with a show that can’t help but feel a little quaint and old-timey.
Driving Miss Daisy (
) runs to Oct. 26 at Ford’s Theatre, 511 10th St. NW. Tickets are $15 to $62. Call 800-982-2787 or visit fordstheatre.org.
Evita (-1/2) runs to Oct. 19 at the Kennedy Center Opera House. Tickets are $39 to $125. Call 202-467-4600 or visit kennedy-center.org.
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