Better than it used to be

One can't fault Rice and Lloyd-Webber for ambition in trying to construct a tragedy of ambition and hubris from the story of Eva Peron. And they get good marks for doing so without deviating very far from history. But the music itself seems too tinny and ephemeral to carry such weight. Since there's no real dialogue Parker builds up a sumptuous montage to convey the plot, and succeeds in showing what would otherwise be an iffy musical to its best advantage.

Antonio Banderas is very effective as the on-scene narrator, voice of the Argentinean common-man. The sly casting of Madonna as the self-reinventing, monstrously ambitious Eva Duarte Peron gives the piece extra resonance. As do subsequent events. What may have been intended in the 70s as no more than background to the brutal South American dictatorships of the day, has more to say to a Britain that has in its turn fallen under the spell of populism and given unrestrained national mourning to a blonde saint of its own imagination.