As Sandy Wilson said in his 1953 musical "The Boy Friend," "Some people's one desire is/To go to Buenos Aires." That's certainly the case with the heroine of Tan Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Evita." About 15 minutes into Michael Grandage's pulse-racing revival, the
gloweringly lit, cracked plaster back wall flies out as Lloyd Webber's infectious fast samba "Buenos Aires" kicks in.
The season also included a revival of Macbeth, most notable for Michael Lewis's
gloweringly effective portrayal of the title character, although Claire Primrose's Lady Macbeth was also impressive.
Agnes' questionable stability is rocked by the abrupt return of her threatening ex, Jerry (a
gloweringly hunky Harry Connick Jr.), back from two years in the pen, but a young man who turns up with R.C.
Each of the six movements explores a specific mood and musical texture, from the charming and ebullient Presto, which Carlock executes with sparkling accuracy (she's even more glitteringly pin-sharp in the finale, a thrilling, fully-fledged Fugue), to the
gloweringly dramatic Rhapsodie, with its programmatic reference to Dante's Inferno.
The result is as if a suicide bomber had parachuted into the living room, though Josh's lumpen way is to skulk
gloweringly in corners.