It’s an amazing and sobering truth to realise that Evita has been around for thirty-seven years. If you produced a time-line of hit musicals Evita would be much closer to, say, South Pacific or Carousel, than to the present day. It provides an even greater pause for thought if you can, as I do, remember its first incarnations.

Evita started life as a, then ubiquitous, rock-opera concept album with a pick-up cast including Julie Covington in the title role, Paul Jones, Tony Christie, Barbara Dickson and lots of other well known singers at the time. Only two years later, in 1978, did it become the fully-fledged stage show that we now all know and love.

The strength of Evita over many other musicals of the past twenty or thirty years is its sheer volume of great numbers. You have to go back to the shows I mentioned earlier, and their like, to find so many outstanding songs per square yard. With Les Mis, Phantom or Cats, for instance, you only have one or two great, show stopping numbers. Evita has lots and lots.

In those close to forty years, Evita has never been away. There has probably not been one week in all that time when the show wasn’t on somewhere in the world. So how does this new production by Bill Kenwright, playing this week at the Bristol Hippodrome, measure up?

The sets were all based around arches, pillars and staircases and the designs by Matthew Wright and lighting by Mark Howett worked very well. The Requiem scene almost had something of the first act of Tosca about it.

I think my favourite production number was Rainbow High which was cleverly done with lots of mirrors being wheeled around. I also liked Nic Gibney as Megaldi (who, I always think, sounds like a character out of Cats). Nic had an engaging presence and a really lovely voice although I have to say I didn’t think much of his guitar playing. One slight disappointment was Marti Pellow. I think his performance lacked edge and his singing was a bit too croony and mannered for my taste.

If you’ve seen Evita before, no doubt you’ll be looking forward to another fix and I’m sure this new production will satisfy you. If you are one of the few people who have never seen the show go and see it now, it can’t go on for ever – although maybe it can.  ★★★★☆   Michael Hasted