London Palladium

Britain’s favourite ascerbic adopted Canadian returns with a show of two halves. The first part of Battleaxe is classic Ryan standup in which she – by all accounts – goes full heels in on the disgraced etc Russell Brand. The second sees her turning comedy agony aunt (of sorts) by addressing various dilemmas texted in by the audience during the interval. 

This review is from the Open Air Theatre in August 2019. A reworked version of Jamie Lloyd’s Evita will transfer to the London Palladium in summer 2025, with massive US star Rachel Zegler starring as Eve Perón. Forget everything you know about ‘Evita’: this one properly rocks. Gone are the romanticised shots of sun-soaked South America, sliced out are the filler numbers clogging the score and deleted is the simpering, blonde starlet. Instead, Jamie Lloyd’s production wipes the gloss off Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical, creating a pumping, sped-up ‘Evita’ edged with dirt, rust and grime. It starts literally with a bang. Grey confetti falls like funeral ashes blasted from a cannon, marking Eva Peron’s death. From there, it’s a mass celebration of blue-and-white streamers, flares, cheerleaders and names on placards. The feel is more Maradona than Madonna, a tribute perhaps to a country England knows best through the World Cup. Or, a clever nod to the overlap between the unified chanting and colour coordination of a political rally and the behaviour inside a football stadium.  It’s a more critical portrayal of the Peróns than, for example, Alan Parker and Oliver Stone’s film provides. Yet one of the best aspects is how Samantha Pauly’s Evita owns her reputation and herself. Bounding around in a white slip dress and sneakers – the costume department definitely got the ’90s revival memo which also includes boyband braces and baggy suit pants – Pauly looks like an...