Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber have chosen Eva Perón … as heroine of [Evita,] their followup to Jesus Christ Superstar, and it must be confessed that there is a certain logic to the choice. The one memorable song from Jesus Christ Superstar, "I Don't Know How to Love Him," belonged not to the hero but to the blameless whore Mary Magdalene. Here the blameless whore is the centerpiece and once again has the song, "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina."

Outside of that bit of cleaning up, the rest is Superstar recycled: mobs of foolish actors, prissy, narrow-minded aristocrats, cartoonish Powers That Be, a cynical narrator who gives the lowdown on the celebrity hero. Once again the characters are one and all inferior to us in the audience—even the cynic is portrayed as a fool and an asshole. He is known only as Che, but this Che...