Evita is a stunning, exhilarating theatrical experience, especially if you don't think about it too much….

[It is] a virtually faultless piece of Broadway fantasy that has shadow exultantly victorious over substance, and form virtually laughing at content.

First let me stress that this pop-opera … is wonderfully entertaining in everything but the aftertaste of its pretensions. But don't cry for [Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice] anyone—this deserves to be a sizeable hit….

This is a more vital attempt at pop-opera than was the author's previous Jesus Christ Superstar. Rice has constructed his libretto with coherence and his deliberately abrasive lyrics generally achieve just the right slogan-like simplicity…. [Lloyd Webber's score] has a bull-dozing charm and the memorability of the already half-remembered.

The fault of the whole construction is that it is hollow. We are expected to deplore Evita's morals but adore her circuses. We are asked...