Pick Me Up's York youth premiere of  Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Evita featured a talented cast aged 21 and under, led by Robyn Grant as Eva Peron and Aran MacRae as Che Guevara. And for the first three nights of the run understudy Stephanie Bolsher stepped up to shine as Eva when Robyn lost her voice.

The production begins with a young and ambitious Eva and follows her meteoric rise to sainthood as she becomes the beloved Evita.

Evita’s memorable Don’t Cry For Me Argentina was first recorded and released in 1976 by
Julie Covington followed by the complete double album release, which went gold. The stage production opened on June 21, 1978, at the Prince Edward Theatre in London with Elaine Paige in the title role and Joss Ackland as her formidable Juan Peron.

The Pick Me Up production was hailed as "another triumph in another hall" for director Robert Readman. Charles Hutchinson, in the York Press, picked out Aran's "stand-out performance" of And The Money Kept Rolling In, which he said was "the best moment for the ensemble and Jed Berry's choreography too".

And he wrote: "John Whitney has gravitas as the formidable Juan Peron, while Joe Douglass is fabulous as tango dancer Augustin Magaldi and Lauren Sheriston maximises her only moment in the spotlight, the Mistress’s Another Suitcase In Another Hall, still Lloyd Webber’s best ever pop tune."