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From her illegitimate birth into poverty, to her status as a world player and South America’s most important woman, Eva Peron’s story is one of glamour, power, and greed. Beginning its life as a concept album in 1976, EVITA instantly became a global phenomenon. It was the first “mega” musical, opening on Broadway in 1979 and not only setting records for the largest box office advance on Broadway, but going on to sweep all theater awards in 1979. EVITA won seven Tonys including Best Musical, Score, Book, and Director. Hal Prince helmed the first production in London, as well as subsequent Broadway productions, teaming with choreographer Larry Fuller. Both Mr. Prince and Mr. Fuller are very excited to once again bring their revolutionary staging of EVITA to audiences throughout America. EVITA became the first Broadway show to be produced successfully in every major city in the world, including the Philippines. For a while it had been banned there, under the Marcos regime, due to the uncomfortable parallels to Imelda Marcos. EVITA also became the first musical since the Rogers and Hammerstein era to hit the pop music charts. Four of the show’s songs, especially the dynamic and lush “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina,” were recorded globally. A new generation was introduced to EVITA in December, 1996, when Alan Parker’s critically acclaimed film version opened, starring Madonna and Antonio Banderas. The film received five Oscar nominations, winning for Best Song, and won three Golden Globes, including Best Picture. And now, Cleveland, don’t cry for her—embrace her! Find out why her beloved descamisados worshiped her beyond devotion, and why the anti-Peronists hated her. EVITA will hold court at the Palace Theatre at Playhouse Square Center January 10-22, 2006, as part of the McDonald Financial Group Broadway Series. Eva Peron once said, “My biggest fear in life is to be forgotten.” EVITA proves the contrary—past, present, and future. SYNOPSIS EVITA is a musical/rock opera based on the life story of Eva Peron, the second wife of the Argentine president Juan Peron. Eva Duarte was born in 1919, illegitimate, poor, and without privilege. She became the most powerful woman her country had ever seen, the First Lady of Argentina at the age of 27. She died in 1952 of cancer, aged 33. Act One Eva’s funeral is majestic, a combination of the magnificent excesses of the Vatican and Hollywood: huge crowds, much pageantry, wailing and lamentation. Che is the only non-participant. In EVITA, Che serves as a narrator, an observer, and at times simply as a device that enables the authors to place Eva in a situation where she is confronted with direct personal criticism. There is no evidence that Che Guevara ever met Eva Peron or became in any way involved with her, but the character of Che in EVITA is based on this legendary revolutionary. He was, however, an Argentine born in 1928 and would, therefore, have been 17 when the Perons came to power and 24 when Eva died. He became strongly opposed to the Peronist regime during Eva’s lifetime, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that his later activity in Cuba and elsewhere was in part a reaction against the government he had known in his youth. Flashback to 1934, a night club in Junin, Eva’s hometown. Eva Duarte is just 15. She asks the singer appearing at the club, Agustin Magaldi, with whom she had a brief affair, to take her to the big city—Buenos Aires. He is reluctant, but Eva gets her way. Once in Buenos Aires, Eva quickly disposes of Magaldi and works her way through a string of men, each of whom helps her up the ladder of fame and fortune. She becomes a successful model, broadcaster, and film actress. In 1943 Colonel Juan Peron is one of several military leaders close to the presidency of Argentina, which in recent years has proven to be an insecure position for its tenant. At a charity concert (featuring Eva’s old friend Magaldi) held to raise money for the victims of an Argentine earthquake, Eva and Peron meet. They both realize that each has something the other wants. From this point on, Eva hitches her ambitions to political stars. She evicts Peron’s mistress from his flat and moves into his life to such an extent that she excites the wrath of the two factions who were to remain her enemies until her death—the Army and the Aristocracy. As the political situation becomes even more uncertain, it is Eva, rather than Peron, who is more determined that he should try for the highest prize in Argentina, the presidency, supported by the workers whose backing she and Peron have long cultivated. Act Two Che asks Eva about herself and her success, but he does not meet with great response. Eva’s main concern is her forthcoming tour of Europe which begins in a blaze of glory in Spain but meets with setbacks later in Italy and France. She never gets to England at all. On her return home Eva resolves to concentrate solely on Argentine affairs, undeterred by continual criticism from the society of Buenos Aires. Che points out that the regime has done, to date, little or nothing to improve the lot of those Eva claims to represent: the working class. Eva launches the Eva Peron Foundation, a huge organization of sham accounting and little practical benefit to the nation’s economy, although it helps to elevate her to near goddess status in the eyes of some of those who benefited from the Fund—including children. Che’s disenchantment with Eva is now total. He sneers at those who adore her, and for the last time tries to question her about her motivation and the darker side of the Peron administration. Eva’s response is that of the pragmatist: “There is evil ever around, fundamental.” She has realized that she is ill. Anti-Eva feeling among the military reaches new heights, and Che lists several of the major failures and abuses of the Peron administration. Eva attempts to justify her domination of Argentine life. He draws attention to her illness. Peron and Eva discuss the worsening situation—he is losing his grip on the government, she is losing her strength. Eva refuses to give in to her illness and resolves to become vice-president. But the opposition to her from the army is too great; more importantly her body is failing her. She knows she is dying and makes a broadcast to the nation, rejecting the post of vice-president, a position she knows she never could have won. In her last hours, images, people, and events of her life flow through Eva’s mind, while the nation’s grief knows no bounds. To the masses of her people she has become a saint, nothing less. As her life draws to a close she wonders whether she would have been happier as an obscure, ordinary person. Maybe then her life would have even lasted longer. Even in death, however, she is denied obscurity. The moment she dies the embalmers move in to preserve her fragile body to be “displayed forever,” although this never happened. The story of the escapades of the corpse of Eva Peron during the 25 years after her death is almost as bizarre as the story of her life. AN INTERESTING “REBUTTAL” The lyrics and storyline of EVITA were based
on Mary Main’s biography of Eva Peron, which was based on hostile
accounts by Eva’s enemies. Shortly after the musical first appeared,
Nicholas Fraser and Maryso Navarro published a much more impartial study
of Eva Peron’s life called Evita: The Real Lives of
Eva Peron. They proved that many of Main’s assertions
(which influenced Rice’s lyrics) were false. The suggestion that
Eva had first gone to Buenos Aires as the mistress of a married musician—Agustin
Magaldi—was false. Instead, Eva’s mother, Dona Juana, had
taken her there whenever she aspired to become a radio actress. Nor
was it completely true that Eva was a chronically bad actress or that
she slept her way to the top. A number of people suggested that Rice’s
lyrics disparaged Evita’s achievements unnecessarily, particularly
her charity work.
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