• By GREG LANGLEY
• Advocate News Features staff
• Published: Sep 6, 2009

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The story of legendary Argentine first lady Eva Peron is told entirely in song in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita. The rags-to-riches story recounts the life of a little-known actress and singer, Eva Duarte, who meets the much-older president of Argentina, Juan Peron, and becomes his mistress and then his wife.

Eva Peron’s personal touch with the common people and her humble roots made her more popular than her husband. She was revered by the “descamisedoes” — the shirtless ones. They called her Evita.

In 1996, the play was the basis of a successful movie starring rock singer Madonna. Now it’s being staged here by Baton Rouge Little Theater.

“It’s my first time. I was supposed to do it 10 years ago, and at that time Andrew Lloyd Webber pulled the rights right after we had auditioned — we had already begun production — because he was reworking it for the London stage. So I’ve kinda been waiting 10 years to do it,” Director Chris Adams said.

“I finally get to remount it.”

Using a cast of 32, Adams will do just that. The production is short, just two acts, and uses one set. “It’s a ‘uniset,’ we’re going to do a bunch of projections.” There is a big screen at the back of the set, behind a balcony with a balustrade. At each end of the balcony, curved stairs descend to the stage. Film and TV clips of the real Eva Peron are projected onto the screen to supplement the action taking place on stage below and on the balcony.

“It takes place over 15 years in multiple places and I think this is going to be the best way to tell our story. It’s an opera, so we kinda created an opera set for it,” Adams said.

Cliff Thompson, who plays “Che,” balked a little at the opera designation. “The thing is, it’s very contemporary,” he said. “The singing is not dusty opera singing.”

“There’s definitely an edge to the show that makes it contemporary and watchable,” Thompson said.

“The (Juan) Peron character is probably the one who is closest  to that style (opera),” said Albert Nolan, who plays Juan Peron. Nolan is nearly the same age as Juan Peron was when he met Eva Duarte — mid- to late-40s.

“(Juan) Peron has some beautiful music. He actually has some beautiful melodies,” added Terry Bowman, music director for the production.

“There’s really not anything (music) in here that I don’t like,” said Samantha Smart, an LSU music major who sings the role of Eva Peron. Smart will be a senior in voice this year and is about the age Eva Peron was when she first moved to Buenos Aires.

“You probably have more  variety of melodies than the other two singers have,” Bowman told Smart.

“I think the way she sings the different songs and the ways people respond to her offer different ways to think of her,” Smart said. She’s still learning about Eva Peron, she said. “I’m still reading. It’s a continuous learning process. A good actor brings new things to the stage every time they perform.”

Thompson’s character is the thread that ties it all together.

“He (Che) is patterned after Che Guevera, the Cuban revolutionary leader, but he’s actually a kind of anachronism. He wasn’t in his heyday, at the time she was. I think he was a young kid,” Thompson said. Guevera, a native of Argentina, was 24 when Eva Peron died.

“He’s kind of our commentator,” Adams added.

The Che character does provide commentary directly to the audience, becoming a metatheatric element that blends with the other characters in some scenes yet steps outside the framework of the play at times. At times, the other actors can see Che, but at times he is visible only to the audience. That might sound complicated, but it really is quite simple and easy to follow in performance.

If you saw the movie with Madonna and Antonio Banderas, then you will find the play similar. “It’s very close (to the movie). The second act is slightly in a different order but it’s very similar,” Adams said. The music, he said, is pretty much the same. “They kinda up-temped it and made it a little more pop for Madonna, but it’s pretty much the same.”

There are two acts of about 50 minutes each. “The second act is primarily once Juan comes to power. The first act is when she (Eva Duarte) first meets Magaldi (tango singer, Augustin Magaldi) and he takes her to Buenos Aires where she eventually meets Juan Peron a few years later,” Adams said.

As Eva and Juan Peron grew in power and influence, she changed. She began to wear designer clothes and to make more speeches. She became more overtly political. Some began to doubt her commitment to the women and poor people who formed her power base.

“We’re making commentary about what it is to rise to power and what that power does to the individual once they achieve it,” Adams said.

“I believe it’s very topical.”

“You could almost, in some kind of way, draw a parallel between her and Huey Long in terms of the ‘power to the people’ thing, ‘every man a king,’” Bowman added.

“Her whole thing was to remove the power from the aristocracy — power to the people,” Bowman said.

“I think we expect our artists to be truthful in their work. I don’t know that I expect it from our politicians,” Smart said.

The most challenging thing about the production is the fact that the music doesn’t stop, Bowman said. “There’s no spoken dialog.”

“It reminds of Shakespeare in that way,” Adams said. “Until you’re used to the rhythm of it, you’re kind of lost. All we’re hearing is music, so it doesn’t give us a chance to relax.”

That music is nonstop Latin rhythms, including tangos, sambas and cha-chas, Bowman said. So Adams and Bowman have worked some pauses into the flow, musical caesuras so the audience can digest what they are hearing.

“Okay, we’re going to stop for just a second, then we’re going to move on,” Adams said.

“That was one of the conversations Keith (Dixon, managing artistic director for BRLT) and I had earlier on when he asked me to direct it, what was the story we were going to tell — sinner or saint? I think we kinda agreed to just tell the story and let the audience members decide. We were talking last night. I think some of them will decide sinner and some will decide saint.”

CAST: Samantha Smart, Eva Peron (understudy: Adrienne Thornton); Cliff Thompson, Che (understudy: Davis Hotard); Albert Nolan, Juan Peron (understudy: Lance Parker); Adrienne Thornton, mistress (understudy: Ashley Lopez); Richard Williams, Magaldi

ENSEMBLE: Joe Boniol, Eleanor Bach, Lance Bordelon, Victoria Carbajal, David Brumfield, Megan Emboulas, Chase Duhe Lauren Folks, Landon Watts, Jamie Leonard, Adam Gilbert, Ashley Lopez, Troy Gros, Claire Rohleder, Davis Hotard, Johanna Rushing, Kyle Lemaire, Mallory Simien, Robert Manes, Tyler Thomas, Lester Mut, Adrienne Thornton, Lance Parker, Stephanie Toups, Anthony Pierre, Jennifer Webb, Richard Williams, Emily Wright

STAFF: Chris Adams, director and set design; Terry Bowman, musical direction; Emily Coley, choreography; Karalyn Pytel, lighting; Chuck Davis and Travis Williams, special videos and projection; Marcia Melius, costume; Carole Cross, Kathy Durbin and Beth Strange, props; Chris Pyfrom, sound; and Susan Leming, stage manager