Evita
March 4-20, 2011

EVITA: THE BACKGROUND

Evita is a rock opera, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. It concentrates on the life of Argentine political leader Eva Perón, the second wife of Argentinian president Juan Perón. The story follows her early life, rise to power, charity work, and eventual death.

In 1972, producer Robert Stigwood proposed that Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice develop a new musical version of Peter Pan, but they abandoned the project. Rice soon heard a radio play about Eva Perón and approached Lloyd Webber with an idea for a musical collaboration based on her life. The idea of writing a score including Latin flavors intrigued Lloyd Webber. Rice also suggested that they create a character known as Che to serve as a narrator and Greek chorus. It was not his intention to base him on Che Guevara, but when Harold Prince later became involved with the project, he insisted that the actors portraying Che use Guevara as a role model.

As they previously had done with Superstar, the songwriting team decided to record Evita as a concept album. Prior to its release, they played it for Harold Prince and invited him to become involved with the eventual staging. Prince agreed, commenting, "Any opera that begins with a funeral can't be all bad," but he advised them that he could not take on any new commitments for the next two years. In Britain, Australia, South Africa, South America, and various parts of Europe, sales of the concept album exceeded those of Jesus Christ Superstar; in the United States, however, it never achieved the same level of success.

Lloyd Webber and Rice reworked several elements of the musical before producing it for the stage. Some songs were dropped and some shortened, while others were introduced and some lyrics rewritten. Lloyd Webber and Rice approached Prince again, and he told them that he would be ready to start rehearsals in early 1978. When he began working on the project in May, he changed very little, other than deleting Che's rock number "The Lady's Got Potential." Prince requested a song he could stage to chart Perón's rise to power, and Rice and Lloyd Webber responded with the musical chairs number "The Art of the Possible," during which military officers are eliminated until only Perón remains. Inspired by the murals of Diego Rivera, Prince suggested the proscenium be flanked by artwork depicting the struggles of the Argentinian peasants. He also jettisoned the original monochromatic costumes designed for the chorus members and dancers.

Evita opened to critical acclaim in London's West End on 21 June 1978, and on Broadway the following year.

EVITA: NEW YORK PRODUCTION HISTORY

Opening: Sep 25, 1979
Closing: Jun 26, 1983
Total Performances: 1567
Opening Night Production Credits
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Book & Lyrics by Tim Rice
Produced by Robert Stigwood
Directed by Harold Prince
Choreographed by Larry Fuller
Scenic & Costume Design by
Timothy O'Brien & Tazeena Firth
Lighting Design by David Hersey

Opening Night Cast:
Patti LuPone - Eva Peron
Bob Gunton - Peron
Mandy Patinkin - Che
Jane Ohringer - Peron's Mistress
Mark Syers - Magaldi

EVITA: ABOUT ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER, COMPOSER

Andrew Lloyd Webber is arguably the most successful composer of our time. He is best known for stage and film adaptations of his musicals Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), Cats (1994), Evita (1996), and The Phantom of the Opera (2004).

He was born on March 22, 1948 in London, UK the first of two sons of William Lloyd Webber, an organist and composer. Young Andrew Lloyd Webber learned to play various musical instruments at home and began composing at an early age. In 1964 he went to Oxford University as a Queens Scholar of history.

In 1965 he met lyricist Tim Rice and dropped out of school to compose musicals and pop songs. In 1968 he had his first success with the West End production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. From the 1960s to 2000s Lloyd Webber has been constantly updating his style as an eclectic blend of musical genres ranging from classical to rock, pop, and jazz, and with inclusion of electro-acoustic music and choral-like numbers in his musicals.

He shot to fame in 1971 with the opening of his rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. His next successful collaboration with Tim Rice was the musical biopic Evita. In 1981 he delivered Cats, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats and other poems by T.S. Eliot. It was produced at New London Theatre, where the record-breaking production was on stage for 21 seasons from 1981 - 2002, and became one of the most popular musicals of all time. In 1986 Andrew Lloyd Webber released his most successful musical, The Phantom of the Opera, based on the book by Gaston Leroux with the English lyrics by Charles Hart. It became the highest grossing entertainment event of all time, with total worldwide gross of over 3.5 billion dollars and attendance of over 80 million.

He was knighted Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1992, and was created an honorary life peer in 1997 as Baron Lloyd-Webber, of Syndmonton in the County of Hampshire. He won the 1996 Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song for Evita (1996), and received two more Oscar nominations. Among his other awards are seven Tonys and three Grammys.

Outside of his entertainment career he developed a passion for collecting Pre-Raphaelite paintings and Victorian art. He has been married three times and has five children. He is currently working on his new opera titled Master and Margarita based on the novel by Mikhail A. Bulgakov.

EVITA: ABOUT TIM RICE, LYRICIST

A prolific lyricist and librettist, Tim Rice was born in Buckinghamshire, UK in the fall of 1944. Rice pursued his university education at Lancing College and briefly at l'Universite de Paris - Sorbonne. He was considering a legal career around the time that he met Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1965. Three years later, the two young men composed a 20- minute pop oratorio that would eventually become Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The piece was premiered on 1st March 1968 at the Colet Court School in the City of London. During the following months, Rice and Webber lengthened the oratorio to 30 minutes, and a record album of Joseph (with Rice singing the role of Pharaoh) was made at the end of 1968.

Remaining in partnership with Webber, his next project was Jesus Christ Superstar. Introduced to the public as a concept album in 1970, the opera propelled Rice and Webber to international stardom. Staged versions appeared the following year, and their popularity led to the film version (1973). Following Superstar, Rice and Webber returned to their previous project, Joseph, and expanded it into its finalized form. Inexplicably eclipsed by his collaborator, Rice may never have received the acclaim that he deserved for his contributions to the partnership. The death-throws of the Rice-Webber collaboration produced a third opera, Evita. Its concept album was released in 1976.

Rice continued on with the opera Chess, with its concept album arriving in 1984. Former ABBA songwriters Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson provided the music, and the concept album was an international hit. Chess was staged in London in 1986 with great success, but the 1988 Broadway production was radically revised without Rice's permission, and was quickly shut down.

In 1991, he was hired to finish the lyrics for the Walt Disney film Aladdin. Disney subsequently teamed him with Elton John for The Lion King (1994). Rice also composed additional lyrics for the stage version of Disney's film Beauty and the Beast (1991) which opened on Broadway in 1994. A stage version of The Lion King (1994) opened on Broadway in 1997, as he was working with Elton John on two new projects - Aida, which opened on Broadway in 2000, and the Dreamworks film The Road to El Dorado (2000).

The 1991 to 2000 period also saw a flurry of activity for Tim Rice's earlier works. Major revival productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar were staged in many parts of the world. Additionally, there was the film version of Evita (1996). Apart from theatre and film, Rice has written recurring columns for UK newspapers, as well as having shown up regularly on BBC Radio and Television. In 1973, he founded a cricket team, The Heartaches, for which he serves as a manager as well as a player. He also makes regular contributions to various cricket magazines.

He continues to have projects in development for the theatre and for film. Most anxiously awaited, especially by audiences in Canada and the United States is, perhaps, a revival of the authentic 1986 London version of Chess.

EVITA: ABOUT THE REAL EVA PERON

Maria Eva Duarte de Perón or Eva Perón was the second wife of Argentine President Juan Domingo Perón and the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. Born out of wedlock, Eva, commonly known as Evita, left school when she was 16 and went to Buenos Aires to pursue her dream of becoming a star.

She found a job on one of the radio stations and remained there until, in 1943, she met Juan Peron, the Secretary of Labour and Social Welfare, who had ambitions to be president, and was working with the Argentine workers to support this bid. Evita began a relationship with Peron and she helped him to win popular support. His popularity led to his arrest in 1945, but Evita helped to organize a mass demonstration that led to his release. On the 21st October 1945 Evita and Juan were married.

Peron stood in the presidential elections in 1946 and Evita was an active campaigner by his side, an unprecedented occurrence in Argentine politics. She directly appealed to the worst off groups in Argentina, claiming to understand their plight. Peron was duly elected and Evita continued to play an active role. She kept her promise to the working classes and took such an interest that, in everything but name, she became the Secretary of Labor, supporting higher wages and greater social welfare benefits.

Evita also had a high public profile, visiting factories and hospitals, and holding meetings with those whom she was trying to help. As a result of this work, Evita also took an active interest in health policy, supervising programs to eradicate some of the most crippling diseases including tuberculosis, malaria and leprosy. In 1947 she set up the Maria Eva Duarte De Peron Welfare Foundation, which distributed money, food and medicines to those most in need. The money came from ‘contributions’, not always willingly given, from businesses and unions. The result was very popular with the poor masses, but far less popular with the elite.

Evita further angered the elite with her active campaign for female suffrage. Suffrage for women was enacted in 1947, largely due to the energy and soul that Evita poured into the campaign. Evita announced that she would be standing for vice-president in the 1951 election, on the same ticket as Peron.

Her candidacy was strongly opposed by the military and, while the old Evita might have stood up to this, her bad health, combined with the opposition, caused her to decline the nomination. She died from cancer on 26th July 1952, aged just 32. Public grief was intense, and unprecedented in Argentina. Her precise role in Argentinian politics is still hotly debated, and her supporters and enemies battle it out to write her legacy. There is no doubt, however, that she was a remarkable woman who made her mark on history.

EVITA: ABOUT THE REAL CHE GUEVARA

Ernesto "Che" Guevara (June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967), was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia within popular culture.

As a young medical student, Guevara traveled throughout Latin America and was radically transformed by the endemic poverty and alienation he witnessed. Later, while living in Mexico City, he met Fidel Castro, and joined his movement. Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents, was promoted to second-in-command, and played a pivotal role in the victorious two-year guerrilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime.

Following the Cuban Revolution, Guevara performed a number of key roles in the new government. These included reviewing the appeals and firing squads for those convicted as war criminals during the revolutionary tribunals, instituting agrarian reform as minister of industries, helping spearhead a successful nationwide literacy campaign, serving as both national bank president and instructional director for Cuba’s armed forces, and traversing the globe as a diplomat on behalf of Cuban socialism. Such positions also allowed him to play a central role in training the militia forces who repelled the Bay of Pigs Invasion and bringing to Cuba the Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles which precipitated the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Additionally, he was a prolific writer and diarist, composing a seminal manual on guerrilla warfare, along with a best-selling memoir about his youthful motorcycle journey across South America. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to foment revolution abroad, first unsuccessfully in Congo-Kinshasa and later in Bolivia, where he was captured by CIA-assisted Bolivian forces and executed.

Barn Players “EVITA” Dramaturgy © 2011; Ross Harmon.