"Evita" at The Smith Center

Caroline Bowman as 'Eva Peron' and Josh Young as 'Che' in the National Tour of Evita. Production photo by Richard Termine

There's no way I can resist a musical centered around a glamorous historical figure in Latin America. So when my theater buddy suggested we check out the traveling Broadway show "Evita" at The Smith Center, I jumped at the chance.

While I'm usually able to get tickets to Smith Center shows on the day of, the Broadway productions are incredibly hot commodities. Smith Center CEO Myron Martin told me they've all pretty much sold out, and I'm pretty sure these productions help float some of the more obscure offerings there. We got the amazing $26 ticket that the center tries so hard to offer -- but it bought a seat in the very back row, not in the middle like that price usually buys.

"I hope you're not afraid of heights," my theater buddy joked as we peered down from the nosebleed section.

It also attracted a very different crowd -- not the sea of silver hair you see at the ballets or philharmonic performances. There were young, artsy-looking professionals, precocious kids, and chic Spanish-speakers that I suspect may be out-of-town tourists?

The musical opened up with a somber scene -- shadowy figures indistinct in the low light except for the tiny orange dots of lantern flames, mourning the death of Argentinian First Lady Eva Peron, who died of cervical cancer in 1952 at the age of 33. A screen behind them plays black-and-white newsreel footage of her funeral procession, which drew 3 million people to the streets of Buenos Aires in a flower-strewn pageant fit for Princess Diana.

Enter Che, the narrator, who mocks the spectacle and questions whether the actress-turned-first lady accomplished anything of substance. He's the voice of doubt throughout the show, as if the playwright wants us to know he's not falling into blind hero-worship by turning her into a Broadway icon.

The story follows a young, illegitimate Eva Duarte as she hungers to leave her poverty-stricken town. At 15, she throws herself at traveling tango singer Agustin Magaldi, who whisks her off to Buenos Aires after she begs and blackmails him. That affair ends, but she cycles through man after man in a quest to win money and status. One of the show's great visuals is her costume changes during "Goodnight and Thank You" -- each new lover strips her down to her slip, pulls her behind closed doors, and re-dresses her again in a robe finer than the one she had before.

Other favorite songs:
- "I'd Be Surprisingly Good for You" -- Hoping to end a string of affairs and lock down power, stability and respectability, Eva tries to sell herself to Col. Juan Peron as a wife and not just a mistress. (It works.)

- "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" -- Juan Peron's childlike mistress is thrown out into the hall when he takes Evita home for the night. Her angelic song was probably the best vocal performance of the evening.

-"Don't Cry For Me, Argentina" -- The most famous song from the 1978 musical, and one I was humming for hours after the show. It's also incredible in Spanish -- "No Llores Por Mi, Argentina."

It ended anticlimactically, perhaps a hazard of Evita dying of cancer rather than in a dramatic battle sequence. But overall, a great show, filled with passionate tango sequences, the synthesizer-heavy Andrew Lloyd Webber sound you'll know from "Phantom," and compelling themes: the clawing ambition from poverty to power, the feminine mystique, and the struggle to remain a "woman of the people" even when you've risen so far above them.