NEWS

BRLT Brings British Comedy To Main Stage

By ROBIN MILLER - Arts Writer
Photos by Crystal Logiudice

This is awfully difficult, really, trying to talk about Noel Coward’s Private Lives without revealing the story’s twist.

Which may or may not come as a surprise to some audience members.

True, some people may have seen the 1931 film adaptation on Turner Classic Movies. It starred Robert Montgomery and Norma Shearer.

Still, others may simply guess where the story is leading.

Let’s see, the focus is on two newly married couples, Elyot and Sibyl Chase and Victor and Amanda Prynne. Both pairs have booked honeymoons in Deauville, France.

Both are staying in the same hotel.

And somewhere along the way, questions are asked.

“Elyot Chase has been married before, as has Amanda Prynne,” Jack Wilson said. “And their new spouses start asking them questions about their former spouses. Which is a mistake.”

Well, it’s a mistake for marital fidelity, but far from a mistake as to the development of this story, because this is where the farce begins.

Or what some people may consider a farce. Not Wilson.

He’s directing Coward’s play, which opens Friday, May 7, at Baton Rouge Little Theater. It’s the finale Main Stage production in the theater’s 2009-2010 Season of Legends and Tales.

Fans will immediately recognize Wilson from his starring role of King Arthur in the little theater’s most recent Main Stage production, Camelot.

Wilson is sticking with the British theme, but he’s leaving the accent to his actors this time around.

“They’re doing a great job with it,” Wilson said. “And though some people do call this a farce, I would call it drawing room comedy. The British are so good at witty sophistication. Their comedy is so intelligent, and their characters are so elegant.”

That is, until the story’s twist. That’s when you find out all isn’t as it seems, and well thought-out lives are really mixed up messes.

Let’s put it this way — Elyot Chase and Amanda Prynne dominate scene two. They’re holed up in a Paris apartment, lounging around in their pajamas.

They point out how they’re glad they didn’t go out that night or the night before. Or the night before that.

Then Amanda asks, “Do you realize we’re living in sin?”

To which Elyot answers, “Well, not according to the Catholic church.”

Which, he proceeds to explain, doesn’t recognize divorce.

Do you get the gist of the twist just yet?

Meanwhile, their new spouses, Sibyl and Victor wait at the honeymoon hotel.

“They burst in at the end of the scene to find Elyot and Amanda at the apartment,” Wilson said. “It’s a story about who’s who. It’s a relationship story, and it is farcical, but it’s also a wonderful show with wonderful words. It’s filled with dialogue, but not in the style people are used to in community theater.”

Wilson stops, gazes at the stage absent of actors. The set is in place; the Paris apartment is the scene. And pretty soon Drew Lamonica Arms and Ray Coats will be in their pajamas, both sitting on the sofa.

Arms plays Amanda and Coats is Elyot. They’re the only ones rehearsing on this night, simply because their characters are the only ones in this scene.

Fellow cast members Phil Blanchard, who portrays Victor Prynne, and Emily Wright as poor Sibyl Chase, will rejoin them in the following week’s rehearsals.

Oh, and that’s not forgetting Christina Normand. She plays the French maid, whose name simply is Louise.

“She has only two scenes, and she doesn’t even speak English,” Wilson said. “But she can be the show-stealer, and she is, because she sees what’s really going on. And seeing it through her eyes is hilarious.”

Wilson once again reflects on this play of words, Noel Coward’s words. His plays were a theater staple until the end of the 1950s. In fact, he acted in his own pieces.

He was even one of the stars in Private Lives’ premier in King’s Theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. That was on Aug. 18, 1930. Laurence Olivier and Gertrude Lawrence also starred, and the three reprised their roles in the Times Square Theatre on Jan. 27, 1931, when the play opened on Broadway.

“But then the culture changed in the 1960s, and Coward’s plays weren’t performed anymore,” Wilson said.

Everything revolves in phases. Look at clothing fashions. What once was old is now new. And Coward is new again at Baton Rouge Little Theater.

“Again, it’s not the kind of theater you expect to see in community theater,” Wilson said. “It’s the kind of thing you would see on BBC.”

He can’t help laughing now. Arms and Coats have taken the stage and are now delivering their lines. Wilson’s right, Coward’s words are filled with wit, and the humor easily flows.

“Wait,” Wilson said, stopping Arms in the midst of a line. “Don’t cross your legs at the knees, lean back and cross them at the ankles. Yes, that’s a very masculine pose.”

Now don’t be mistaken. Amanda Prynne is far from a masculine character, but she is stronger than most women of her day.

“She’s way ahead of her time,” Coats said.

He says this before the official beginning of rehearsal. He and Arms sit on the sofa, pondering their characters’ personalities.

Coats is right. Amanda Prynne is an independent woman. She’s head-strong about things she believes. She doesn’t require her husband’s permission when pursuing her interests.

And, in this case, her interest is Elyot.

“I think it’s safe to say that Amanda is precursor to the women’s lib movement,” Coats said.

“She enjoys prodding people who have traditional ideas,” Arms said.

So why was she so quick to marry Victor? Audience members will quickly discover that he is probably the epitome of traditional, as is Elyot’s wife Sibyl.

“I think Elyot married Sibyl because he did want someone traditional,” Coats said. “And at one point, Sibyl says she wanted a real man, but I think what she means by that is she wanted a real man who will give her direction and tell her what he wants her to do.”

And Amanda?

“Amanda’s husband is the type of person who says, ‘I’m not going to let you do that,’” Arms said. “I think she was wanting someone more traditional, too.”

“But I think they both realized that they’d just found somebody to marry,” Coats said. “In other words, they just settled.”

That is, until they run into each other.

OK, if you haven’t already guessed, Elyot and Amanda share a past. But you’ll have to pay a visit to Baton Rouge Little Theater to learn the exact details.

That said, it’s also safe to say Elyot and Amanda are intellectuals who enjoy discussing intelligent things. Or, at least, they like sounding intelligent when they gossip.

Victor and Sibyl simply don’t fit the bill.

“Once they’ve had filet mignon, they can’t go back to hotdogs,” Coats said.

But all is not bliss.

“There’s a thin line between passion and anger,” Wilson said.

The line also is thin between love and hate, both of which are amplified in this relationship between runaway newlyweds who are married to other people.

Sweetness is punctuated by the throwing of fists, romantic dances are balanced by brawls.

And how does it all end?

“I just don’t want to give too much away,” Wilson said. “That’s why I don’t want to give away the story’s twist. I want the audience to be surprised, I want them to laugh. I want them to experience the story.”

Which makes talking about it difficult but not impossible.

Suffice it to say that the lives in Noel Coward’s Private Lives aren’t so private.

Everything comes to light with lots of wit.

And laughter.

'THE ELEPHANT MAN'

By ROBIN MILLER - Arts Writer
Photos by Richard Patrick Dennis

No. He wasn’t an animal; he was a freak.

Isn’t that what you call members of a freak show? Especially the star of a freak show, which is a position chosen by Joseph Carey Merrick.

No. It wasn’t chosen for him. He simply did what he had to do to make a living, and it was a pretty good living until Great Britain banned sideshows.

It was in Belgium where he was mistreated, where a showman stole his life savings. And it was back in Britain where the good doctor Sir Frederick Treves made a home for Merrick in the London Hospital.

That’s when Merrick became known as John. And it’s by this name most people recognize the oddity called the Elephant Man.

Harsh? Not really. Merrick willingly accepted his lot in life.

“He accepted the way he was, and he harbored no resentment or ill will toward anyone,” Matt Story said. “It’s amazing. He was so pure.”

This is where the freakishness gives way to humanity, where beauty emerges from within, blotting out a hideous exterior.

Which is why playwright Bernard Pomerance specified that the actor portraying Merrick should wear no costume in his 1979 play The Elephant Man.

In fact, Story won’t be wearing much at all when Baton Rouge Little Theater opens Pomerance’s play on Friday, Jan. 22.

Yes, Story will be starring as Merrick. It’s a role in which he’d really had no past interest. The Elephant Man was the Elephant Man, right? And that was about it.

And really, that’s the whole point of the play.

“So many of the plays we do are about someone doing something or going somewhere,” Story said. “But this is a story about someone’s existence. It’s about John Merrick being who he was.”

And to portray that, Story will play the part wearing only a loin cloth for most of the play. Otherwise, he’ll be in a hospital gown.

Both pieces of clothing are minimal, which means John Merrick’s existence is left up to Story.

“The actor portraying this part has to show John Merrick’s deformities,” Story said. “I have to walk like Merrick, and I can’t show any emotion, because Merrick’s face was so distorted that he couldn’t smile.”

But at the same time, Story must convey Merrick’s pure spirit, his acceptance of life yet his yearning be human. A true human with interests and passions.

“I think it’s important for an actor that’s the picture of health to play this part,” Story said. “It’s through this that you can see the person John Merrick is through the distortions. It’s also important, because John Merrick’s story is true. He really existed.”

And again, it’s because of this mere existence that his story continues to fascinate.

Merrick was born Joseph Carey Merrick on Aug. 5, 1862, in Leicester, England. He died at age 27 on April 11, 1890.

Merrick suffered from a congenital disorder, which began developing at age 3 with small bumps appearing on the left side of his body. He left home while in his teens and twice landed in the Leicester Union Workhouse, because his affliction rendered him unemployable.

That is, until he took a job as a sideshow performer. That was on Aug. 29, 1884. Think about it. Merrick was only 16 years old.

Most 16-year-olds today are in high school, some two years away from graduation. But Merrick, his body contorted and covered with tumor-like growth, was making a living by showing his body in a freak show.

“He really made a good living at it,” Keith Dixon said. “It wasn’t a horrible existence for him. It wasn’t good, either, but it wasn’t bad. He was treated well.”

But there still lingers the fact there was a person inside of Merrick, a person with hopes and dreams.

Dixon is the little theater’s artistic director. He’s also director of this production, which, he said, will be portrayed as minimally as Story’s onstage wardrobe.

“The Elephant Man is about the person,” Dixon said. “It reminds us of what’s inside. We’ll be using frames onstage, and at one point, the sideshow announcer will introduce the freaks of the freak show, then turn a mirror toward the audience indicating that they’re the freaks, that it’s what we can’t see on the inside that really counts.”

Still, there’s another important component to this story. It’s not really Merrick’s tale to tell.

“It’s the doctor’s story,” Dixon said. “He’s the one who told us the story of John Merrick, and it’s his story in the play.”

Dr. Treves also was the person who originally misidentified Merrick in telling this story. It’s found in his notes — John Merrick instead of Joseph. It’s also pointed out once in the play, but the doctor waves away the mistake.

Treves first saw Merrick in the back of an empty shop. Merrick’s sideshow had moved to Whitechapel Road, and Treves obviously attended out of curiosity.

Treves gave Merrick one of his cards in case Merrick would be willing to submit to a medical examination. Merrick eventually left for Belgium, where he was robbed. He then returned to London, where he inadvertently caused a disturbance in the Liverpool Street railway station.

And through it all, he’d kept Treves’ card. Authorities notified the doctor, who moved Merrick into the hospital.

The hospital is known as the Royal London Hospital today. It houses not only a small museum dedicated to Merrick but also his skeleton.

The bones, though, aren’t on display for the public.

“The museum also houses the model that he build,” Nick Cardona said. Merrick spent time fashioning a cathedral out of cards.

Cardona plays Treves in this production. This is the second time he’s had a role in The Elephant Man.

“It was the first play I was in when I was doing summer stock,” Cardona said. “And now, 24-and-a-half years later, I’m in it again. And the play really holds up through the years.”

But Cardona also knows any time The Elephant Man is brought to life, it’s more than just a stage play. It helps that Merrick was a real person, because actors and artistic crew, alike, can’t help researching his life.

Story certainly did his share of research before stepping into the role.

“I read about John Merrick,” he said. “And I watched DVDs of the Broadway performance.”

The play opened April 19, 1979, in Broadway’s Booth Theatre. The lead role originally was played by Philip Anglim, then later taken by Bruce Davison, David Bowie and Mark Hamill.

Back up a moment. Yes, that David Bowie.

“I watched the DVD with David Bowie in the lead,” Story said. “I thought that he was an odd choice at first, but then I realized just how perfect he was for that part. He’s tall, and his body is wiry, which was perfect for this character.”

Bowie also refrained from showing facial emotions.

“That was another reason I wanted to watch a recording of the Broadway show,” Story said. “I wanted to see how the actors acted and reacted to the lack of facial expressions, but I wasn’t watching them for things I could emulate. I wanted to see what I could bring to the character.”

And Story quickly discovered Merrick’s purity, how this was a person of acceptance and forgiveness.

“But he was also very childlike in his innocence,” Dixon said.

Dixon now sits onstage with Cardona and Story. The night’s rehearsal has yet to begin, but the set is firmly in place, most notably the large cage that will serve as Merrick’s domain in the sideshow.

But there’s also something else, something on a table at the back of the stage. It appears to be a model of sorts.

Merrick’s little cathedral was built of cards, but this model looks to be build of something clear.

“Our set designer Chris Adams built it,” Dixon said. “We decided that it should be built of Plexiglas to symbolize Merrick’s purity.”

“He had such a horrible life,” Cardona said. “Only in the last few years, when the doctor took him, did he really come in contact with humanity. Before, he was never accepted. He even terrified people. It’s amazing that he could overcome this even a little bit.”

But there’s a big difference in Cardona’s character’s view of things and that of Story’s.

“Keith told me the main difference,” Cardona said. “Merrick tries to create, while the doctor tries to dissect.”

“And you know, the doctor didn’t have to do it – he didn’t have to take Merrick in,” Dixon said. “He’d seen a lot, and so much of it was bad. But Merrick was the worst of the worst. He mainly wanted to find out about Merrick’s disease, but he knew it wouldn’t be for decades until people knew what caused it.”

The jury is still out today. The original diagnosis was elephantiasis, which accounts for Merrick’s Elephant Man label. A later diagnosis suggests Merrick was suffering from a genetic disorder known as neurofibromatosis.

And even later, it was speculated that he may have had Proteus syndrome, named for the shape-shifting god Proteus.

No one knows for sure.

“And in the end, it’s as if he just went from one freak show to another,” Dixon said. “He was accepted into London society, and everyone wanted to meet him. It was like he went from a carny sideshow to a Vegas show.”

And as mentioned earlier, he still fascinates, even some 120 years after his death. It’s as if the show continues, luring people in with the promise of a spectacle only to shed the freak skin to reveal the purity of humanity.

Maybe that’s the true fascination with John Merrick. He shows us who he is and who we are.

Which makes us all a part of the show.

CAST: Nick Cardona, Frederick Treves, Belgian Policeman; Rob Bigalke, Carr Gomm, Conductor; Mike Katchmer, Ross, Bishop William How, Snork; Matt Story, John Merrick; Nicholas Mitchell, Pinhead Manager, London Policeman, Earl; Nancy Litton, Pinhead, Nurse Sandwich, Princess Alexandra; Sharon Landry, Mrs. Kendal, Pinhead; Laura Rempert Kraueter, Pinhead, Countess; Benjamin Caldwell, Porter, Will

ARTISTIC STAFF: Keith Dixon, director; Chris Adams, set designer; Emily Coley, lighting designer; Marcia Melius, costume designer; Carole Cross, props; Kathy Dubin, props; Melissa Venable, stage manager

'ARSENIC AND OLD LACE'

By ROBIN MILLER - Arts Writer
Photos by Richard Alan Hannon

People didn’t talk about things like this in 1939.

Well, that’s not entirely fair. As long as there are people, there will be gossip, and you can bet people talked about this kind of stuff.

Just not openly. Not in a play.

Still, Joseph Kesselring included a particular twist when writing Arsenic and Old Lace in 1939.

Need a clue? Well, this twist involves a family secret other than murder – the kind of secret that provides excellent fodder for gossip. 

“It’s still in the original script,” Stephanie Levert said. “But he also included a way to get around it, so you can either perform the play with or without it.”

Call it an escape clause of sorts, one the Baton Rouge Little Theater definitely will not take in its production of Arsenic and Old Lace, which opens Friday, Nov. 6, on its Main Stage. Yes, the story twist definitely will be there.

Levert plays Aunt Abby, one of the two eccentric Brewster sisters who has a penchant for homicide.

Yes, murder. It’s as simple as that.

Hilarious, too. Anyone who has seen Frank Capra’s 1944 film can attest to this. And most people familiar with the story have seen this movie, including the little theater’s cast.

“I think we’ve all seen the movie,” Travis Williams said.

He plays Mortimer in this production. Most people would know this as the Cary Grant part in the movie.

“But we’re not watching the movie to get ideas,” Williams said. “Most of us know the movie, and the movie is great. It’s a classic. But we’re making the story our own.”

Which includes adding that little twist in the end — a little surprise that may concern Mortimer. Or not.

Not going to give anything away here. Audiences will have to see the play to learn about this one.

“It’s interesting,” Levert said. “It’s really a funny twist, but it’s just one of those things people weren’t supposed to talk about back then.”

But it seems tame when compared to cold-blooded murder. Which is Arsenic and Old Lace’s main theme.

Abby and Martha Brewster kill their lonely gentleman friends by lacing glasses of homemade elderberry wine with arsenic, strychnine and just a pinch of cyanide.

Team them up with the rest of the family, and you have a farcical black comedy that dares you not to laugh.

Mortimer Brewster is the aunts’ nephew, a drama critic who not only must deal with a job he hates but also diverts the police’s attention from this homicidal family.

They all live together in Brooklyn, and Mortimer is debating whether he’ll make good on a promise he made to marry the woman he loves, because he’s not only dealing with his aunts. There’s also a brother who believes he’s Teddy Roosevelt and digs locks for the Panama Canal in the cellar.

Locks that become convenient graves for the aunts’ murder victims.

Add to the mix a murderous brother who has received surgery performed by an alcoholic accomplice, Dr. Einstein, and, yes, the Brewsters definitely can be classified as, well, different.

Back to the murderous brother: It’s said the character of his accomplice was based on real-life gangland surgeon Joseph Moran. Plastic surgery was needed to conceal the identity of the brother, who now looks like horror film actor Boris Karloff.

Of course, this was an inside joke, because Karloff was the first to play the part of the murderous brother.

Arsenic and Old Lace premiered Jan. 10, 1941, in Broadway’s Fulton Theatre. The theater later was renamed the Helen Hayes Theatre, and the show played there for two years, moving to the Hudson Theatre on Sept. 25, 1943, where it completed its 1,444-performance run.

“I love this story,” David Coley, who’s directing this production, said.

“I’m like most people in that I was first introduced to the story through the movie,” he continued. “But I’m enjoying this chance to reinterpret it, to start from scratch.”

Coley is working on his doctorate degree in theater at LSU. His goal is to graduate in 2012.

In the meantime, he plans to work on more productions with Baton Rouge Little Theater, where his wife, Emily, is the assistant technical director and lighting designer.

“I came to all of the productions last year, because she was working on them,” Coley said. “I enjoyed all the shows, and Keith asked if I’d be interested in directing Arsenic and Old Lace.”

He refers to Keith Dixon, the theater’s artistic director, who also asked Coley to direct the Second Stage production of The Seafarer in the spring.

“I got to know the people here, and I really enjoy talking to them,” Coley said. “And I’ve really enjoyed working with this cast. I love their enthusiasm. They’re people who want to be here; they have a passion for it. They have jobs, but they make time to come here for rehearsal and do this, because they love it so much.”

Arsenic and Old Lace also marks Coley’s directorial debut. He’s directed plays in Kansas City and Birmingham but none in the LSU Department of Theatre or at BRLT. Not yet, anyway.

And being the director meant being a part of the audition process. Coley helped choose the cast members, which also include Kathy Sevin in the role of Aunt Martha.

“It was the parts for older ladies that attracted me to Arsenic and Old Lace,” Sevin said.

“Both of us,” Levert added.

They’re both laughing now, drowning out Williams’ protests.

“You’re not old,” Williams said.

“Hey, we remember when he was just a kid who used to annoy us backstage,” Levert said.

More laughter.

It’s true that Williams has been working in little theater productions since he was a teenager. He can count at least 30 plays in which he’s been involved, many of them with Levert and Sevin.

“And one of the fun things about this play is that I get to work with these two ladies again,” Williams said.

Williams also heads his own film company, Hedges Pictures, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2010.

“And I played a creepy dead woman in one of those films,” Levert said.

“No, you were the Fatal Scarlet O’Hara,” Williams said.

“Oh, that’s right,” Levert said.

Which only proves that this threesome have, indeed, been working together for a while now. And Williams gets to be nephew to the two actresses’ portrayals of killer aunts in this production.

“It’s really an ensemble play,” Sevin said. “That’s what makes it fun. It’s a clever story that doesn’t resort to bad language or adult situations, that deals with its subject in a funny way.”

“And the characters are so lovable,” Levert added.

Then there’s the surprise at the end, the subject that would have sparked controversy way back when. Kesslring’s treatment of it also is loveable, and the secret’s revelation somehow leaves the movie version feeling a little empty.

But the movie was made in the 1940s, and people just didn’t talk about that kind of stuff.

CAST: Stephanie Levert, Abby; Kathy Sevin, Martha; Kurt Hauschild, Teddy; Jeffrey Johnson, Jonathan; Travis Williams, Mortimer; Ashley Lopez, Elaine; Ronald Coats, Einstein; David Briggs, Harper; Neil Terry, Gibbs; Phil Blanchard, Brophy; Matt Story, O’Hara; Chuck Davis, Roony; Bill Parker,  Witherspoon; Weston Twardowski, Klein

Social worker/actress finds 'Agnes' role a good fit

By ROBIN MILLER - Advocate Arts Writer
Photos by Kenyetta Collins

'EVITA' at last

By GREG LANGLEY - Advocate News Features Staff
Photos by Travis Spradling

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 Dubin and Beth Strange, props; Chris Pyfrom, sound; and Susan Leming, stage manager