Sammi Cannold’s new production of the Tony Award-winning musical Evita, celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the birth of former Argentine first lady Eva Perón, at New York City Center in Midtown, NYC November 11-24, 2019.
Get tickets at nycitycenter.org from $50
Don’t Cry for Me Argentina
Opening Night Gala Benefit
November 13, 2019 ~ Evita opens with a Gala benefit performance honoring City Center Board Co-Chair Richard E. Witten. Dinner follows the performance at 583 Park Avenue. From $2,500
Sammi Cannold’s Evita
Solea Pfeiffer (Almost Famous, Hamilton) stars. Maia Reficco plays young Eva. Jason Gotay (Call Me Madam) is Che. Enrique Acevedo (Zorba!) is Juan Perón. Philip Hernandez (Les Misérables) is Magaldi.
Evita
Oh she is complicated – like Argentina.
Eva Perón rose from being a disadvantaged young woman from the countryside to one of the most popular radio personalities in Argentina and then a first lady who captivated the nation before dying young. She died in 1952.
Evita’s Legacy
We still love her. Evita’s tomb in La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires is always covered with flowers. People visit constantly.
Eva was a natural at public relations. We love her because she rose from nothing, was a successful woman when that was not generally allowed, and she really captivated us. Eva Perón was a woman, but Evita was a legend.
But if you look back at what she did in Argentina, the propaganda was very heavy and extremely manipulative. It was fascist style propaganda.
The other thing that is hard to swallow is what the Perónists did to Argentina. Populists say all the right things, but once in power, steal the country blind. Populists tend to be so busy stealing everything that the whole country fails because nobody is actually running the country.
A century ago, Argentina was one of the top ten world economies. The Great Depression hurt everyone, but Argentina’s downward spiral really took off in the Perón years 1946-55.
The Perón government spent money it didn’t have on social programs. This caused inflation to reach as high as 50% annually and the peso lost half its value.
Argentina fell into a cruel military dictatorship from 1955 to 1983. In the name of hunting communists for the Americans of the U.S., the military turned against its own people in the infamous “Dirty War” of 1976 to 1983.
Juan Perón came back in 1973-74 and was succeeded by another wife Isabel Martínez de Perón. This established an Argentine pattern of leader’s wives becoming presidents.
Eva’s legacy continues in the Perónist Cristina Fernández de Kirchner who followed her husband as President of Argentina from 2007-2015.
Cristina recently returned as the vice president of Argentina. The Argentine peso lost one-third of its value immediately after the primary election indicated a win for Alberto Fernández and Cristina.
So it’s easy to respect Evita’s achievements as a woman, but harder to respect her influence on Argentina. It’s not all as romantic as the musical.
Great characters in history are usually complicated and we only know part of the story. Director Cannold is obsessed with Evita. It will be interesting to see how she spins the tale of a poor, young Argentine woman, María Eva Duarte who became not just the first lady, but an icon of Argentine womanhood, a legend for all times.
Get tickets at nycitycenter.org