Evita!, the Tony Award-winning stage play that tells the story of a poor girl’s rise to become the most powerful woman in South America, opens a special five-week run at the Raven Performing Arts Theater on Friday. One of two divas will perform the leading role – you’ll have to attend the show to find out which one.
California native Lauren Post and Buenos Aires singer Ana Laura Nicolicchia will share the title role, both bringing experienced stage presence and sound musical chops to the demanding role, says director John DeGaetano.
The play began as a “rock opera” commissioned by record producer Robert Stigwood as a follow-up to Tim Rice and Alexander Lloyd Weber’s Jesus Christ Superstar.
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The story opens in 1952, with the death of Eva Peron, and then the audience is introduced to the 15-year old Eva Duarte by the revolutionary narrator Che (played and sung at the Raven by Pedro Rodelas). Eva grows ever more powerful as first the lover, then the wife of President Juan Perón, until she makes her own bid for power in Argentina.
“In some ways, Evita is a Cinderella story turned on its head—the little girl from Los Toldos, a dirty, poor village far from Buenos Aires,” said director DeGaetano. “The difference is that this Cinderella isn’t a pure, good girl winning her prince almost by chance, but a cunning, sly woman driven to achieve fame and power by any means and vowing to plow under anyone who would try to get in her way.”
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Yesterday the Raven Players announced they were adding performances on July 19, 20, 21, because of the excitement generated by the two leads. Dates for performances of Evita now begin at 8:00 p.m. Friday, June 21 and Saturday June 22, and a 2:00 p.m. Sunday matinee, June 23. It will run on a similar schedule the following four weekends, making for an unprecedented five-week run at the Raven Theater.
For this engagement only, all seating is reserved at the Raven Theater. Tickets can be purchased on the Raven website, and a limited number are available at Copperfield's in Healdsburg & Santa Rosa, at Mail Center, Etc in Cloverdale, and at Pages in Windsor.
Prices are Adults $30, Senior (65 up) $25, Student with ID $25.
