Don’t cry for us, Miss Evita!
No! Join us to cheer “Mummy in the Closet: Evita’s Return” on stage now at GALA Hispanic Theatre.
The black comedy has everything needed for great entertainment: fabulous music, romance, outstanding dancing, conflict, action, and a true story about Eva Perón, the first lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952.
If you don’t know anything about her, you will know something about her after seeing this show, an excellent introduction for students of Argentine history, and instilling within me a desire to learn more!
That’s good theatre, isn’t it?
She was only 33 when she died but her legacy lives on in Argentina where she attracted both love and hate from among the citizens then and now.
She was adored by the poor, the working class, and the labor unions as their advocate and spiritual leader, but despised by the elites and the military who saw her as a threat. She was a suffragist who helped women gain the right to vote.
Her brief life, her corpse and its whereabouts are laid out at GALA with original music and dance to keep the audience enthralled, watching the drama and historic videos screened in the background.
Fran Tapia bears an uncanny likeness to Evita, who is joined by the excellent ensemble who dance the night away in near perfect choreography by Valeria Cossu, easily evoking the presence of the millions who stood and watched her funeral when Evita died in Buenos Aires.
The ensemble became the throngs, walking somberly in single file past her body, before they danced and transitioned later into dead bodies in a graveyard and still later, as members of the military and their victims clashing to overthrow her husband from the Argentine presidency three years after Evita’s death.
Juan Perón (Martin Ruiz) was Eva’s husband, 24 years older than his wife whom he immortalized when she died, ordering the doctor to save her body, reminding one of Lenin’s embalmed body in Moscow’s Red Square.
But where was her body?
The play traces her world tour in death over almost two decades, disappearing for years at a time, in flight from Argentina to Italy to Spain and back home again, the corpse taking a two-year hiatus at the home of the exiled Juan Perón and his third wife, Isabel (Camila Taleisnik) in Spain. The military feared the corpse would become a shrine to lure her husband back to power.
And he did come back, eventually returning to the presidency, a role he held for less than a year before he died in 1974 to be succeeded by Isabel (still living and the oldest living former Argentine president).
Whether acting alive or dead, Fran Tapia was splendid in the dual Evita roles, so good that at times, I wondered if the “dead” Evita was a wax figure. Costumer Becca Janney dressed her in a beautiful white strapless evening gown with a diamond necklace and long diamond earrings copied after the original, and glamorized by Tapia as Peron’s second wife.
The ensemble moved quickly from side to side with high kicks and swirls on sets spread over two floors which served as the balcony where Evita addressed huge crowds, military offices, and a mortuary where Dr. Ara (Rodrigo Pedreira, also the general) spent a year brewing a concoction to preserve the body, the backdrop bubbling with chemicals.
Diego Mariani starred in two unforgettable roles he handled well: Colonel Moori and Lopez, servant to Juan Perón. Also featured was Luis Obed Velazquez as Cabanillas, in charge of hiding the body’s location. Dance captain and associate choreographer Rodolfo Santamarina led the dozen other ensemble members, most with multiple roles.
The program notes that the show is nonfiction, based on the facts, including Moori’s believable necrophilia.
Pianist Walter “Bobby” McCoy directed six musicians backstage, the cues for entries, never missed. Rogelio Garza played multiple instruments and Emmanuel Trifilio was on the bandoneon with sounds like an accordion and harmonica.
Gustavo Ott wrote the play assisted with lyrics by Mariano Vales, the composer. Mariano Caligaris directed. Other production team members were Grisele Gonzales, scenics; Andre Hopfer, hair and makeup; Hailey LaRoe, lighting and projections; Justin Schmitz, sound; Iara Rogers Benchoam, properties; Sierra Young, intimacy choreographer; Cat Moreschi, stage manager and Luz Nicolas, assistant director.
Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. through June 9. Tickets are $50 with $25 discounts for those under age 25 and $15 discounts for seniors, groups of 10 or more and the military. For ages 13 and up. Student matinees will be presented May 16-17, May 23-24 at 10:30 a.m.
GALA Hispanic Theatre, 202-234-7174, 3333 14th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20010. Info@galatheatre.org
In Spanish with English surtitles. Ride the Metro to McPherson Square and catch Bus #52 or #54 on 14th up to GALA. Or, ride Metro to the Columbia Heights station, a block from GALA on the Green and Yellow lines.
Park for $4 (with validation in GALA’s lobby) at the Giant parking lot around the corner on Park Road.
