While the rest of the nation counts down to the election, a Vero theater group is ratcheting up the fervor factor, rehearsing rallies for a political icon in another era and on another continent.
“Evita!,” the rock opera that chronicles the life of Argentina’s beloved Eva Perón, opens at the Vero Beach Theatre Guild Nov. 10, just two days after the election. Written by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, the show has been on the schedule for a year and a half – about as long as Donald Trump has been in the race for president.
“I didn’t really think about the timing,” says director Mark Wygonik. “It really only hit me when we started rehearsing the crowd scenes.”
Like Trump, whose brand expanded greatly through his role on “The Apprentice,” Eva Peron made her first fans on the air waves – radio, not TV. And like Trump, people talked about her sex life; for years, rumors flew that she was a prostitute.
Evita had one thing in common with Hillary Clinton: her enormous Eva Peron Foundation. With a budget of $50 million (a whopping sum then) and 14,000 employees, it provided everything from health clinics and classrooms to children’s theme parks. And like Hillary, she championed women’s rights. Before Eva died of cervical cancer at only 33, she managed to win Argentine women the right to vote.
“Oh what a circus, oh what a show,” sings Che Guevara, a character who serves as narrator and in cameos through the play; he is played by Vero’s Derrick Paul, a professional model who can rock that jaunty beret. That “circus” he sings about refers not to a rally, but Evita’s funeral.
Evita was not born into wealth and celebrity. On the contrary, she grew up extremely poor, and it’s left to the elegant Kaitlin Ruby to portray that dichotomy on the Guild stage. The 20-year-old Ruby was a 2014 Miss Hibiscus. That same year, as she was graduating from Indian River Charter High, she starred as Annie Sullivan in the Guild production of “The Miracle Worker,” followed by Daisy in “The Great Gatsby” at Charter.
Ruby is currently working on a degree in marketing for a University of Florida online program, back in Vero after a scholarship stint at Stetson University.
Last week she auditioned at Riverside Theatre in the hopes of winning a professional role.
Rob Kenna, who plays Juan Peron, also has Riverside in his sights, though it looks as if it will be next season before he has time to audition. Kenna, 54, is a singer/songwriter from Sidney, Australia, and a former contestant on that country’s version of “Star Search.”
Kenna finds inspiration for his role in Peron’s dashing 1940s wardrobe, which ranges from a pinstripe suit to a smoking jacket to a tuxedo.
He also appears in military uniform complete with epaulets and gold braid. It is far more formal than the uniform Kenna wore as a police officer in New South Wales.
It was during that time that he suffered a fractured skull and other injuries when he was attacked by a man with a machete. During his long rehabilitation, he took up the guitar and began writing songs.
Kenna first came to the states in 2001, and found Vero on a subsequent trip in 2011. In between renovating his lakeside home for resale, he has played regular gigs at Havana Nights and for private parties.
Born in a small town, Eva Duarte dreamed of becoming an actress since childhood. One of five children of an unmarried woman, her absent father, who had a family in another town, had taken Eva’s mother as a mistress when she was only 15.
When Eva was 1, he abandoned his illegitimate family, leaving Eva and her siblings to live off the meager earnings of her seamstress mother.
Eva left for Buenos Aires at 15 to begin her radio soap opera career; by 22 she was a national star. Two years later, she became the mistress of Juan Peron in 1944.
A charismatic Army colonel with a soft spot for fascism, Peron was the newly named secretary of war as well as of labor in the year-old military takeover of the Argentine government. A widower, he was twice Eva’s age – 48. She quickly displaced the young mistress he already enjoyed.
In his new role, Peron was responsive to the needs of the working class, enacting a minimum wage and health benefits to the dismay of the country’s conservative oligarchy – some 1,800 land owners. Evita joined in his efforts, becoming president of the newly-formed actors’ union, and used her clout on radio to spread her message of a new tomorrow.
Preparing for his presidential run, Peron married Eva, who promptly abandoned her film career for a new role as first lady. This is the moment when the swelling voices of the crowd lift Evita to her pedestal: “A new Argentina, the voice of the people … will not be denied!”
Director Wygonik recruited two talented choral conductors to coach the cast in the challenging score: Jacob Craig of First Presbyterian Church, and Ryan Kasten, formerly of Community Church.
Ballroom dance instructor Karren Walter, who coaches the dancers for Vero’s “Dancing with the Stars” charity knock-off, serves as choreographer.
The sets, designed by Wygonik, include crowd scenes peopled by scenic artist Isabel Garrett’s neutral-hued portraits, applied to life-size wood cut-outs. As for the actual cast, its 32 members are wrangled by stage manager Jim Daly, including through multiple set and costume changes.
With the new two-story Guild addition completed, costumes are now stored on premises instead of in a distant storage rental. And a new large rehearsal room meant that practice for “Evita” could start while the last play, “Sylvia,” was being staged in the theater itself.
As for Ruby as the glamorous Evita, the crew is building her own private dressing room in the wings. “I probably change 8 to 10 times during the show. That’s a lot,” Ruby says.
“This is a tough, tough show, and if we all get it right, it’ll be worth it,” says Kenna. ”Mark wants people to be blown away.”
“Evita!” opens Thursday, Nov. 10, with a 7 p.m. performance. It runs through Nov. 27.