A revolutionary inside the palace

What does it take to stage a revolution?

Peasants. Aristocrats. Leaders. Military.

That's also what it takes to stage "Evita" the musical.

Village Theatre presents a taut, two-hour "re-imagined" version of the musical that moves with a broad yet intimate sweep in covering the life of Eva Perón, wife of the dictator Juan Perón of Argentina.

She was a mistress — and a wife. A social climber who proudly wore her peasant status. A social revolutionary who identified with the "descamisados," the shirtless ones, while enjoying the perks and luxuries of the ruling class.

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's "Evita" opens Village Theatre's 2006-2007 season in Everett on Friday as the show transfers from a run in Issaquah.

Like last season's "Cats," the production holds its own with any of the touring versions of the show — there are nearly 200 costume changes. And there's an advantage here over larger houses like the Paramount or the 5th Avenue because the shows settle in for longer runs in Village's more intimate theater settings.

With "Evita," the effect is thrilling. The musical starts with a grainy, black-and-white film, the real Eva Perón on screen in a ghostly cinematic image. Suddenly the projection is interrupted by an announcement: Eva Perón has died.

The year is 1952, and the 33-year-old film star-turned-first lady is about to become legend — gothically sketched with mourners who huddle around her casket, chanting her name in a requiem.

Even as her body lies in state, Che Guevara, the Argentine-born revolutionary, questions who is this "Santa Evita"?

Through a series of scenes that starts in 1934, her life unfolds. There's the teenage Eva Duarte, who importunes a tango singer to take her with him to Argentina's "Big Apple" — Buenos Aires. His crooning gives way to the energetic, tango-flavored song by that title.

But the country is about to be taken over by a military junta — a coup effectively realized onstage by a Gilbert and Sullivan-style song and dance of identically dressed officers.

When Eva meets the stolid army colonel Juan Perón (Eric Polani Jensen plays him in a nuanced performance), Juan has ascended to power. While the mob chants, "A new Argentina," Eva becomes the human face of a strong-arm regime.

Her arena is the Casa Rosada, the pink presidential palace where the "back-street girl" has become an "instant queen."

Jennifer Paz, who plays Eva Perón, says it all comes together for her when she stands at the balcony of the palace, singing "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina." "She realizes at the moment the tremendous power she's gained," said Paz.

Whether the path was flawed or not, "she realizes she has tremendous power to give something." At that moment, "she really grows," said Paz. "That's the turning point."

Paz, a talented Filipino-American actress who has toured with "Miss Saigon," broke her character down to the basics, in part by reading a balanced account of her life by Nicholas Fraser and Marysa Navarro titled "Evita: The Real Life of Eva Perón."

"This woman fought for her rights all her life," Paz said. "Today, we often celebrate people who fight to achieve success, but back then she was unprecedented."

Ironically, though Guevara and Eva orbit each other like planets, power attracting power, in life they encountered each other only by letter.

"When Eva was giving out wishes and doling out the wealth of the country to the people, he wrote to her asking for a Jeep," said Louis Hobson, who plays Guevara with a driving irony as well as empathy.

"He has access to her private life that no one would have," said Hobson. "He gets to see those moments when she's most vulnerable. When you take two people like this, you wonder what it would be like if they'd met."

Hobson went beyond the iconic Che on T-shirts to flesh out the real man: moody, ironic, romantic yet disciplined.

Guevara was dressed as a revolutionary in army fatigues in the original production, but in this one, truer to the period, he looks more like a student.

With nearly a month of performances in "Evita" behind them, "I feel like the relationships of these characters are much deeper now," Paz said. "We've settled in and have room to play and room to grow with this re-imagining of this production. I've heard many comments from people who say, 'The way this story has been told makes sense to me.' "

Diane Wright: 425-745-7815 or dwright@seattletimes.com