A radio announcement shares the news that Eva Perón is dead. As the music begins, the people of Argentina begin to react to Eva’s passing. Che, a narrator figure, watches the action and comments disapprovingly on the spectacle of the country’s mourning.
The action moves back in time. Eva is a teenager in Junín, a provincial city, but she dreams of life in the capital. She has begun an affair with a traveling tango singer, Agustín Magaldi, and she implores him to take her with him to Buenos Aires. The community of Junín gossips about Eva’s affair and warns Magaldi not to desert her. Magaldi tries to dissuade Eva from trying to accompany him, but she persists.
Newly arrived in Buenos Aires, Eva marvels at the city and voices her determination to succeed here. Her relationship with Magaldi does not last long. As she pursues work as an actor, Eva is seen around town with a series of increasingly influential lovers. Meanwhile, the military of Argentina has moved to take control of the country. We see the rise of one particularly ambitious military leader, Colonel Juan Perón.
After an earthquake strikes San Juan, Argentina, the action moves to a charity concert in Buenos Aires featuring, as a musical guest, Magaldi and, as a speaker, Perón. Eva, who has come to the concert with a lower-ranking military officer, has a private word with Perón: she suggests to him that, as a couple, they could each be advantageous to each other’s ambitions. Perón responds with the same enthusiasm, inviting Eva home. There, she sends the colonel’s current mistress packing.
As Eva and Perón’s relationship becomes increasingly public, wealthy Buenos Aires society and the military express their disdain for Eva. They ridicule her lower-class origins and express worry about her newfound proximity to political power. Despite these objections by the elite, Perón builds a successful campaign for presidency—and marries Eva. His campaign is buoyed both by Eva’s charismatic appeals to the unions and by the military’s willingness to silence dissent.
Act Two
Newly elected President Perón addresses crowds of his supporters from the balcony of the Casa Rosada (the residence of Argentina’s presidents). Joining her now-husband, Eva assures the crowd of the new leaders’ love for them and for the country. Meanwhile, still observing the action, Che questions Eva’s intentions, wondering about the dangers of being in the public eye from a young age.
As her popularity at home soars to new heights, the new first lady works to assemble an image (and wardrobe) that inspires the public’s imagination. Eva embarks on a diplomatic tour of Europe, but she is met with mixed reactions and starts to appear fatigued.
Back at home, Eva speaks her mind and refuses to play by the rules of the upper classes. While Che wonders if Eva is acting in anyone’s interest but her own, Eva devotes herself to her new charitable Foundation, which aims to keep the dreams of the lower classes alive with gifts and sweepstakes. Che has a vision of himself dancing a waltz with Eva, critiquing the regime’s repressive tactics.
Perón’s subordinates in the military government continue to express concern about Eva’s influence. Perón pushes back at his wife’s detractors, arguing that the lower classes’ love for his wife is a great asset to the regime and to the country. Eva, meanwhile, aspires to be her husband’s vice president, but she eventually accepts the fact that her strength is failing due to her illness. In a final broadcast to the nation, Eva assures the people that her love for them is true, and that she has done everything in her life for them.
As Eva lies on her deathbed, visions of her life whirl around her. She laments her early death but claims satisfaction that her brief life was glorious. She sings a hope that her legacy will be preserved, and Che informs the audience that, after Eva’s death, her body disappeared for 17 years.
A groundbreaking revival of the Tony Award-winning rock opera that follows the adored and reviled Eva Perón’s meteoric rise to first lady of Argentina before her death at 33.
