‘Evita’s Return’ offers different take on Argentinian icon
“Momea en el Clóset (Mummy in the Closet): Evita’s Return”Through June 9GALA Hispanic Theatre3333 14th St., N.W.$50Galatheatre.org Whether alive or dead, Eva Perón wielded her own brand of political power.
After her death in 1952, Eva’s cult of mostly poor and working-class followers remained devoted to their Santa Evita. Her husband, Argentina’s president Juan Perón, fostered adulation by having her wasted body painstakingly embalmed, and displaying the waxen corpse like the incorruptible bodies of sainted Roman Catholic luminaries.
But when the anti-Peronistas took power, they had other ideas; storing her away far from sight seemed a better idea. Typically works about Argentina’s first lady focus on her unbridled ambition and ascent from anonymity to fame, but the strikingly original “Momea en el Clóset (Mummy in the Closet): Evita’s Return” — now at GALA Hispanic Theatre — is different.
The collaboration of GALA’s producing artistic director Gustavo Ott (book and lyrics) and Mariano Vales (music and lyrics) spotlights the events following Eva’s death from cervical cancer at just 33.
