Evita, the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical based on the life of Argentina-leader Eva Peron, is touring across the United States again! You may know of the play, thanks to the 1996 film starring Madonna and Antonio Banderas. However, the musical is what first earned Webber acclaim and theatre fame. Yes, you are correct in assuming that the play eventually closed down. However, it was revived in London in 2006, and most recently on Broadway, scheduled for a 2012 release.

The newest revival on Broadway is going to show at the Marquis Theatre, and will star Elena Roger as Eva Peron, and Ricky Martin as Che, the narrator. Contrary to popular belief, the character Che has never been directly identified as an homage to

Che Guevara, but plenty of critics and fans have made comparisons, since Che’s philosophy and criticism of Peron does seem consistent with what Guevara might have believed.

Political agendas aside, Evita the musical is an amazing experience, heightened by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s brilliant soundtrack, which includes memorable songs such as “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina”, “High Flying, Adored” and “Oh What a Circus.”

While the movie version of Evita was evenly praised when it comes out, it wasn’t universally loved. Mostly cited was the uneven performance of Madonna as well as the music-video like direction that took place under Alan Parker. No wonder that the country of Argentina released its own bio film of Peron as a rebuttal to Evita, to correct alleged “distortions” of the truth in the 1996 American version.

Yes, this is indeed a universally popular story. When it was first released in 1980, it won eight of its twelve Tony nominations, including Best Musical and Best Actor and Actress respectively for Patti LuPone and Many Patinkin. Not only has the play been performed in Brazil and throughout the U.K. and the U.S., but it has also been translated into multiple languages, including Spanish, German, Japanese, Hebrew, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, Hungarian, Icelandic, Korean, Portuguese, and Swedish. Even in American pop culture, the play’s relevance continues; it has been parodied on The Simpsons and honored on the musical TV series Glee.

Come see Evita in person and experience the emotionally charged lyrics and what is arguably Andrew Lloyd Webber’s best stage work!