Asolo to Open Season With Evita

SARASOTA – The Asolo Repertory Theatre will open its 2017/18 season with a production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tony Award-winning masterpiece Evita. The musical opens November 18 and runs through December 30 in the Mertz Theatre, located in the FSU Center for the Performing Arts.

Winner of seven Tony Awards, including best musical and best score, Evita chronicles the electric rise and fall of Eva Per—n, who used her beauty and charisma to climb from her poverty-stricken roots on the outskirts of Buenos Aires to become the powerful and polarizing First Lady of Argentina at the age of 27.

The previously-announced acclaimed Puerto Rican recording artist and actress Ana Isabelle leads the all-star cast as Eva Per—n, Argentina's magnetic and mesmerizing First Lady. Justin Gregory Lopez, who most recently portrayed Usnavi in Lin-Manuel Miranda's In the Heights (Ordway Center) plays Che.

Josh Rhodes (Broadway: Bright Star, It Shoulda Been You, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, First Date; West End: Carousel, Sweeney Todd; Asolo Rep: Guys and Dolls) will direct and choreograph. Rhodes received Outer Critics Circle Award, Astaire Award and Drama Desk Award nominations and an LA Critics Circle Award for his choreography of the hit Broadway production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella. He also choreographed the Emmy-award winning production of Sweeney Todd. He received Outer Critics Circle and Astaire Award nominations for his choreography of Bright Star on Broadway.

"The most incredible part of this process has been finding the talent,“ said Rhodes. "The score is extremely demanding and the scale of this production needs endless charisma from the actors – and this cast has enough talent and electrifying charisma to set the stage on fire. At its core, Evita tells the story of high ambition and the price we pay to climb closer to the light. With the musical’s design team, we have created a production that heightens the towering myth of an ambitious and passionate woman, while still allowing history and story to shine through.“

Visit the Asolo website for ticket and schedule information.