Anchorage Daily News

Steven Alvarez wears charisma like a nightshirt or wool socks. He looks comfortable in it, and not all that impressed. This stage presence matters when playing Che Guevara in "Evita" by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.

As Che, Alvarez stamps purpose onto the fabric of spectacle. With long hair, beard, beret and guerrilla garb, he not only looks the part but also holds the parts together in this production by Theatre Artists United and Alaska Theatre of Youth.

Part of his success has to do with the role itself as scripted narrator, the rest on his formidable presence.

Alongside him, vocalist Bridget Sullivan makes her theatrical debut as the iconic Eva Duarte de Peron, who rises to power on the coattails of passion and ambition. Sullivan's Eva squares up against Alvarez's Che; she looks the part and has a worthy voice for such a magnetic role, even when paired with Leo Tareyev's narcissistic Agustin Magaldi, one of Eva's conquests on the way to the top.

The story begins in 1934 with Eva as a small-town girl headed to Buenos Aires and eventual stardom as a model, actress and wife of General Juan Peron, who becomes the president of Argentina. However much she gains, she wants more, even as she apprehends her untenable position in the enduring number, "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina."

Sullivan sang the song deftly on opening night last Friday, though her voice occasionally dissipated in a whirl of strings and percussion. At other times, Sullivan's Eva virtually screamed her aspirations and demands, perhaps aptly so, which made Alvarez's even resonance even more important as a reference point.

The performance lasted a good two and a half hours, plus intermission, with standout songs like "And the Money Kept Rolling In (and Out)" and "Waltz for Eva and Che."

Other keys roles include Bill Garry's Juan Peron, a man besotted with Eva's loveliness and drive, but aware of his own limits and ultimately cognizant of hers. Eden Barrington pulls off a memorable solo as the Mistress as well.

Appropriately, women get the best costumes, sexy in style even when earthen brown or beige, with Eva suitably dressed to the nines even as she faces her own mortality. The choreography by Kristen Vierthaler adds depth as well as flair, particularly when used as kinetic accompaniment, and the band sounded clean, if a little louder than the voices at times.

The cast of 35 includes a handful of performers from Alaska Theatre of Youth. Many things can go wrong in a production like this, a few always do, but it's a testament TAU and ATY that everyone from Alvarez, the visionary behind the project, to director Ed Bourgeois welcomed these young performers and knew well enough to let them do their parts.

Some of the chorus numbers sounded too loose at times -- and a few technical issues added buzz where there should have been silence -- but this local production looks and sounds as professional and heartfelt, if not more so, than most traveling musicals that come to Anchorage each year.

Best of all, "Evita" arrives during the perfect storm of ideology and grandiosity; in an election year rife with questions about passion, ambition and experience, the story of Eva Peron reminds us that history speaks to the future as keenly as dreams do.

Find Dawnell Smith online at adn.com/contact/dsmith or call 257-4587.

EVITA, a production by Theatre Artists United in collaboration with Alaska Theatre of Youth, continues at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, and 2 p.m. on Sundays, through October 12 at the Sydney Laurence Theatre. Tickets cost $35 (www.CenterTix.net, 263-2787).

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