12 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE MARCH 19, 1999

EVENINGS OUT

This touring Evita looks and sounds more Argentine

R

Raymond Jaramillo McLeod and Ana Maria Andricain as Argentine leaders Juan and Eva Perón, with Raul Esparza, right, as revolutionary Che Guevara.

by Kaizaad Kotwal

One of musical theatre's most powerful and popular variations on the Cinderella theme is Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita.

Evita opened on Broadway in September 1979, setting records for the largest box office advance, highest pop music profile and most technologically advanced production. It won seven Tony awards, and played 1,568 performances before closing on June 25, 1983. In 1996 a whole new generation was introduced to Evita in Alan Parker's film version, which starred Madonna, Antonia Banderas and Jonathan Pryce.

It seems fitting, then, that the nostalgia of the original Broadway version and the recent success of the film be married in a new touring production currently sweeping the country.

For the first time in this show's history, a ground-breaking bit of casting occurred when Latino performers were cast in the lead roles. Natalie Toro and Ana Maria Andricain share the role of Evita, while

Raul Esparaza plays Che and Raymond Jaramillo McLeod plays Juan Perón. Much of the score has been re-orchestrated to infuse Buenos Aires salsa rhythms and the choreography has been revamped to include authentic Argentine tango.

Included in this revolutionary and revamped Evita is openly gay actor Tom Flynn, who plays the role of Antonio Magaldi, a character based on a real person. Magaldi was a musician who had an affair with the very young Eva and who was responsible for bringing her to Buenos Aires.

The 40-year-old Flynn has been acting professionally ever since he graduated from college. Flynn was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, one of the few Catholics in that Mormon domain. He then moved to Newport Beach, California and became one of the few dark-haired, dark-eyed boys in a town overflowing with blondhaired, blue-eyed, buff-bodied surfers. Both these childhood environments instilled in Flynn from a very early age the

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Both Utah and California "left me with the scars of growing up and not fitting in," Flynn explained, "and even before I was aware that I was different because I was gay, I grew up not fitting in, not belonging."

While he cannot remember ever coming out, "because I was always just gay," Flynn says that the traumatic part of being gay was the "taunting and the teasing."

"Children have a radar and they knew before I did," he said.

Currently in San Francisco with Evita, Flynn said he was last there seven years ago when he acted in a production of Terrence McNally's The Lisbon Traviata with Richard Thomas, Nathan Lane and Dan Butler (of Frasier).

Flynn landed the role of Magaldi through his agent, and confesses that he prefers straight plays

Tom Flynn

to musicals because he is "more fascinated with the process of acting than with singing.'

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"Luckily I have a God-given talented voice which I keep trained, but I gravitate towards non-musicals.” If he had been more interested in singing, Flynn said, he would have taken to opera.

Although he is gay, Flynn says that he cannot completely understand the significance of musicals to many in the gay community.

"I have no idea why that is," Flynn confessed, "but I suppose it has something to do with its grandness, perhaps a fascination with the diva."

Flynn has seen the film version of Evita and thinks that Madonna's performance was good, but added, “I don't think that she sings that well, and this is a problem for a musical that is essentially an opera." Flynn did like the Magaldi in the film, and his rendition in the tour is closer to that than the many stage versions that have treated Magaldi as a funny buffoon.

"I am more interested in him as a dark, malcontent, sleazy guy who sleeps with a fourteen-year-old, regularly screws underage girls, while he is married with two kids," Flynn explained. “In fact, when a critic mentions my performance as sleazy and dark, I am very satisfied."

Fighting loneliness is one of the challenges to being on the road, Flynn says.

Currently single, Flynn adds, “In a way I thank God that I don't have a partner, because I see how difficult it is on many of the cast members, gay and straight, who have lovers or wives and children."

Flynn is booked with the Evita tour until August, and after the show ends, he hopes to focus more on film and television.

"I would love to be in a place in my career in ten years or so where I am making a good living at film. I am not necessarily looking for star status, because very few character actors ever become stars, but I would like to make good money at films," he said.

As for family, Flynn would like to be in a relationship and he said that, "I love kids and would have loved to have found a partner to raise kids with but I feel I am getting too old. My parents were old when they had me after three children and they had no energy then."

Flynn says he is glad that being gay in the theatre is such a "non-issue."

"I feel so blessed that the theatre is so very liberal, there is very little censoring about who we are, it is so wonderfully open and I know that this is what drew me to this profession," he says.

Evita comes to the Ohio Theatre in Columbus March 23 to 28. For more information or tickets, call 614-431-3600 or any Ticketmaster location.

Kaizaad Kotwal is a Chronicle contributing writer in Columbus.

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