Reprising `EVITA'.

Byline: Bob Keefer The Register-Guard

PLAY PREVIEW Evita What: Actors Cabaret of Eugene stages the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical about the rise and fall of Argentina's first lady, Eva Peron. The play will have five performances at ACE before moving to the Hult Center for three additional shows.

ACE shows: 8 p.m. tonight, Friday and Saturday and July 21 and 22 at Actors Cabaret of Eugene, 996 Willamette St.; $17 reserved, $14 general admission, $32.95 dinner seating; call 683-4368

Hult shows: 8 p.m. July 28 and 29 and 2 p.m. July 30 in the Soreng Theater, Seventh Avenue and Willamette Street; $18 and $22; call 682-5000

The last time Kevin Boling played Argentine dictator Juan Peron for Actors Cabaret of Eugene he was 16 years younger than he is today - and quite a bit younger than the head of state he portrayed on stage.

That was in 1990, when the Eugene theater did its entire season at the Hult Center's Soreng Theater.

This time around, Boling is 52 years old. He's older and wiser, he says.

"I'm a better actor than I was 16 years ago," he said during a rehearsal break last week at the theater. "That part of the play I'm better at. And in some ways I'm a better singer, too, than I was 16 years ago. I've learned to nuance things."

Boling and the other actors in the the new "Evita," which will be directed by Joe Zingo, will all need more nuance than last time around. That's because the show, like many of ACE's productions these days, is being mounted on two completely different stages.

The show will open tonight in the intimate space at Actors Cabaret, where the audience is literally within spitting distance of the action on stage. It will play there through July 22 and then move the following Friday to the Hult's Soreng Theater, which offers a much larger stage, with the action much farther from the front row.

The dual run is part of ACE's effort to eventually become a resident company at the Hult Center.

"This space allows us to be much more intimate in terms of acting," Boling said of the ACE stage. "The little space brings out qualities you don't have on the big stage. But if you can develop that intimacy in one space you can sometimes transfer it to the other."

Boling is a veteran player with ACE's Zingo and Jim Roberts. Boling worked with them when he appeared as Jesus in "Jesus Christ Superstar" almost 25 years ago.

He's played more recently as Beau in "Mame," as Oliver Warbucks in "Annie" and as Mr. Hyde in "Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical."

Evita will be played by a younger ACE standby, Erica Jean. The 32-year-old actress - she celebrated her birthday at a rehearsal last week - has had a full roster of parts since 2002, from Ida in "Honk!" to roles in "The Wizard of Oz," "Seussical the Musical," "Sweeney Todd" and "Pretty Faces: the Large and Lovely Musical," which she joined in its New York production.

Jean says she's long wanted to do "Evita."

"I mentioned it to Joe about two years ago," she said. "We should so do that show! I love the idea of someone from nowhere climbing to the summit."

The musical is based on the true story of Eva Peron, a woman born in poverty who became first lady of Argentina in the 1950s. Evita, as she was known, was deeply charismatic and popular with the common people of her country. She wielded nearly as much political power as her husband. She died of cancer at age 33.

The show was first performed at the Prince Edward Theatre in London in 1978 with Elaine Paige as Eva Peron. It opened on Broadway the following year and ran for 1,567 performances.

"It's a Cinderella story," Jean said. "Rags to riches. People love it. And it has a lot of titillating stuff. She slept her way to the top. That's fun to watch."

Jean, a voice coach in her day job, says Evita is a challenging part for a singer.

"The role is absolutely athletic, there's no two ways about it. She goes from jazz to opera to classical musical to pop. She is all over the map. She's very rangy, from low E to high G in the course of the show."

She has no doubts about translating the production from the small stage to the big one.

"You have to be quite larger than life," she said of the Soreng. "Everything you do (on stage) is about being this far away. And all that adjusts. But Joe is able to take this intimate version and what he does is make that intimacy that much larger."

Playing Che Guevara will be 26-year-old Anthony McCarthy, who played in ACE's "Sweeney Todd." McCarthy is singer and lead guitarist in a funk rock bar band in town. Tony Joyner plays Magaldi. Ashley Apelzin plays the Girl.