Musical Take: Don't Cry for Me Argentina is supposed to be dumb
... Can I ask you a random âEvitaâ question? Why does Evita sing âDonât Cry for Me, Argentinaâ when she does? Isnât everyone happy for her at that point in the show? I donât get the narrative logic. I thought the same thing. I was going, âWhat the hell is this song about?â I understand exactly what youâre saying. - Patti Lupone (2019 NYT interview)
After her husband gains power of Argentina, Act II of Evita starts with the showstopping iconic number: "Don't Cry for Me Argentina." I think people criticize the song for being stupid. But if you view Eva Peron somewhat cynically, then it's a perfect song. It's full of pretty rhetorics but lacks any substance. It has a beautiful melody, but it says absolutely nothing. No seriously, go and check the lyrics. It's mind-boggling. My favorite interpretation is actually Elena Roger's because she phrases some of the parts like a political speech. This is extremely notable when she is addressing her critics:
And as for fortune, and as for fame
I never invited them in
Though it seemed to the world they were all I desired
They are illusions, they're not the solutions they promised to be
Eva Peron then quickly changes the subject:
The answer was here all the time
I love you, and hope you love me
Don't cry for me, Argentina
And the staging of Don't Cry for Me can influence how I feel about the song. I watched the 2023 ART revival of Evita, and the staging is a bit surreal:
Evita surrounded by flowers. No audience. No crowd. It is her alone. The common theme of the revival production is that Evita's fiction is more important than her reality. Borrowing a quote from another dictator's wife (Imelda Marcos) : "Perception is real, truth is not". I think by divorcing the staging from reality, this is how we as an audience will always see Eva Peron. The surrealism adds to the mythologizing of Evita. Even the cynical audience member can't help but be lulled by the myth of Eva Peron. It's honestly theater magic when you're deceived by the empty rhetorics and the spectacle of it all. At first I hated the staging. But I realized that the song is supposed to be contextual free. It is not a response to anything really. It can literally be sung at any time. It's propaganda! The Casa Rosada doesn't matter nor the descamisados nor the truth.