OPENING: ‘Evita’

September 30, 2010.By Graydon Royce, Star Tribune.

Theater Latté Da returns to the Ordway’s McKnight stage for this Andrew Lloyd Webber spectacle, starring Zoe Pappas, with Jared Oxborough as Che Guevara. To prepare for this piece, artistic director Peter Rothstein traveled to Argentina in search of tango atmosphere. “We wondered, ‘What if we approach the whole work like it was a tango?’” Rothstein said. Music director Denise Prosek has orchestrated the score for tango instrumentation, and Michael Matthew Ferrell has developed choreography with an eye on the dance form that is a national cultural tradition of Argentina. Rothstein said he found the presence of Eva Perón unmistakable in Buenos Aires, nearly 60 years after her death.”Every block has posters of her,” he said. (7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat. & Wed., 2 p.m. Sun Through Oct. 31. Ordway Center, 345 Washington St., St. Paul. $19-$39. 651-224-4222 or www.ordway.org.)