THE SET

On a Monday--the dark day--during the pre-Broadway run in San Francisco, they filmed the commercial (yeah, the one that ran forever, everywhere). It took all day and the plexiglass panels set into the stage floor with lights under them were never meant to be on for ten hours straight and started to melt and buckle. As there was a show the next night, something had to be done and fast. Fortunately, Theatre Techniques was already building the set for Loni's Los Angeles company and had the panels finished--they were shipped out and the show went on (of course).

REAL LIFE TALKING TO ART

In the Los Angeles pre-Broadway run, four well dressed people were waiting for Bob Gunton outside the stage door. They told him they felt they had to see him without makeup as they were exiles from Peronist Argentina and his portrayal so spooked them they had to reassure themselves it was only an actor.

Patti LuPone was on Broadway in the first month after opening when a woman came backstage and prostrated herself on the floor, kissing Patti's feet. Needless to say, the actress was very uncomfortable. She eventually learned from the sobbing woman that she was the niece of Dr. Pedro Ara Sarria, the man who embalmed the real Eva's body and she was so moved by Patti's portrayal, she thought she was Eva reincarnated.

Mandy Patinkin was in San Francisco at the Orpheum, which is on Market Street--the main downtown boulevard, when a protest march came by. He knew he didn't have to be onstage for a while, so he ran out--in full costume as Che--and joined the march.

GLITCHES