President Trump returned to the White House Monday night after receiving in-hospital treatment following a positive COVID-19 test, whereupon he took off his mask, gave a speech in which he suggested he might already be immune to an illness he currently has, at one point seemed to strain to take deep breaths, and posed on a balcony for a photo op that looked a lot like a scene from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita. Now, you might remember Evita is about Eva Perón, wife of Argentinian president Juan Perón, and that the show features Evita beseeching her nation’s citizens to not “keep your distance†from the balcony of the Casa Rosada. What you might not remember is that the show is Donald Trump’s favorite musical.
“My favorite Broadway show is Evita by Andrew Lloyd Webber, starring Patti LuPone. I saw it six times, mostly with Ivana,†the president wrote in his 2004 tome Trump: Think Like a Billionaire, reported here by ABC News. Well, Patti LuPone remembers, and as the originator of the role, she just wanted to weigh in on how Trump’s Eva Perón moment measured up Monday evening.
“I still have the lung power and I wore less makeup,†the Broadway star tweeted. “This revival is closing November 3rd.â€