Inside the Opening Night of the Evita Revival at the New York City Center 

“She had her moments, she had some style. The best show in town was the crowd outside the Casa Rosada crying, ‘Eva Perón!’” So go the lyrics of “Oh What A Circus,” one of the Andrew Lloyd Webber–penned songs for the Evita. The musical is receiving a brand-new staging at the New York City Center, which opened on Wednesday night. Directed by Sammi Cannold, the performance transported showgoers back to 1940s Argentina (and then to present-day Manhattan for a celebratory gala at 583 Park Avenue).

The rags-to-riches story follows Perón (brilliantly played by Solea Pfeiffer and Maia Reficco, who split the titular role) from impoverished child to ambitious actress to her reign as Argentina’s beloved first lady, and from brunette to blonde, threadbare slips to couture gowns. Argentinian costume designer Alejo Vietti dresses Perón in a stark palette of black and white, as if to mimic the splashy newspaper headlines she so often dominated. “I came from the people, they need to adore me, so Christian Dior me from my head to my toes,” Perón sings, as a team of chorus girls outfits her in a fabulous nipped-waist, full-skirt Bar suit à la Dior’s New Look.

Perón always had an immaculate manicure in her favorite shade of Helena Rubinstein red; however, Pfeiffer opted for a trendier design that spelled out Dior in barely-there pearl white letters. “I needed to feel fierce!” she said. Swathed in a frothy Marchesa confection spun from layers of black tulle, Pfeiffer oozed dark glamour at last night’s opening. “This is a huge moment in my life and never ever have I had permission to be as extra and over-the-top as I possibly could be,” she said with a laugh. “The gown fit into the world of the show and matched Eva’s sense of grandeur.”

Showgoers, too, were dressed to the nines, like Mean Girls’s Ashley Park, who cut a chic figure in a cinnamon-colored Sandro suit she picked up while filming Darren Criss’s forthcoming series Emily in Paris while in the French capital last week. Following a standing ovation, everyone hopped on buses uptown for the after-party, while enjoying Evita show tunes along the way. After swapping their playbills for coupes of Champagne, the Veuve Clicquot continued to flow throughout dinner. It’s how Eva Perón would have wanted it.