Wicked's Dee Roscioli to Lead Evita at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival

Broadway's Dee Roscioli (Wicked, Fiddler on the Roof) will star in the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's summer season opener, Evita. The production will have preview performances on June 14 and 15 before its June 16 opening. The show is set to run through July 2 on the Main Stage of the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of DeSales University. PSF's associate artistic director Dennis Razze will direct.

With book and lyrics by Tim Rice and music by Andrew Lloyd Weber, Evita is a seven-time Tony Award-winning musical, filled with showstopping favorites including "Don’t Cry for Me Argentina." The story is described as capturing "the complexity of an illegitimate child who came to be 'the spiritual leader of the nation' and one of history’s most tragic and dramatic figures."

In the musical, Evita Roscioli will portray Eva Peron, "an extraordinary woman who rose from abject poverty in rural Argentina to become the First Lady by the age of 27." A DeSales University graduate, Roscioli performed the leading role of Mrs. Lovett in the festival's 2012 production of Sweeney Todd.

"I've been working with Dennis Razze since I was a kid so we have a definite comfort level," said Roscioli in a statement. "We had such a great time doing Sweeney Todd together. I'm really looking forward to working with him on this show."

For tickets and more information, click here.