The new Broadway-bound production of Evita will begin a national tour on Nov. 6 in Detroit and star four Latin actors in the lead roles.

The show, directed by Larry Fuller, will star Natalie Toro and Ana Marie Andricain, sharing the title role. Raul Esparza will be Che and Raymond Jaramillo will star as Juan Peron, according to a Boneau/Bryan-Brown office spokesperson (Sept. 28). The Latin casting is part of an effort to instill this production with an authentic Spanish feel.

After premiering at the Masonic Temple Theatre in Detroit, the show will move on to Louisville, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Newark, Atlanta, San Francisco, New Orleans, Columbus, St. Louis, Dallas, Las Vegas, Costa Mesa, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego and Boston. The show is set to reach Broadway in fall 1999.

Fuller, who will also create the dancing for the show, was the original choreographer of Evita. Timothy O'Brien will design the sets and costumes. The new staging is produced by Manny Kladitis, Magicworks Entertainment and Pace Theatrical Group.

Back in February 1998, producer Kladitis was been discussing the project with original director Harold Prince. "He'll be busy with Parade," Kladitis told Playbill On-Line (Feb. 26), "but at the very least he'll bless the production." Evita premiered in the U.S. At Los Angeles' Civic Light Opera in 1979. The show then opened on Broadway Sept. 25, 1979, with Patti LuPone as Eva Peron, Bob Gunton as her husband, and Mandy Patinkin as Che.

--By Robert Simonson and David Lefkowitz