Dice Are Rolling / Eva's Sonnet - Andrew Lloyd Webber, Julie Covington, Paul Jones

PERON:

Dice are rolling, the knives are out

I see every bad sign in the book

And as far as they can--overweight to a man!

They have that lean and hungry look

EVA:

But we still have the magic we’ve always had!

The descamisados still worship me--we arrived thanks to them and no-one else;

No thanks to your generals--a clutch of stuffed cuckoos!

PERON:

It’s not a question of a big parade, proving we’re big with the mobs on the

street--

EVA:

You’re wrong--the people, my people--

PERON:

The people belong to no-one!

They are fickle, can be manipulated, they don’t matter!

However much they love you now it matters more that

As far as my stuffed cuckoos are concerned, you don’t politically exist!

EVA:

So I don’t exist!

So I count for nothing!

Try saying that on the street when all over the world I am Argentina!

Most of your generals wouldn’t be recognized by their own mothers!

But they’ll admit I exist when I become vice-president!

PERON:

That won’t work… we’ve been through all of this before

They’d fight you tooth and nail--you'd never overcome

Them with a hundred rallies and even if you did--

EVA:

Yes?

PERON:

Your little body’s slowly breaking down

You’re losing speed, you’re losing strength--not style-- that goes on

Flourishing forever, but your eyes, your smile

Do not have the sparkle of their fantastic past

If you climb one more mountain it could be your last

EVA:

I’m not that ill--bad moments come but they go

Some days are fine, some a little bit harder

But that doesn’t mean

I should change my routine

Have you ever seen

Me defeated?

Don’t you forget what I’ve been through and yet

I’m still standing

And if I am ill--that could even be to your advantage!

PERON:

Advantage?

I’m trying to point out that you are dying!

This talk of death is chilling--of course you’re not going to die!

EVA:

Then I must now be vice-president!

And I shall have my people come to choose

Two Perons to wear their country’s crowns

In thousands in my squares and avenues

Emptying their villages and towns

Where every soul in home or shack or stall

Knows me as Argentina--that is all

Oh I shall be a great vice-president!

PERON:

So what happens now?

So what happens now?

EVA:

Where am I going to?

PERON:

Don’t ask anymore