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Elle
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Elle
Rachel Zegler Reveals All On That 'Overwhelming But Moving' Balcony Moment - And Evita's Star-Studded Opening
It's rare for a West End theatre production to garner so much attention and excitement before opening night, yet that is exactly what Rachel Zegler has managed to do as she steps into the shoes of Eva Perón in director Jamie Lloyd's daring take on the beloved musical, Evita. Over the last two weeks of preview shows, Zegler has stepped out on to the balcony of The London Palladium, the musical's new home, mid-performance to perform a powerful rendition of 'Don't Cry For Me, Argentina'. 'I don't think any of us expected it to garner as much attention as it did,' the 24-year-old actor reflects to ELLE UK, the morning after Evita's opening night. 'People have been camping out for hours before I go on and it's humbling, beautiful and fits in the story very well.' Starring as Perón, Zegler has received rave reviews for her passionate, high-voltage performance which follows the life of the Argentine political leader Juan Perón, and his second wife. The dynamic show, set to Andrew Lloyd Webber's soaring score, dominated social media during its preview period and has now officially opened its doors to London audiences. Pedro Pascal, Sarah Paulson and Keanu Reeves were among the high-profile guests at the Palladium on opening night to see Zegler belt out beloved ballads like 'Rainbow High' and 'A New Argentina'. 'Sarah texted me last week asking for the link to get tickets. I had no idea she meant last night,' Zegler exclaims. 'Then, our ensemble member Harrison Wilde asked me backstage, "Rachel, is Pedro here?" and I said he probably would have told me. Then, during 'Rainbow High', I saw Pedro stand up. I was like, "Dad, you're embarrassing me!"' she jokes. 'No, he was so sweet. Keanu Reeves was there, too. I was freaking out!' For the occasion, Zegler wore a SS25 beige tulle Haute Couture Dior ballgown adorned with bejewelled bows, designed by the house's recently departed creative director, Maria Grazia Chiuri. On her look, Zegler worked closely with her long-time stylist Sarah Tooley to pay a visual tribute to her character's legacy. 'It was so evident to Sarah and I that Dior had to be a part of the night because of the lyrics of 'Rainbow High' being "Christian Dior me from my head to my toes",' she shares. 'Christian Dior was such an influence on Eva's fashion in real life, so we wanted to pay homage and have classic elements as well as the modern, diva and Madonna-esque version of Eva. That's why this design was so perfect.' Having worked with her since the start of Zegler's acting career, Tooley is a stylist she truly trusts. 'She knows my taste, but she also knows my body and what I'll feel comfortable in. That's a testament to the friendship and trust [we've] built,' Zegler reflects. Her look was finished with fine jewellery from London-based brands Ananya and David Morris, a fresh, glossy make-up look and her signature soft waves on the hair, styled by Valeria Ferreira and Dayaruci respectively. 'I want to look like myself as much as possible, so I can be myself in a professional sphere where a lot of pressure is on,' Zegler says of her glam approach. The opening night of Evita followed two weeks of preview shows, in which the production is tweaked nightly before it officially opens. 'That is both exhilarating and exhausting for an ensemble group of people, so it was such a wonderful experience to lock it and get the response we've had so far,' Zegler reflects. Still, one thing has remained consistent – the unprecedented reaction to the electric moment she leaves the stage and heads to the the theatre's balcony for the musical's most beloved number. 'It's brilliant,' Zegler says of the scene. 'The second Jamie said that's what he was trying to get permission from Westminster Council to do, I said "We need to do anything to make that possibility real." But, as simple as it may seem, it's a huge production as there are a lot of technology and hard work involved to show the theatre inside the Palladium.' Zegler shares that audiences inside applaud nightly when they see the amount of people waiting outside as it's 'such a ridiculously impressive thing to pull off.' 'When we first performed it, it was just me in a robe and my wig to figure out the lighting and sound for the show. The odd person would stop and take a picture, but the next day, it was 100 people, then 20o and it would double in size. It's overwhelming but really moving.' As for the critics, Zegler states there's deeper meaning behind the spectacle. 'It's a testament to the fact that this show is based on history,' Zegler continues. 'Eva was a real person and there is no world in which she would want to impress people who could afford to see a show at a theatre. She wanted to bring her message to the streets and to the people. Jamie integrates the modern ingenuity of theatre by respecting the source material in such a way that serves such a beautiful purpose.' It's clear playing this role means a lot to Zegler. 'It's a dream come true. I haven't been on stage in a musical since high school [for Shrek The Musical, famously] and I missed it so much... When you get to live your dream, you don't take any second for granted and I'm not, I'm soaking in every second." Since arriving in London, she's been spending her days off resting and dog-walking through London parks. As for her perfect day out in the Big Smoke? 'I'd probably start my day with a scone from Gail's, with some clotted cream and strawberry jam. Then, walking around Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, I used to live nearby when I was shooting Snow White. I would honestly just be such a foodie – sitting somewhere with small plates, snacks or even a Sunday roast.' Evita is playing at The London Palladium until 6th September. ELLE Collective is a new community of fashion, beauty and culture lovers. For access to exclusive content, events, inspiring advice from our Editors and industry experts, as well the opportunity to meet designers, thought-leaders and stylists, become a member today HERE. Furvah Shah is Acting Entertainment Booker for ELLE, Harper's Bazaar, Esquire, Cosmopolitan, Red and Prima. She secures interviews with your favourite celebrities and covers everything from TV and films to music and books. Furvah has previously written for The Independent, BBC, Refinery29 and Amaliah and she is super passionate about highlighting diverse talent and projects, having interviewed the likes of Jenna Ortega, Charithra Chandran, Ambika Mod and more. She graduated with a First in BA Media and Communications from Goldsmiths University and is an NCTJ-qualified journalist. In her free time, you can find her at an arts or culture event, eating Middle Eastern or Asian food, searching for modest fashion inspiration on Pinterest or cuddling with her cat. You can follow Furvah on X, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn.
Time Out
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Review: ‘Evita' starring Rachel Zegler at the London Palladium
In terms of pure column inches, the balcony scene from Jamie Lloyd's Evita is surely the biggest news to come out of the theatre world in years. Hacks the planet over have been entranced by the potent cocktail of star Rachel Zegler's fame and the sheer ballsiness of Lloyd having her sing 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina' for free to the good people of Argyll Street at 9pm each night from the London Palladium balcony. There has also been a fantastic amount of bollocks written about the sequence, both by journalists and on social media. First, a tranche of articles suggesting ticket holders were furious that Zegler wasn't singing the song to them in the theatre. Second, well-meaning social media types decreeing Lloyd had intended it as some sort of earnest way to big up Argentine First Lady Eva Perón's woman-of-the-people status. The second party was not entirely wrong, but the scene – which is, to be clear, astonishingly good – can only really be contextually appreciated if you've seen the one before it, which very much takes place in the theatre. The first half of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's classic musical ends to the disorientating, super-amplified strains of 'A New Argentina'. In it, Ziegler's Eva – a malevolent brunette hood rat in skimpy black leather with a howling, heavy metal delivery – eggs on her fascist beefcake husband Juan Perón (James Olivas) to take the Argentine presidency by any means necessary. It feels remarkable that the fast-rising Hollywood star has deigned to spend four months doing an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical for a crowd of Brits Opening the second half, the balcony sequence is a study in pure artifice. Clad in flowing white dress and an elegant blonde wig, Evita – now the First Lady – faces the Argyll Street public with a beatific expression on her face, singing her great song of love and yearning for the country she's cynically worked her way to the summit of. The crowd are both Zegler's adoring public and in a brilliantly cynical stroke, they're also Evita's: the chance to see a star sing her song has essentially led to the public volunteering to serve as extras in the propaganda broadcast that we in the theatre are shown on a big screen. But the Eva the outside audience sees is a lie: wig, dress and her sense of empathy are torn off before she returns to the stage. It's a pitch-perfect mix of theatrical audacity, political satire and deft cinematography. It strikes me as remarkable that anyone watching inside could possibly feel short changed, especially as the song is reprised several times – I suspect the negative headlines were based on troll posts or people so incurious about theatre that maybe they shouldn't have bothered. There are a lot of things to be excited about. The balcony stream stuns. Fabian Aloise's choreography is phenomenal: playful, jerky and contorted, like sexy demonic possession. And my god, Zegler: even in an expensive production in a huge famous theatre, it feels remarkable that the fast-rising 24-year-old Hollywood star has deigned to spend four months doing an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical for a crowd of whey-faced Brits. Strikingly angular – her face shapeshifts under Jon Clark's lights – Zegler's performance is brilliant and unsentimental. Rice's lyrics always acknowledged the fact that Eva's rise was shady, but most productions – including Lloyd's 2019 Open Air Theatre version, which this is adapted from – tend to take a relatively indulgent, 'yes she did these things but wow she pulled herself up from nothing' view. Zegler's Evita is simply not a nice person: a ruthless climber who leaves a string of ruined lives in her path and who serves as something of a Lady Macbeth figure to her authoritarian husband. The populist Peróns were on the softer end of actual fascism, but it's to the credit of Lloyd and Zegler how unsparing this production is with them. Her range is also genuinely jaw-dropping: she's a showtunes gal and you expect the mannered beauty of 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina', but it's the leather-lunged rock stuff that's the real revelation. Okay then! Wham, bam, show of the year, right? Well, not quite. Evita began life in 1976 as an album, and was only staged as a musical two years later. It is therefore sung through with no linking dialogue and a somewhat vibes-based approach to narrative that can often leap about confusingly. Most productions go out of their way to contextualise the songs via period sets and costumes. But Lloyd has no truck with that: with the cast dressed like they're off to some intimidatingly modern afterparty, each song is treated like a mini music video, staged on Soutra Gilmour's sleekly abstract black steps set. There are some wonderful ideas within this - and some heart-stoppingly brilliant bits where the colour blue suddenly explodes into the typical monochrome Lloyd/Gilmore palette - but none of it really helps you understand what's going on exactly, and you're pretty much entirely at the mercy of Rice's lyrics for context… which can be tough. They're good song lyrics, but a bit hazy as a guide to the ins and outs of mid-twentieth century Argentinian politics. In Lloyd's 2019 version the character of Che – a sort of avatar of the 'true' working classes – felt well integrated into the show, a knowing conspirator to a less serious Evita. Here, Diego Andres Rodriguez's rugged Che assumes more of a Jiminy Cricket role, the conscience to Zegler's heartless and unappreciative Eva. But their distant and uneasy relationship makes Che's part more confusing than usual, although the dark final twist to their relationship still pays off. Coherence isn't this Evita 's strong suit. But there is so much that is good about it – from Zegler, to the choreography, to the timely antifascist sentiment, to That Scene – that I can look past a few negatives. It's not just the London theatre event of the summer, but the London event of the summer full stop.
