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Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Breaking Baz: Red-Hot Rachel Zegler Soars In ‘Evita' London Palladium Previews, Heating Up The Box Office As Chatter Turns To 2027 Broadway Transfer
EXCLUSIVE: Rachel Zegler (West Side Story) is a sensation as her voice soars through the London Palladium's auditorium — and beyond — portraying Eva Perón in Evita, the classic Tim Rice/Andrew Lloyd-Webber show directed by Jamie Lloyd. Also, Zegler, all 5-foot-2 of her, is the biggest star in town, with punters adding $200,000 and more to the box office daily since previews began a week ago, bringing the total advance, as of late Friday afternoon UK time, to in excess of $9 million for a 12-week summer run. Broadway might get a taste of Zegler's 'highflying, adored' Evita, as one of the show's songs puts it, in 2027, but more on that farther down the column. More from Deadline Breaking Baz: 'Snow White' Star Rachel Zegler Signs To Play Eva Perón In 'Evita' At London Palladium Breaking Baz: Rapper Stormzy Launches #Merky Films With Role In 'Big Man' & Inks Netflix Deal: "I Want To Do My 10,000 Hours" And Study Acting & Movies, He Says Director Jamie Lloyd On How 'Sunset Blvd.' Goes For The Jugular, 'Evita' Rocks And 'Godot' Was Keanu Reeves' Midnight Dream - The Deadline Q&A Michael Harrison, who produces Evita for the Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals partnership along with the director's Jamie Lloyd Company, declines to discuss the production's box office figures, though he agrees that they're 'healthy.' He asserts that the show's 'gone through the roof with the public,' driven by 'pure word-of-mouth that's nothing to do with normal advertising.' Beaming, he amplifies: 'It's her! It's Rachel. People are talking about her. They're saying her singing is phenomenal. They're loving what Jamie's done with the show.' To be fair, it's also down to Diego Andres Rodriguez's breathtaking Che, James Olivas' energetic portrait of Juan Perón and the super cast and creative team. But yeah, audiences are going wild for Zegler. It's quite something to fully command, as she does, the stage of the historic London Palladium. Harrison notes that audiences at previews, which began June 14, combine those who'd seen Evita before and newcomers. Undoubtedly, the word-of-mouth Harrison refers to has been driven by how Lloyd has chosen to stage the Act 2 opener 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina,' with Zegler performing the popular number live from the Palladium's balcony, free to lucky passersby down below in Argyll Street, which then is broadcast live to the paying audience seated inside. The 9 o'clock moment has, since news spread, become a destination point. Zegler now sings to 800, sometimes up to a thousand, members of the public who roar with approval. Security has been increased to keep the throng attuned to the performance. 'At the first preview, the video shown inside the Palladium didn't show the faces of all the people on the street listening. It does now, and it conveys how Eva's addressing her people from the balcony of the Casa Rosada,' Harrison explains. Now, apparently, there are gasps when the 2,280 seated in the Palladium catch sight of the masses gathered outside. Harrison disagrees with those who say it's unfair to those who have paid good money for tickets while scores get to witness the brilliant coup de théâtre in the public square for naught. The loudest complainers, Harrison suggests, have yet to see the show. 'Audiences inside are elated when they watch Rachel on the big screen,' he says. To a degree, yes. Those experiencing Evita for the first time will know no different. Some of us boomers saw Elaine Paige (recently anointed Dame Elaine), who originated the role in 1978, from the upper, upper circle known as the 'cheap seats' at the Prince Edward Theatre and marveled at her interpretation of the sung address from the Casa Rosada balcony. It was staged by legendary director Hal Prince to be performed inside an auditorium. The effect was electrifying, with sparks embedded into to each and every one of us — sealed in memory forever. Live theatre is about connection between artist and audience. A thespian will utter a phrase or perform a song or a chorus line will dazzle. Or a piece of music, in this case by Lloyd Webber. Once in a while a strange alchemy occurs when words spoken or sung, or actions taken, music played, reaches across the footlights and zaps and zings those who watch in awe. I felt robbed of that emotion when Zegler appeared on the screen. I felt a zap, but I missed the emotional zing of her 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina' while also noting and understanding Lloyd's intentions as a radical interpreter of the art of the musical. Listen, Zegler gives plenty more zing with a Z elsewhere in Evita, and as Jamie Lloyd, who was seated in front of me, exclaimed, 'Rachel sings like an angel, doesn't she?' It's true, she does. And I look forward to hearing her again at official opening night on July 1. The show that I'll see in a few days will be different from the first preview I caught. Every night since, Lloyd and choreographer Fabian Aloise have introduced new changes and will continue to do so up until next weekend. 'That's what previews are for,' as Trevor Nunn (Cats, Les Misérables, Sunset Blvd.) always chimes when he's putting on a show. There's a lot riding on this Evita that's costing north of $6 million for a 12-week limited run. Can Jamie Lloyd pull off another reexamination of an Andrew Lloyd Webber show with the same Olivier- and Tony Award-winning pizazz he did with Sunset Blvd.? Opening night will reveal whether the fixes and tightening will elevate this Evita, a version of which was first directed by Lloyd and the same creative team in 2019 at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. Aside from a central piece of Soutra Gilmour's set, this latest iteration is different in a 1,001 ways. And if Zegler manages to excel beyond her fab first preview performance, then, well, let the superlatives fly. They already are from producer Harrison, as you would expect. He hails Zegler as a 'proper leading lady' who is 'brilliant on stage, and off.' What Harrison meant by 'and off' is that apparently Zegler's been 'delightful' with cast, crew, backstage and front-of-house staff. I often scoff when I hear that kinda guff, except that I saw it for myself at a relaxed, low-key, post-first-preview drinks party. Zegler entered the room and immediately headed over to castmates, hugging them with such an infectious burst of warmth that even a far-removed onlooker was moved. What's next? Evita can't extend at the Palladium because the venue's booked solid. People on the show bitch-slapped me with their eyes when I asked about a transfer to Broadway. It's way too early, they wail. Next year's out, they cry, because Rice wants to concentrate on the forthcoming Broadway run of Chess, his musical with ABBA's Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, starring Aaron Tveit, Lea Michele and Nicholas Christopher. And Lloyd Webber will be busy helping to usher The Jellicle Ball, the Perelman Performing Arts Center's radical adaptation of Cats, to bigger audiences in New York. Then Jamie Lloyd has other productions both here in London and in NYC to direct. There's intense talk of Zegler playing the Julie Andrews part in The Sound of Music at Lincoln Center. But, hold on to the 'Do-re-mi' of it all, that's not in any shape or form confirmed. So don't cry for Evita coming to Broadway in 2026. However, prospects are brighter, positively glowing in fact, for 2027. Harrison, when I saw him today, reluctantly hints that there's merit in my Broadway theory. 'But let's get to opening night,' he sighs. 'We're still in previews working on the show day and night and yesterday we had a matinee, so let us get on with it. Then we'll consider the possibilities of Broadway. And you've got to consider aligning the availabilities,' he remarks reasonably. Just realized that there's been no mention — until now! — of Disney's Snow White movie, the experience of which shook Zegler and the studio. More so those who paid to see it in theaters. Who cares about that film, anyway? It should never, ever have been greenlighted in the first place. Only Zegler with that voice of hers rises above la merde. Only to then endure opprobrium being unfairly dumped on her from wimps who should've known — and who should've behaved — better toward her when the Disney dud was released. What Zegler went through on Snow White has only served to embolden her. She's the real deal in this astute study of objectification at the Palladium. Somehow it's quite right and proper that she should triumph in Evita because what she actually suffered during the Snow White saga was a case of rampant misogyny and hypocrisy. Now she rules. Best of Deadline Sean 'Diddy' Combs Sex-Trafficking Trial Updates: Cassie Ventura's Testimony, $10M Hotel Settlement, Drugs, Violence, & The Feds A Full Timeline Of Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni's 'It Ends With Us' Feud In Court, Online & In The Media 'Poker Face' Season 2 Guest Stars: From Katie Holmes To Simon Hellberg
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Evita, Palladium review: Rachel Zegler isn't the problem
Evita, Palladium review and star rating: ★★★ Whole PHDs could be written about the publicity campaign for Jamie Lloyd's Evita. Hundreds of people are gathering outside the Palladium every night to watch Rachel Zegler belt 'Don't Cry for me Argentina' from the theatre balcony for free, a fun PR stunt that is getting so popular it risks being shut down by the police, while the ticketholders, some paying upwards of £245 per seat, have to settle for watching the performance via video link. And on opening night, Keanu Reeves, Jessica Alba and Pedro Pascal were some of the A-Listers sat metres from me who gave multiple standing ovations in the first act – not at the end, but half an hour into the show. It's common to see British acting titans at West End opening nights, but this random collection of A-Listers who aren't particularly known for theatre showed how far beyond the West End landscape this production has travelled. How come? It's from Jamie Lloyd, the zeitgeisty producer behind 2023's Sunset Boulevard, the man who is basically reinventing what West End shows can look like, so anything he does generates buzz. It also stars Rachel Zegler, who was most famously racially abused for playing Snow White. Lloyd uses live video effects and radical aesthetics (think the lighting and set design from a Wembley Arena pop show) to make the point that theatre can be bigger, louder and more ambitious. But where Sunset Boulevard was more of a gentle character study, Evita is primarily a series of phenomenal ensemble numbers. Ultimately it feels more like a music concert than conventional piece of theatrical storytelling. As for Zegler, with the straying of an eye or the tilt of her head, she finds depth in the Argentinian leader's story, finding warmth, confidence and vulnerability in the tragic figure. Evita is inspired by the real-life story of Eva Peron, a working class Argentinian who married leader Juan Peron and died of cervical cancer aged 33. She is viewed as a contradictory figure because she helped establish workers' rights and paid leave, and got women the vote, but also became an early Champagne socialist; for some, her love for Christian Dior dresses and the finer things in life felt at odds with her stance about equality. The show runs at three hours but feels half that because it is stuffed with utterly incredible choreography and the litany of musical numbers, composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. It's difficult to imagine that anything this stimulating has ever played in the West End before. And yet, I wasn't alone in finding Evita hard work. The outdated script introduces a range of historical characters without really putting them into context, or explaining their roles properly. The cast needs more space to tell the story with visual cues, but with barely any spoken lines – everything is delivered in verse as a rock opera – and a breakneck pace, the show is hard to follow for people who don't know the story well. I was relieved when, by the interval, multiple other journalists admitted to me they were finding the show hard to follow. It doesn't help that the production is also too loud, and when she sings Rachel Zegler's diction means she becomes difficult to understand. It's the same for the ensemble numbers: too often it's really difficult to catch what they're saying. It raises whole questions about accessibility, and the amount of knowledge audiences should come into shows with. Some critics will say cult musicals are designed for die-hard fans, but I tend to veer towards thinking shows should be able to be understood by newcomers. While this new production of Evita offers plenty of fresh thinking on the scope of the type of production values that are possible in these cranky, hundred-year-old theatres, I can't help but feel disappointed that so much of it went over my head. Evita plays at the London Palladium until September
The Guardian
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Evita review – Rachel Zegler is phenomenal but Jamie Lloyd's rock show drowns out the story
Director Jamie Lloyd has outraged some theatregoers, who evidently feel short-changed after paying good money to see Rachel Zegler as Eva Perón. In one scene, she wanders off stage and on to an outward-facing balcony to sing a magnetic reprise of Don't Cry for Me Argentina to the gathered crowd outside the theatre. What are these grumps complaining about? Not long ago, Lloyd staged Romeo and Juliet in the West End, but here is a balcony scene like no other. It makes for a sensational moment, when Perón triumphantly addresses the crowd on her husband Juan's election victory. It is 360-degree theatre, for the rich inside (who see it on a video feed) and for the 'hoi polloi' outside – very fitting for Perón given her disdain for the wealthy. It is no less than the director's biggest coup de theatre: the public itself is enlisted for his mise en scene of populist rallies, crowd hypnotism and authoritarian charm. The crowd might represent late 1940s Buenos Aires – or mid 2020s America under the spell of becoming 'great again'. Never mind complaints of a free show – maybe Lloyd should be paying them. Lloyd previously staged this Andrew Lloyd Webber musical (with lyrics by Tim Rice) at Regent's Park Open Air theatre in 2019. Then, it seemed like a dark high school musical, with stairs like bleachers and actors resembling flinty-eyed teens. This iteration has a streak of that but is bolder, more polished and pumped up. Zegler, in her West End debut, is phenomenal. Stripped to undergarments, she is an indifferently exposed Perón, conniving, deliciously villainous, pocket-sized yet steely in the extreme: a consummate ice queen. She strides with hands on hips, louche in her unstoppable ambition. There is comedy in her relationship with singer Agustín Magaldi (Aaron Lee Lambert, who sings On This Night of a Thousand Stars in a brilliant, barrel-like baritone), whom she swiftly, slickly disposes of once she has met Juan Perón (James Olivas). The new couple are well suited, their chemistry apparent in the duet I'd Be Surprisingly Good for You. If a successful musical is simply about the singing, dancing and spectacle, this one soars. The choreography by Fabian Aloise, who has previously worked on three other Lloyd shows, is out-of-this-world imaginative. The ensemble mesmerise with their sexual energy and charismatic aggression. A sinister military figure body-pops and balloons burst every time a gun is fired and detractors are popped off, one by one. These moves, this mood and this conspicuous melodrama would not look out of place in a Lady Gaga or Beyoncé stadium show. Nor would Jon Clark's lighting design and Adam Fisher's sound design: they are thunderous and pulsating. It's hypnotic but the narrative takes a backseat for this rock musical, which is almost entirely sung through, with what feels like thin connective tissue in its story. You see Perónism slipping into authoritarianism but don't quite understand how. In Lloyd's previous staging, the character of Che (Diego Andres Rodriguez, also the singing narrator) wore a Che Guevara T-shirt to let the audience know who he was. Now he is in black, and for those who are new to this story he might remain anonymous. There is an approximation to the characters as a whole, with very little focus on Perón's interiority. Maybe that is not the point, but how then can the audience feel the tragedy of her untimely death – which takes up so much time in the second half of the musical – if they cannot connect with it emotionally? The tone changes after the balcony scene, moving from blingy and bombastic to a quieter, more mournful register. For the first time you glimpse Perón's private emotion, after her great public display, as she sits in her dressing room in tears. It is an illuminating moment but this glimmer is not carried through into something more affecting. So the end bears a vacancy once the spectacle has abated – as if the real show finished some time ago. Don't Cry for Me Argentina, she sings, and you find yourself dry-eyed, although Zegler is a vocal powerhouse, as are the other performers. If you feel denied of the subtleties of story, character and commentary on populist power, you will still have an eye-popping night out. And the balcony scene is a stroke of genius. At London Palladium until 6 September
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
PATRICK MARMION reviews Evita: So sassy and cool, Rachel Zegler is a knockout as Evita
Prepare to be blown away by Rachel Zegler. She is simply sensational in a stunning new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber 's 1978 musical about Argentina's legendary former first lady, Eva 'Evita' Peron, which opened officially in the West End last night. The 5ft 2in, 24-year-old Zegler may be a diminutive diva, but with a delicate yet rich voice, she takes to the role of the Latin American political idol like a pair of Ferragamo shoes. And thanks to her Disney princess peepers and luminous features, she adds wide-eyed innocence too. However, there's nothing innocent about Jamie Lloyd's raunchy production. He gleefully embraces the neo-fascist pageantry of Peronism, fleshing it out with vividly athletic choreography by Fabian Aloise. The result is a carnival of body-popping physical fireworks, putting the Zumba into Rumba and making the stage sizzle with tango, Mexican waves and drop-down twerking. Zegler is a cool, sassy centre in the midst of the whirling vortex. Dressed almost throughout in dominatrix knee-boots, silk hot pants and a matching bra, she teases and excites her adoring fans with challenging, provocative stares. And she gives us a honeyed Julie Andrews warble in her show-stopper Don't Cry For Me ArHentina (pointedly using the correct aspirated 'g' of the Spanish pronunciation). She gives us a honeyed Julie Andrews warble in her show-stopper Don't Cry For Me ArHentina (pointedly using the correct aspirated 'g' of the Spanish pronunciation). Pictured: At the press night after party Eyebrows have been raised that this big number is delivered from the balcony outside the theatre in Oxford Circus, to what has become a huge fevered crowd on Argyll Street every night at around 9pm. Have theatregoers been swindled? Not exactly. Inside, we get air-con and an enormous live projection of her turn on the balcony – complete with what could be real, stick-on, or perhaps onion-induced tears. Who can tell? And while the masses sweat outside in the central London heat for a barely audible five-minute performance, amidst a sea of phones, inside we get all the trimmings – including a deluge of blue and white ticker tape marking the election of Eva's husband, Juan, as president in 1946. Barely costumed bodies provide the scenery: rippling vistas of gyrating flesh. Even President Peron himself (James Olivas) is presented as a hunky sexbomb porn star towering over tiny Zegler, with watermelon biceps bulging out of his sleeveless shirt. And if the male dancers' toplessness is meant to reference Eva's 'descamisados' or 'shirtless' followers, that must be a joke. The term was meant to designate them as poor and wretched, not horny and buff. As one routine after another crashes over the audience from the monumental bank of steps spanning the stage – below huge illuminated letters spelling out 'EVITA' – it's an audio-visual tsunami, more Olympic ceremony than stage show. Details of Eva's tragic life story and early death are washed away in the tidal wave. Will anyone care? Probably not. Go to be knocked out by Zegler alone. The live action Snow White debacle is all but forgotten. She's back to her West Side Story – or Hunger Games – best.
Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Times
Evita review — Rachel Zegler is a blank-eyed heroine in a leather bra
How ironic that the one moment when Rachel Zegler's doomed heroine seemed close to being a three-dimensional figure was during the song that didn't actually happen in front of us. As you've surely already heard by now, Jamie Lloyd has set Don't Cry for Me Argentina on the balcony above the entrance to the London Palladium in front of people in the street below. Those of us inside watch on a video screen. All credit to the hip young director for having the audacity to smack down the fourth wall. Thanks to Lloyd's ploy, nearly 50 years after the premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's musical about the woman who became the kinder, gentler face of Peronism, the show is reaching out to a social media-savvy audience. That comes at a cost, though. Zegler, who otherwise spends a lot of the evening in little more than a leather bra and shorts, is reduced to a blank-eyed marionette for virtually the whole show. Her voice is fine but it has to compete with the musical director Alan Williams's wildly amplified orchestra. Too many songs whirl past in a semi-audible maelstrom. • Evita on the Palladium balcony — and theatre's eight greatest wow moments I'd be genuinely surprised if newcomers to the show have a clue what is happening for much of the evening as this dressed-down, concert-style spectacle, enhanced by Fabian Aloise's streetwise choreography — with a smidgen of twerking too — rattled through Eva Peron's journey from aspiring performer to the centre of power in 1940s Buenos Aires. Call it TikTok musical theatre, if you like. Everything is radically compressed, and for all the verve of the ensemble dancing you've no time to tease out the meaning of a song before the next one crashes down upon you. When Lloyd brought the prototype of this show to Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in 2019, I thought that Soutra Gilmour's grungy design had a punk aura. Musically, the show now feels more redolent of high-octane stadium rock. This might be how the show would look and sound if you were repackaging it for a huge festival crowd. • Our weekly theatre newsletter is an award winner — read it here Bella Brown, playing the discarded mistress of James Olivas's youthful Peron (more gym rat than general), adds a rare moment of repose in that haunting farewell Another Suitcase in Another Hall. As the cynical Che who watches Evita's rise to power, Diego Andres Rodriguez provides vocal firepower before stripping off his shirt and being doused in paint. Zegler, who abandons her blonde wig long before the end, is a frail figure tossed from one adoring crowd to another. Given what miracles Lloyd achieved with James McAvoy in that unforgettable, rap-based version of Cyrano de Bergerac just before lockdown, he has earned the right to try just about anything. But this venture, for all its raw physicality, suggests he's beginning to slip into a formula. Those people waiting in the street to see Zegler on the balcony got the best bargain of all.★★★☆☆140minLondon Palladium, to Sep 6, Follow @timesculture to read the latest reviews
