Charlie WindleAudiences of the West End revival of Evita have plenty to cheer about. Though one suspects that for many, listening wasn’t high on the agenda.
The show is a revelation – director Jamie Lloyd’s signature style strips Evita down to its raw, throbbing core. It is minimalist, hyper-sexualised and ingenious. Lloyd unfurls the knotty complexities of Peronist politics with the audacity of a man blessedly unconcerned by convention.
Its drive is relentless. Each music-video-style number arrives with the same chaotic energy and overwhelming volume as the last.
Rachel Zegler blazes through her West End debut, encapsulating the relentless ambition and private vulnerability of Eva Perón.
If the show does transfer to Broadway, it’s hard to imagine Lloyd leaving his luminous star behind.
Diego Andres Rodriguez is every bit her match, having swapped his Broadway chorus role in Sunset Blvd. for an incessantly conscious, viscerally honest Che. Together, the charge of their chemistry matches the voltage which pulses through the whole show.
And yet, faced with this spectacle night on night, a vocal subsection of the audience remains bent on taking umbrage about Lloyd’s decision to stage “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” on the Palladium’s famous balcony – how ungrateful we have become.
People once came to the theatre to be surprised, but it seems now they come to be soothed, preferably by the predictable and familiar.
For those unaware, Zegler performs the musical’s most iconic number to passersby on Argyll Street – a staging that brilliantly mimics a Peronist address to the adoring Argentinian masses.
Cue online outrage. One viewer on X calls the staging a “rip off”, and another writes “if I wanted to see it on a screen id watch the film”. It seems that directorial aspirations to challenge, engage and even innovate are outside of the modern audience’s interests.
“The staging is a masterstroke, brilliantly mirroring Evita’s populist spectacle by turning the onlooking crowds of London into the adoring Argentine public”
Heaven knows how these poor souls would have reacted to Lloyd ditching the famous balcony entirely in his production of Romeo and Juliet – they must have not been there, thankfully, since the internet did not light up with a barrage of complaints then.
The decision has split the internet, with videos of the nightly performance from the balcony being met with a tirade of hateful comments.
Rumour even has it, with the usual reliability one attaches to social media, that Ariana DeBose turned down the role of Evita over this very touch of radicalism, never mind her stated “scheduling” problems.
One is tempted to remind the all-to-vocal critics: they are entitled to nothing. The theatre industry is not, and never has been, one of service, of guaranteed satisfaction, or of the “customer is always right” attitude.
Investment in a ticket, however much one pays, is a gamble on directorial interpretation; whether you agree with the choices of the director, or do not, is in the lap of the thespian gods. That has always been the deal.
Lloyd offers staging-as provocation, a performative gesture rooted in history and expressed through his own style of theatrical flair.
This online fiasco, as irrelevant as it may seem to the naked eye, betrays a far wider sense of entitlement amongst the modern theatre-going class, who seem to think that their outlay for a ticket grants them creative control.
Here’s the truth: the staging is a masterstroke, brilliantly mirroring Evita’s populist spectacle by turning the onlooking crowds of London into the adoring Argentine public. It’s bold, fitting, and (I must whisper) utterly in tune with the musical’s heart.
Asked about it, Zegler dryly remarked “it made sense”, a succinct rebuke to those whose imaginations remain resolutely off-duty.
But there are few directors who would have the guts to make such radical decisions concerning the production’s biggest hit.
She’s right, of course: “she wouldn’t be singing to ticket-buyers”. This is the point, and it is exquisite. Seeing the world made the crowd, not the stalls, demonstrates Lloyd’s mastery of the material.
Those on Argyll St. become extras in Evita’s world, and the crowd who film Zegler’s incredible vocals are as adoring as the Argentine people were towards Eva Perón.
As Zegler waves her arms, conducting the onlookers’ rapturous applause, those watching from the inside have an exclusively revealing perspective of their own, a simple illumination of the mechanics of populist politics.
One TikTok user even pointed out how the ‘P’ for Palladium on the front of the balcony could very easily be a ‘P’ for Perón – some things are just meant to be.
Not only has the move attracted thousands to the theatre nightly, no doubt increasing appetite to purchase tickets amongst those who have witnessed Zegler, but the overall spectacle of the nightly occasion adds to the aura of the performance as a whole.
From the inside, it feels as though the viewer is part of something far bigger than a performance: a movement.
The famous number is streamed live into the theatre on a high-definition screen, following Zegler from balcony to changing room, laying bare her Eva’s private vulnerability.
It is here, as she strips away Perón’s literal and psychic costume, that Zegler is at her best. As she strips back to Lloyd’s preferred costuming, undergarments at most, the strain of a life in the public eye is laid plain.
The care and precision of her acting cannot be overstated, and they are heightened, not reduced, by the incredible off-stage scenes, Lloyd’s ingenious brainchildren.
Zegler’s journey here has been anything but a straight line, but this Evita proves her guts and gifts beyond question, despite the last year’s storms and internet barrages.
Since her breakout break playing Maria in Steven Spielberg’s magnificent West Side Story (2021) and a turn in The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023), it has been a rocky ride for Lloyd’s gem.
She made her Broadway debut playing Juliet in Sam Gold’s Romeo and Juliet, before taking on the titular role in a remake of Snow White.
The remake of the 1937 original was unpopular from the get-go, with controversy stemming from its colour-blind casting and significant changes to the plot.
Zegler made online headlines through her public criticism of Donald Trump as a threat to democracy, and her calls to ‘Free Palestine’, which led to death threats and a need for heightened security for her co-star Gal Gadot, a former IDF soldier.
It is tempting to call this a new beginning for Zegler, a production that finally lets her talent, not outrage, do the talking.
Singing from the Palladium’s balcony has brought her some much needed and deserved good publicity, with critics hailing her vocals and powerful stage presence throughout this production.
So yes, the stars aligned perfectly, and the director found the perfect actor; but it is also a testament to Zegler’s unwavering bravery and bold decision-making that this role has given her a chance at a fresh start.
As for Lloyd: he stands, as ever, as a director who refuses to spoon-feed his audience what would satisfy their needs. It is my opinion that Lloyd ought to be thanked for this stark reminder that theatre is not, and will never be, a democracy.
A great show should challenge the viewers’ expectations, not idly meet them with repetitive staging choices and predictable adherence to tradition.
These customers, who complain about artistic independence and ingenious flair, perhaps betray a deeper bitterness about the rising ticket prices they are subjected to.
Tickets start at around £150, but can cost an eager punter upwards of £400, an excessive price for one night’s entertainment.
To those wanting to make their grievances about these prices known, I have a simple message: save your bile for the merchants and box office managers.
To attack the creatives behind our shows is to attack the theatre industry directly.
Don’t like the risk? Don’t buy a ticket. The director calls the shots, and the audience is along for the ride. Unfortunately, necessarily, that makes some viewers unhappy. There is nothing wrong with that.
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