When it emerged Eva Perón (Rachel Zegler) would be belting out “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” from the balcony of the London Palladium to passers-by each night for free in Jamie Lloyd’s new revival of “Evita”, some members of the paying audience were furious, said Arifa Akbar in The Guardian. “What are these grumps complaining about?”
It’s a “sensational moment” that’s “very fitting” given Perón’s “disdain for the wealthy”. Her “magnetic” reprise of the showstopping number is “triumphantly addressed” to the waiting crowd in the street, while theatregoers inside watch her performance projected onto a screen.
‘Hard work’
“All credit to the hip young director for having the audacity to smack down the fourth wall,” said Clive Davis in The Times. Thanks to Lloyd’s “ploy”, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s classic musical about the First Lady of Argentina is reaching a “social-savvy media audience”.
But his decision “comes at a cost”. Zegler’s balcony performance is the only time the “doomed heroine” comes close to being a “three-dimensional figure”; for much of the show, she is reduced to a “blank-eyed marionette” wearing a “leather bra and shorts” and struggling to be heard over the “wildly amplified orchestra”. It would be surprising if those new to the show have a clue what is going on for much of the performance.
The story, which charts Perón’s life from her impoverished beginnings to becoming one of the most powerful political figures in Latin America, is “radically compressed” and there’s little time to make sense of each song before the next one starts. “Call it TikTok musical theatre, if you like.”
Despite the “utterly incredible” choreography, I found Lloyd’s revival “hard work”, said Adam Bloodworth in City A.M. The “outdated” script is filled with historical characters who aren’t properly put into context and most of the dialogue is delivered in verse as rock opera, making it difficult to follow. I was left feeling “disappointed” that so much “went over my head”.
A ‘white-hot performance’
“Ignore the whingers and haters”, said Nick Curtis in London’s The Standard. I think Lloyd’s take on “Evita” is “thrilling”. Rachel Zegler is an “absolute smash” with superb stage presence and a “passionate, expressive vibrato”; the show is “supercharged” by her “white-hot performance”.
This “radically reconceived” revival is a “total triumph”, said Dominic Cavendish in The Telegraph. Zegler’s talent “demands our rapture” and the “wow-factor is knowingly pushed to the max” with her spellbinding balcony performance. “It’s Lloyd’s masterstroke.”
It strikes me as shocking that anyone watching could possibly have felt “short-changed” by the balcony sequence, said Andrzej Lukowski in Time Out, especially as the song is also sung on stage elsewhere in the show. “It’s a pitch-perfect mix of theatrical audacity, political satire and deft cinematography.”
And while it can be “tough” trying to keep up with exactly what’s going on (you’re “entirely at the mercy” of Rice’s lyrics for historical context), there is much to admire, from Zegler’s “brilliant and unsentimental” performance to the “phenomenal” choreography. “It’s not just the London theatre event of the summer, but the London event of the summer full stop.”
At London Palladium until 6 September
Rachel Zegler dazzles in Jamie Lloyd’s ‘radically reconceived’ revival – but the plot is difficult to follow
