Not even an apparent smear campaign could bury the irrepressible talent of Rachel Zegler. The young star transitioned gracefully from being “the best part of Snow White” to being “the best part of Jamie Lloyd’s Evita,” per the criticalconsensus of both projects. Evita, a production similar to Lloyd’s stripped-down staging of the award-winning Sunset Boulevard revival, is currently making waves in London’s West End. With Lloyd saying he’d like the show to transfer to Broadway ASAP, the production has released the first recording of Zegler’s rendition of “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina,” perhaps the most famous song from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.
Zegler plays the titular role of Eva Perón, the second wife of Argentinian president Juan Perón. The show chronicles how her pursuit of fame collides with politics, idolized by some and reviled by others. Director Jamie Lloyd’s version sees Zegler leave the theater to perform “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” on the balcony of The London Palladium. The bold choice has made such waves that crowds have begun to gather outside to see her live, as the folks in the theater watch the song projected onto a screen inside. “I don’t think any of us expected it to garner as much attention as it did,” Zegler recently told ELLE U.K. “People have been camping out for hours before I go on and it’s humbling, beautiful and fits in the story very well.”
A studio version of “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” has been released, but those of us unable to camp outside the Palladium can also enjoy a “(Live From The Balcony)” version (above). Zegler told ELLE she thought the balcony staging is “brilliant,” explaining, “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.” She called it “a ridiculously impressive thing to pull off” and recalled the “overwhelming but really moving” experience of watching the crowds beneath the balcony double in size every night she did the number.
The new balcony staging in Evita is “a testament to the fact that this show is based on history,” she said. “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.”
