★★★★★
Evita is anything but a traditional, old-fashioned musical. There are no high-kicking, tap-dancing group numbers. Most of the costumes more closely resemble athleisure than elaborate gowns. The stage is a drab flight of stairs rather than an intricate set. But it doesn’t need any of those extra frills to be what it is: stylish, sexy, and stunning.
Rachel Zegler—better known for film roles like West Side Story and Disney’s live-action Snow White—is the main attraction as Argentine First Lady Eva Perón. Opening with news of her premature death, sceptical rebel Che (Diego Andres Rodriguez) questions whether she really deserves the national outpouring of grief. He guides us through Eva’s backstory, from poverty to radio star to wife of President Juan Perón (James Olivas) and the power behind his throne. Was she really a compassionate politician of the people, or a corrupt, self-serving schemer?
Zegler is, unsurprisingly, phenomenal. She has a beautiful voice, and transitions seamlessly from the sassy, flirtatious energy needed for the first act’s ‘Goodnight and Thank You’ and ‘I’d Be Surprisingly Good for You’ to the brittle vulnerability of the second half’s ‘You Must Love Me’ and ‘Eva’s Final Broadcast’. We might not be in Buenos Aires, but she provides more than a touch of star quality.
That said, it almost feels unfair that all the headlines go to Zegler when Rodriguez’s Che is arguably just as crucial. He barely leaves the stage, providing a cynical running commentary on Eva’s rise and fall—through full-throttle rock songs—for almost the entire two–hour runtime. It looks physically and emotionally exhausting, yet he never flags. The rest of the large ensemble cast also deserve praise, with Aaron Lee Lambert providing an especially scene-stealing performance of ‘On This Night of a Thousand Stars’.
Director Jamie Lloyd might have made his name with minimalist productions, but that doesn’t mean Evita can’t put on a show. Act One ends with Juan Perón’s election, marked by an almost overwhelmingly powerful rendition of ‘A New Argentina’ complete with so much blue and white confetti that you can barely see the stage. Elsewhere, there are literally dazzling strobe effects, Eva’s name in huge neon white lights, and the volume constantly turned up to the max. You spend the interval with your ears ringing and your eyes watering.
Yet ‘loud’ ironically doesn’t always equal ‘easy to hear’, which proves occasionally problematic for a sung-through musical with almost no dialogue. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who barely understood any of ‘Perón’s Latest Flame’—chronicling the misogynistic backlash to Eva’s growing influence—beyond the word “bitch”. Luckily, here as elsewhere, only gleaming the occasional lyric usually gives you enough sense of the bigger picture.
Beyond this surely unplanned flaw, the production’s most controversial element is having Zegler perform ‘Don’t Cry for Me Argentina’ outside on a balcony rather than onstage. This is undoubtedly an excellent publicity stunt given the sizeable crowds it attracts, and makes sense in theory for capturing Eva’s mass public appeal. In practice, though, it can’t help being a little anti-climactic for the audience inside, who have to make do with live-streamed footage instead. Glimpses of Pret A Manger in the background don’t exactly add to the 1940s South American atmosphere either.
But in the end, none of that really matters. Staging choices like this which might seem pretentiously quirky or fall flat on their own marry together perfectly to create a masterfully well-crafted reinvention of a classic musical. It is fast, chaotic, gripping, and led by an amazingly talented cast. Oh, what a circus; oh, what a show!
Evita is playing at the London Palladium until 6 September.
Words by Eleanor Harvey
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