Why I changed my 2 star review of Evita to 5 stars

So, I went in apprehensively to the star-studded opening night of this controversial Andrew LLoyd-Webber musical reboot already annoyed that I knew I wasn’t going to see the iconic balcony scene live but rather through a video relay while Rachel Zegler sang it outside the theatre to West End passers-by. And, frankly, it has been impossible to forget my horror at the 2016 production.

You can read my raging rant about why I absolutely hated the original staging of Jamie Lloyd’s Evita here, and it is fascinating to see what crucial things have been changed. It fundamentally remains the same in the look and approach to the material, but suddenly so many things that just didn’t work have gripped audiences inside the theatre and, famously, on the streets outside.

We critics can be curmudgeons, but genuinely always want things to work, to be great. We love theatre and we want it to shine and continue, but sometimes we can overthink things. So I will point out that some of my main issues with the themes of Evita remain, but I have to review this new production on how I and the screaming audience inside, including the very famous tearful Oscar-nominated actor sat beside me, felt.

Back in 2019 I wrote “Do cry for me, Argentina,” in despair. The first big game changer, of course, is the cast. Zegler was savaged by fans and press during the build-up to the release of the live action Snow White, much of it centred around her outspoken comments about updating the story and gender roles.

She is, of course, very young at 24 (and looks even younger) to play the Argentine icon who died at 33. Traditionally, you need to go on a journey from backwater teenage opportunist to global icon and then a woman drained by her drive, her work and then cancer.

Jamie Lloyd’s production opens with her in satin bra and shorts, presented almost as a megawatt ingénue pop star. The tiered steps set and swooping stadium lighting, combined with a thunderous sound system (more on that later) and orchestrations make almost every single musical number electrifying with choreography and superb muscular dancing often calling to mind Janet Jackson’s militarist Rhythm Nation. And with Zegler absolutely radiant at its heart.

“I need to be dazzling” she sings in Rainbow High and is that and more. With smirks, twirks, struts and knowing looks, and an absolutely show-stopping voice, she radiates a woman who knows the effect she has on people, her power to thrill them and to sell her story and that of her husband, Juan Peron, as they plot their way to the presidency.

She’s matched vocally by James Olivas, far more youthfully hunky than usual as her husband. Her main counterpart is the revolutionary Che, played by Diego Andres Rodrigues with intense glowers and a voice of supple beauty. He is absolutely vital as the commentator and conscience of the show to help audiences see and understand the hypocrisy and self-interest of the Perons and the system they try to bring down but, crucially, I got very little of that from him.

Tim Rice’s incisive, sometimes savage lyrics, are packed with layered meanings which this show rather steamrollers over. Similarly, Lloyd-Webber’s melodies have plenty of glorious anthemic rock opera moments but also numerous exquisite quieter interludes that are mainly bludgeoned by a tsunamic soundscape.

Normally, all of this would frustrate me. I’m not sure how much of a sense of an imploding Argentina as the nation that almost became a First World superpower we really get. Nor a sense of Eva’s extraordinary journey, since she starts immediately as a megastar. But, but, but… I just couldn’t resist the exhilarating, spine-tingling power of the staging, vocals and orchestrations. There were numerous mid-show ovations and not just my neighbour was in overwhelmed tears.

As for that balcony scene, Eva’s pivotal address to her devoted public, we watched it on a huge screen and the entire theatre gasped and then applauded as the camera panned across the thronged street outside. Here’s my top tips for how to watch Rachel Zegler sing Evita from the street.

I found a similar gimmick in Sunset Boulevard tiresome but here it is a coup de théâtre, capturing the essence of who Evita was. And when she returns to the stage, the audience went nuts.

This is an extraordinary thing to be part of, a phenomenal night out. Its relentless bombast absolutely conveys the staggering impact and charisma of grifter, enraged by society’s inequalities, who climbed the very highest peaks and was worshipped by millions. She was flawed, in a system even more flawed. We will never know if she could have restored her reputation or would have been consumed by the beasts she fought and created, since cancer struck her down so young.

At Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, the sound system and setting meant the orchestrations and staging evaporated into thin air. Lloyd has thankfully reworked Eva singing Don’t Cry For Me Argentina heinously in her knickers and replaced the purposefully gloomy, depressing overall designs with a dynamic, thrilling spectacle. Inside the cavernous Palladium, it all becomes an immersive, pulse-pounding sensation.

It is the event of the year so far. Do not miss it.

EVITA PLAYS AT THE LONDON PALLADIUM TO SEPTEMBER 6