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Evita – The London Palladium

Saturday 14th June, 7:30pm

Please be forewarned that this review contains spoilers. Please also note that this review is of the first preview performance of this production. For more information about this, please refer to the Review Policy on the top of this page. Forgive me reader for going into quite a lot of detail on this one, as it is a show I love!

Indeed Evita has long been one of my favourite musicals. Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber’s varied score contains some of the great musical theatre classics we all know and love. Based on Mary Main’s now widely disputed and highly critical biography “The Woman With the Whip”, the story charts the meteoric rise and crushing fall of Eva Perón, First Lady of Argentina in June 1946, until her early death from cervical cancer in July 1952, aged just 33 years old.

Eva Perón remains very much a divisive figure both internationally and in her homeland of Argentina. Another divisive figure, on a much smaller and less salient level, is theatrical auteur Jamie Lloyd. He revisits Evita now with this revamped (and how!) re-imagining of his 2019 Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production. And I’m thrilled to say it is markedly improved in every aspect.

Jamie Lloyd is, in truth, something of a marmite figure in the musical theatre community. Hailed by some as a visionary modern genius, and by others as a gimmick-heavy self-plagiarist, the truth for me lies somewhere inbetween. I’ve seen both of these extreme views to be true, depending on the production. The brilliance of Piaf or Sunset Boulevard have unfortunately been evil-mirrored for me by the boredom of The Tempest or the misjudgement of The Seagull. It would be fair to say I’m a Lloydsceptic.

Thankfully, this production highlights all of Lloyd’s strengths. With one, big, unfortunate exception – but I’ll come to that later. Returning from 2019 is Soutra Gilmour’s Palladium-stage-filling static bleachers set. The orchestra are seated at the very rear of the stage, separated by large letters spelling out the show’s name. A gauze curtain and later a video screen largely mask the musicians throughout. Gilmour’s ensemble costumes are familiar viewing for Lloydites; tight vests on buff bodies, simple frocks of white, black and grey. Near-constant haze and Jon Clark’s excellent lighting design set the mood nicely – but this is every inch a Lloyd production aesthetically. Lloyd lets rip in rock numbers like “A New Argentina” with pulsating vibrant reds and strobing, giving the feel of a rock concert.

Indeed, this was the intention as Jamie Lloyd and his star turn joked in interviews during rehearsals that it was “like Evita’s Coachella set”. Hard to disagree!

This is the modern Evita and is indeed being marketed on social media to a younger demographic. This is highlighted none more so than in frequent collaborator Fabian Aloise’s absolutely electric choreography. Numbers have been completely transformed from your Grandmother’s Evita, and Aloise has worked miracles. Often with flashiness comes looseness in dance; but as a musical theatre ensemble I have seen few better in recent years across too many productions to count – perhaps ever. And at a first preview, no less!

Whilst I’m trying (and indeed failing) to limit comparisons between the 2019 production and this one, it would be impossible to do justice to the quality of the cast without saying what a huge upgrade they are on that which preceded them. Diego Andres Rodriguez plays Che with charm, humour and a strong (if perhaps understandably slightly tired sounding) voice. He has great chemistry with the leading lady. As does James Olivas as Juan Perón, who put my concerns about his young age to rest within minutes, giving a very assured performance. The performances from the ensemble and the supporting cast were first rate, so it would be remiss of me not to give them very well-deserved praise. This is a very hard-working cast and the energy is through the roof! Putting my thoughts diplomatically, it would be reasonable to say that I felt like a physical attraction was a lot more possible between Olivas and the star.

The star, of course, being Rachel Zegler. Zegler absolutely shines as Evita, giving – and I very rarely use this term – a tour de force performance. She is quite sensational. She sings the score exactly as written, powerfully and clear as a bell. Even some previous Evita’s I’ve hugely enjoyed have made the repeated high belting a touch unpleasant to listen to. Not so with Zegler, who smashes it out of the park vocally. Her dancing is extremely energetic as she makes Aloise’s complicated and breathless choreography look like a breeze. Initially dressed in a bralette, black shorts and kneehigh boots – all in black – Zegler comes bursting forward like the Duracell Bunny and the energy and power never stops. Zegler is able to veer being cute and unassuming and a fearless manipulator and vice-versa in a phrase, or a few charming dance steps – “I wanna be a part of B.A, Buenos Aires – Big Apple”.

Numbers which I’ve seen somewhat thrown away in other productions have been adapted into being full company dance extravaganzas; “Rainbow Tour” springs immediately to mind for this, a thudding rock soundtrack accompanying gyrating (there is a lot of this throughout!) and more traditional musical theatre steps.

The 19 piece orchestra led by Alan Williams sound absolutely fantastic, and the sound quality and sound design is second to none in the West End. A lot of shows and other theatres could learn a lot from seeing this show.

To Jamie Lloyd’s credit, many of the staging ideas he played with at the Open Air Theatre have been cut or hugely improved in execution. But I fear I must address the elephant in the room at this point.

If I were to ask the average person for one thing they know about Evita, I think most would say “Madonna”. I think those who don’t, would say “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina”, easily the most famous song in the show and one of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s most famous songs. One of the most famous in the history of musical theatre, in fact.

So quite why the decision was made to have Ms. Zegler perform the song on the balcony of the theatre, out of the view of the paying audience, I can only guess. Streamed back into the video on a stage-wide screen at the rear of the stage, the paying audience are denied the opportunity to hear and see the iconic number in the flesh. Joined outside by a couple of miked up ensemble members and a multi-camera set-up, the images are mixed on the fly seamlessly. Admittedly, I did know this was coming from leaks during the technical rehearsals on social media, but the disappointment was palpable in the room.

I took a look outside during the interval, and there were many waiting to watch the performance – and I couldn’t help but feel a little peeved that a huge song in the show had been sacrificed for what I feel are reasons of creating marketing buzz, rather than any inspired creative drive.

The first Act was electric, with one of the loudest ovations I’ve heard for an Act One finale in all my years of theatregoing. But the Act Two opening truly did suck the life out of the room, and it wasn’t until “Rainbow Tour” that I – and many around me -were back on board.

I appreciate that the director has found a moment he likes coming off the back of Sunset Boulevard, but I can’t help but feel another Act Two opener on video wasn’t called for on this occasion. In a similar vain, as at the Open Air Theatre, Che spends the majority of show getting beaten up by various people in a way that borders on fetishistic. He is once again stripped to his underpants, ‘tarred and feathered’ (using blue and white paint), and spends the final part of the show laid on the floor covered in goo in his pants. The freely available and permitted by the theatre curtain call footage and images are like a spot the difference with that of Sunset Boulevard, from the costumes to the facial expressions and the conspicuous attractive young man in excellent shape covered in a substance.

So one can see there is definite ammunition for the Lloydphobics accusing him of repetition of mise-en-scene.

Mr. Lloyd was keen to stress this was very much an evolution of his earlier production, but to me – somewhat fittingly considering the subject matter – this production is a full blown revolution. Not every battle was won or every decision made the correct one, but in my view Lloyd has ultimately earned his claim to power as THE guy in the West End musical scene. With that said – he is toeing the formulaic line in many areas of his composition.

Phenomenal cast led by a star turn from Zegler. Brilliant choreography. Massive upgrade on his last Evita production.

Additional notes:

• Nice programme with some good information, A3 in colour – contains rehearsal images. £10.
• I sat in the Grand Circle at this performance for £44.50. I found it good value and had a largely unobstructed view of the stage.