Evita starring Rachel Zegler – review round-up

Evita – a delicate drama

Over the past decade, director Lloyd has staged a slew of radical, star-studded revivals of classic works, from Cyrano De Bergerac with James McAvoy, to Sunset Boulevard with Nicole Scherzinger, to The Tempest with Sigourney Weaver, to Much Ado About Nothing with Tom Hiddleston. What do the critics think of his version of Evita?

Most love it. It is “a total triumph” for Dominic Cavendish (Telegraph, ★★★★★), “a pulsating, contemporary spectacle” for Sarah Hemming (Financial Times, ★★★★★), and both “a blisteringly modern take on the show” and “an absolute blast” for Sam Marlowe (The Stage, ★★★★★). “Lloyd Webber and Rice should be down on their knees thanking [Lloyd] for allowing their strongest, darkest show, first seen in 1978, to gleam with diamond-sharp brilliance,” concludes Sarah Crompton (WhatsOnStage, ★★★★★).

There is praise for many elements of Lloyd’s production, from Jon Clark’s lighting, which is “incandescent”, according to David Benedict (Variety), to Gilmour’s set, which Patrick Marmion (Daily Mail, ★★★★★) describes as “a monumental bank of steps”. Above all, though, there is admiration for Aloise’s choreography, which is “insanely exciting” for Marlowe, “restlessly inventive” for Neil Norman (Express, ★★★★★) and “pulsating” with “sex and muscle” according to Fiona Mountford (iNews, ★★★★★).

Amid the acclaim, though, there are complaints that the show’s plot is lost amid the noise, with Arifa Akbar (Guardian, ★★★) feeling “denied of the subtleties of story, character and commentary on populist power” and Clive Davis (Times, ★★★) noting that he would be “surprised if newcomers to the show have a clue what is happening”.

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Evita – an electric Eva

Zegler shot to fame in 2021 when she starred in Steven Spielberg’s big-screen remake of West Side Story. Since then, she has appeared in the latest instalment of The Hunger Games film franchise and in an ill-fated live-action version of Snow White, and made her theatrical debut in the Broadway transfer of Lloyd’s staging of Romeo and Juliet. The critics concur that she is excellent here as Eva.

“Zegler, in her West End debut, is phenomenal,” describes Akbar. “Stripped to her undergarments, she is an indifferently exposed Perón, conniving, deliciously villainous, pocket-sized yet steely in the extreme: a consummate ice queen.” Agreed, writes Marlowe, Zegler is “like a beautiful doll with a diabolical appetite for power”.

“She really is superb, with a clear, strong voice and astonishing amounts of energy,” adds Crompton, while Nick Curtis (Standard, ★★★★★) admires how “the 24-year-old packs an impossible amount of slyly insouciant star power into her tiny frame and proves to have both stage presence and a passionate, expressive vibrato”.

Only Davis disagrees. For him, Zegler, who “spends a lot of the evening in little more than a leather bra and shorts, is reduced to a blank-eyed marionette for virtually the whole show". Everyone else concurs with Hemming that Zegler’s Eva is “riveting”.

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Evita – a brilliant balcony scene

What about that scene? At the start of the second half, Zegler’s Eva leaves the stage to sing Don’t Cry for Me Argentina from the balcony outside. It is a moment that has already generated an avalanche of opinions, but what do the critics think?

“The scene can only really be contextually appreciated if you’ve seen the one before it”, in which Zegler’s Eva, “a malevolent brunette hood rat in skimpy black leather”, encourages her husband “to take the Argentine presidency by any means necessary”, writes Andrzej Lukowski (TimeOut, ★★★★). The balcony scene then becomes “pure artifice”, with Zegler’s Eva “clad in flowing white dress and an elegant blonde wig” and “the public volunteering as extras in the propaganda broadcast” screened on stage.

It is “a pitch-perfect mix of theatrical audacity, political satire and deft cinematography”, he adds, while Marlowe labels it “a terrific interplay between ideas of theatricality, celebrity and the pantomime of populist politics”, Curtis finds it “a bravura piece of directorial panache and social commentary”, and Cavendish calls it a “masterstroke”.

“It is no less than the director’s biggest coup de théâtre: the public itself is enlisted for his mise-en-scène of populist rallies, crowd hypnotism and authoritarian charm”, adds Akbar, while Hemming describes it as “a brilliant idea” that is “superbly executed” and Alice Saville (Independent, ★★★★★) hails it as “the musical theatre stunt of the century”.

Evita – the verdict

A couple of critics have complaints, but most are absolutely overwhelmed by the theatrical flair and technical achievement of Lloyd’s radical reworking of Lloyd Webber’s Evita, by the intelligence and audacity of the balcony sequence and by the powerhouse performance from Zegler in the title role.

Five-star reviews are everywhere – in The Stage, the Standard, the Independent, the Financial Times, the Telegraph, WhatsOnStage, iNews and other publications – suggesting that Lloyd, Lloyd Webber and Zegler have absolutely nothing to cry about.