Evita review: ‘Rachel Zegler’s star quality shines’ ★★★★★

When Rachel Zegler’s petite frame first appears on the colossal Palladium stage, it is as if she is appearing as herself rather than as this show’s heroine Eva Peron.

In a black two-piece outfit that leaves her midriff and legs exposed, the 24 year-old who starred in Spielberg’s revamped West Side Story and more recently in Disney’s controversy-plagued Snow White opposite Gal Gadot’s Evil Queen, could pass as any teenage girl flaunting badass attitude.

But then that is the point. The early scenes in Jamie Lloyd’s electric revival of what for my money is Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s best musical, are all about transition. The transition of an ambitious young actress into the human face of a dictatorship is one kind. But there is also the transition of Zegler and her loose raven hair into the role of the ultimate social climber with the now blonde locks of Peron tied back as tightly as corset laces.

Those who saw Lloyd’s production of the musical at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in 2019 will recognise elements of that show here. Among these, the magnificently choreographed (by Fabian Aloise) pneumatic soldier who, to the number The Art of the Possible, erases people like a pitiless terminator on behalf of the dictatorship.

However, every Evita is ultimately defined by its Eva and from the moment Zegler sings, all the recent noise about the reported frost between her and Gadot, and Zegler’s pro-Palestinian tweet that was said to have so exasperated Disney ahead of the release of Snow White, fades away.

Rachel Zegler as Eva Perón and the cast of Evita (Photo: Marc Brenner)[Missing Credit]

It is the clarity, accuracy and power of Zegler’s voice that is so astonishing. So much so in fact it is difficult to imagine anyone listening to a cast recording of the show that features one of Zegler’s predecessors in the role, including the first in 1978 starring Elaine Paige.

The much publicised scene in this production in which the show’s signature tune Don’t Cry for Me Argentina is delivered from the Palladium’s balcony to a London public below works well. Though not in the way one might expect. Certainly it is still a bit of a thrill to see theatre segue into film as a camera follows Zegler’s Peron backstage and into London’s dimming summer daylight.

But as was the case with Lloyd’s Sunset Boulevard, the real thrill of the technique is the star’s return. It happens here with Zegler transitioning back to herself, followed by the camera as she picks her way through the theatre’s corridors and the superb, punchy on-stage orchestra, before appearing right on cue like a returning conquerer.

The final quarter of the show drifts a tad as the plot becomes woolly. Perhaps it is inevitable that energy levels diminish when conveying the decline of health and political fortunes. Yet the excellent Diego Andres Rodriguez as the narrator Cher has a messianic charisma that keeps the evening on course. And as the song Buenos Aries puts it, it’s never long before Zegler’s star quality shines.

Evita, London Palladium