[Five stars]
Prepare to be blown away by Rachel Zegler. She is simply sensational in a stunning new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s 1978 musical about Argentina’s legendary former first lady, Eva ‘Evita’ Peron, which opened officially in the West End last night.
The 5ft 2in, 24-year-old Zegler may be a diminutive diva, but with a delicate yet rich voice, she takes to the role of the Latin American political idol like a pair of Ferragamo shoes.
And thanks to her Disney princess peepers and luminous features, she adds wide-eyed innocence too.
However, there’s nothing innocent about Jamie Lloyd’s raunchy production. He gleefully embraces the neo-fascist pageantry of Peronism, fleshing it out with vividly athletic choreography by Fabian Aloise.
The result is a carnival of body-popping physical fireworks, putting the Zumba into Rumba and making the stage sizzle with tango, Mexican waves and drop-down twerking. Zegler is a cool, sassy centre in the midst of the whirling vortex.
Dressed almost throughout in dominatrix knee-boots, silk hot pants and a matching bra, she teases and excites her adoring fans with challenging, provocative stares.
And she gives us a honeyed Julie Andrews warble in her show-stopper Don’t Cry For Me ArHentina (pointedly using the correct aspirated ‘g’ of the Spanish pronunciation).
The 5ft 2in, 24-year-old Zegler may be a diminutive diva, but with a delicate yet rich voice, she takes to the role of the Latin American political idol like a pair of Ferragamo shoes. Pictured: Performing ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’ during the West End Opening Night of ‘Evita’ on the balcony at the London Palladium
Thanks to her Disney princess peepers and luminous features, she adds wide-eyed innocence too
Eyebrows have been raised that this big number is delivered from the balcony outside the theatre in Oxford Circus, to what has become a huge fevered crowd on Argyll Street every night at around 9pm. Have theatregoers been swindled? Not exactly
She gives us a honeyed Julie Andrews warble in her show-stopper Don’t Cry For Me ArHentina (pointedly using the correct aspirated ‘g’ of the Spanish pronunciation). Pictured: At the press night after party
Details of Eva’s tragic life story and early death are washed away in the tidal wave. Will anyone care? Probably not
Eyebrows have been raised that this big number is delivered from the balcony outside the theatre in Oxford Circus, to what has become a huge fevered crowd on Argyll Street every night at around 9pm. Have theatregoers been swindled? Not exactly.
Inside, we get air-con and an enormous live projection of her turn on the balcony – complete with what could be real, stick-on, or perhaps onion-induced tears. Who can tell?
And while the masses sweat outside in the central London heat for a barely audible five-minute performance, amidst a sea of phones, inside we get all the trimmings – including a deluge of blue and white ticker tape marking the election of Eva’s husband, Juan, as president in 1946.
Barely costumed bodies provide the scenery: rippling vistas of gyrating flesh. Even President Peron himself (James Olivas) is presented as a hunky sexbomb porn star towering over tiny Zegler, with watermelon biceps bulging out of his sleeveless shirt.
And if the male dancers’ toplessness is meant to reference Eva’s ‘descamisados’ or ‘shirtless’ followers, that must be a joke.
The term was meant to designate them as poor and wretched, not horny and buff. As one routine after another crashes over the audience from the monumental bank of steps spanning the stage – below huge illuminated letters spelling out ‘EVITA’ – it’s an audio-visual tsunami, more Olympic ceremony than stage show.
Details of Eva’s tragic life story and early death are washed away in the tidal wave. Will anyone care? Probably not.
Go to be knocked out by Zegler alone. The live action Snow White debacle is all but forgotten. She’s back to her West Side Story – or Hunger Games – best.
- Evita runs until September 6
