← MickeyJoTheatre
MickeyJoTheatre
How Rachel Zegler got cast in EVITA | The rumours and history that led to this West End theatre news
00:25:05
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
Mickey Jo
Well, oh, what a circus it has been. But oh, what a show it seems like we are going to get because the upcoming West End revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Evita has finally announced its leading lady. Which is good news because when I say upcoming, it's actually starting really, really soon. Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to you if you are listening on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theater, theatre and today we're going to be talking about one of my more recent obsessions which has been who the heck was going to play Evita at the London Palladium in the upcoming revival that's going to be directed by Jamie Lloyd? And I've been obsessed because as time has been passing and there has been no news until today when it was finally announced that Rachel Zegler, the Golden Globe Award winning actress recently seen on Broadway as Juliet opposite Kit Connor in a production of Romeo and Juliet, would take on the role. Until today, everything about this production and its casting had seemed very unusual and I will briefly go into that and recap the last few months of this, as well as the other big names that we heard were in contention for this role. After which of course we'll be talking about Rachel Zegler taking on this role, how we think that's going to go and everything else that we already know about this production, as well as the names that I have been hearing on the grapevine, through the grapevine, amidst the grapevine, somewhere adjacent to grapevine, who are potentially starring in this production alongside her. Spoiler alert, those names are insane. And of course I'll be letting you know how I feel about this casting, but as always, I want to know what you think as well. How do we feel about Rachel Zegler as Eva Peron? Do you already have tickets? Are you excited as someone who already had tickets that this has now been announced? Are you going to now get tickets now that you know who's going to be starring? Who's going to be singing Don't Cry for Me, Argentina, possibly to a high tech video camera? We're not sure. Let me know all of your thoughts and feelings about this stage of news in the comments. Also, before we get into this one, I feel I should let you know that I was preparing a parody song of Part of youf World with lyrics about being concerned that we still didn't know who was going to be in Evita for my upcoming cabaret show this Sunday, Mickey Joe Theatre Live at the Phoenix Arts Club. That is a song I will now not be performing. But if you do want to see my show, you can get tickets in person or virtually to watch via live stream. And of course, if you are interested in theatre news and in this production, make sure you're subscribed to my theatre themed YouTube channel or following me on podcast platforms for more West End and Broadway news as well as ongoing coverage of this production. Obviously when it opens later in the year, I hope to bring you my full review. Before all of that though, let's talk about how we got here. So this goes all the way back to last summer when I started to hear rumblings. People were saying to me, have you heard about the Lady Gaga thing? And I was like, what on earth is the Lady Gaga thing? I'm already scared and anxious for the West End theatre community who objectively would blowed with that kind of news. And the rumor at the time, this was months before anything was officially announced, was that Lady Gaga was going to be starring as Eva Peron. The role of course iconically played on stage originally by Elaine Page in the west end, by Patti LuPone on Broadway, on screen by Madonna in a new production of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sir Tim Rice's Evita. Even then it was said that this was going to be at the London Palladium. A few months later when this was actually announced, it was announced without a star, which is unusual, not necessarily for all show, but particularly for Evita, which is it's so about its central casting, which very much seemed like an indication that there wasn't actually a star in place, that for whatever reason no one was contracted to play the role at that time. But they wanted to get it on sale because they wanted, you know, a decent amount of build up, a decent run up. They wanted to start being able to sell tickets far enough in advance. But they would also have known that the real ticket sales were going to come when they announced the big central star and it was always going to be a big star name. Why, you ask? Why does it have to be a star, a celebrity even? Why couldn't they, you know, use the opportunity with the name recognition show to give a launch, a career boost to a brilliant, talented beginner or drama school graduate or an undiscovered talent. Well, that's because this is a production directed by Jamie Lloyd. Jamie Lloyd, a director best known to musical theater audiences for his recent groundbreaking, award winning production of Sunset Boulevard. Work that attained him an Olivier Award for best Director last year here in the UK, the production is now playing at the St James Theatre on Broadway, where it hopes to earn Tony Award nominations later this year. Prior to that, Jamie Lloyd had directed some other musicals, including the 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, including a brilliant production of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins at the Minier Chocolate Factory, including what I believe was the UK professional premiere of the musical Urinetown and Evita at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, a production which starred Samantha Pauley, an actress who was part of the original Broadway cast of six the Musical and who is currently starring as Jordan Baker in the Great Gatsby on Broadway. But particularly in recent years when it comes to his work in plays in musicals, his current Shakespearean productions that have been running at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, one of them Much Ado About Nothing, still ongoing, still very successful. Almost everything that Jamie Lloyd has done has been star led, celebrity led. Emilia Clarke in The Seagull, James McAvoy in Cyrano, Jessica Chastain on Broadway in A Doll's House, Nicole Scherzinger in Sunset Boulevard, Tom Holland in Romeo and Juliet, Sigourney Weaver, Hayley Atwell to Hiddleston As a director and a producer for the Jamie Lloyd Company, he has seen considerable success harnessing and weaponizing and sometimes even spoofing the celebrity status of these big stars. There is often this slightly playful and knowing quality to their casting in these productions, which is sometimes referenced and invoked during the show. In his current production of Much Ado About Nothing, Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell's feuding characters, Beatrice and Benedick are sort of lightly teased with cardboard cutouts of their Marvel Cinematic Universe characters, her hers being Peggy Carter, his of course being Loki. And in Sunset Boulevard, the story of Norma Desmond, a woman who had been a huge star who had become a recluse who longed to have this dramatic return to the world of entertainment. Nicole Scherzinger's own pop star past in the band the Pussycat Dolls is referenced with choreography, is referenced with a poster shown backstage. He is also set to direct an upcoming Broadway revival of the play Waiting for Godot, starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, the stars of the Bill and Ted Mo. It has become clear throughout these productions that this is the way that Jamie Lloyd is going to operate as a creative and it works for him almost always because while his production of Romeo and Juliet starring Tom Holland and Francesca Amoueda Rivers last year sold out on Tom Holland's name but didn't necessarily get effervescent critical praise, his production of the Tempest, starring Sigourney Weaver, was neither as praised nor necessarily as well attended as he presumably would have hoped. But I'm getting a little bit away from the point, which was that we knew this was going to be a star, and as soon as all of the Gaga noise died down down, we started to hear that it was set to be Ariana DeBose. Only this was never officially announced. It was teased by the entertainment journalist Baz Bamigboy in Deadline. This was published on 6th January 2025 and it was stated that DeBose was in talks to star in the production later that year, although what I'd heard is that by that point they'd actually already done promotional photography of Ariana DeBose as Ava Perron. This plot thickened considerably when by the end of that month, on 30 January 2025, Baz published an update to this, which is that Ariana DeBose was exiting the London production due to a scheduling conflict. And again, what I heard is that little bit different. I heard that as these things always seem to, it may have come down to money. And if that is the case, then the conversation which happened at the Golden Globes back at the start of the month seems to be a little bit more calculated. Because if you are set to play the role, if it is true that she'd already done promotional photography, but everything hasn't been completely silen yet, and you're trying to get a better offer financially, and I'm not about to criticize anyone for that, because the West End famously does not pay its actors nearly as well as Broadway or as Hollywood, then talking publicly about the fact that you are in negotiations to play the role actually becomes a very powerful move. For whatever reason though, whether it was money, whether it was scheduling, Ariana DeBose is not going to be involved in this production. Which is a shame, because I think we would all love to see her back on the stage. It's fantastic that her career has had this huge upgrade since her Academy Award winning performance in the west side Story film, and I really hope that she's making a ton of money because the work that she has done thereafter has not been either as prestigious, as successful, or really as worthy of her considerable talents. Get that woman back on stage. It doesn't have to be Evita. Get her back on stage in like a sweet charity production which I heard she may have been workshopping, or a Kiss of the Spider Woman revival which I heard may have been talked about, or hell Write something new for the talents of Ariana DeBose. Now, it was after that particular news broke that everyone became acutely intrigued about who was going to play Eva Peron in this production. There was talk of Nicole Scherzinger, and honestly, when the Lady Gaga rumor first surfaced, it did feel like they were attempting this almost formulaic repeat of their Sunset Boulevard success. Let's get another Andrew Lloyd Webber show, let's get Jamie to direct it again. Let's do another limited run at the Palladium, let's make a lot of money, and let's put a big diva pop star in the role. Just like Nicole was great in Sunset, Lady Gaga will be great in Evita. And you know what? She probably would have been. But courting the hotly anticipated stage debut of Lady Gaga is a difficult thing. And if they couldn't afford Ariana DeBose, no way could they afford Lady Gaga. And so, in that same vein, it would make sense that they would then just look back to Nicole and say, well, let's just get Nicole to do this again. She's a hugely powerful stage presence with this incredible voice. And for what it's worth, I think she would be a remarkable Eva Peron. Allegedly, it is for the production that Jamie directed at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre just before the pandemic that he first approached Nicole. That was the first time he wanted to work on a show with her that didn't end up happening. But she did eventually do Sunset Boulevard. I, however, never really believed the rumors that Scherzinger was going to leave Sunset Boulevard to come and do Evita, because the timing never made sense. It would not have been any good at all for her Tony Award campaign, for her to depart Sunset Boulevard prior to the Tony Awards, and for her to be able to do both with Evita beginning performances in June, she would have needed to have left immediately after the Tony Awards, which is also a bad look. Either that or be belting on either side of the Atlantic at the same time. And listen, she's good, but she's not that good. And around that same time, the other name which came into the conversation was Rachel Zegler. And there's little bit of history here as well. I mean, it's immediately interesting that Ariana DeBose was in talks for this, but it's her west side Story co star, Rachel Zegler, who is now going to be playing the role, because outside their screen appearance in that film together, they don't have that much crossover as performers. They do feel like very different talents, I think. And whatever Ariana's version of Ava was going to be, it's going to be very distinct from what Rachel's ultimately will be. But this is not the first time that Rachel Zegler and Evita have been talked about in the same sentence. Because rumors were swirling recently about a Broadway bound revival of the show, not a Jamie Lloyd directed one. This was pre sunset. This, I believe, might even have been the art production from the American Repertory Theatre, a regional revival of the show in the US that I think Shireen Pimentel might have been starring in. But the idea was going to be that it was going to go to Broadway and Rachel Zegler was going to take over. Evidently that didn't end up happening either, but she is finally going to be playing the role. Here is everything we know so far. So Baz's article in Deadline was published before I received the official press release, so we're going to talk about that first. He revealed exclusively that Rachel Zegler, star of Steven Spielberg's screen version of west side Story and the soon to be released Disney Live Action Snow White that is having its press tour right now that is coming out this month, will make her London theatre debut as Eva Peron in her revival of the garlanded Tim Rice and Andrew Dwebber musical Evita. This was confirmed to Deadline by director Jamie Lloyd, who was currently in New York where he's meeting with actors being considered for other key roles. Interesting. An excited Lloyd described Zegler as a phenomenal talent. Indeed she is, who will blow the roof off the London Palladium. And this is really interesting. Complex negotiations to bring Zegler, an American of Colombian and Polish descent, to the West End were completed a few days ago. Complex negotiations, I mean, at this point, with Ariana DeBose having very publicly fallen through for them, and with the production set to begin performances in what, three, four months? Three months. It does seem like Rachel Zegler would have had a lot of bargaining power here because they needed a big star and there weren't that many options, not if they wanted to go with someone with some authentic Latin heritage to play this real life Argentinian character. Baz goes on to say that she will be among the highest paid stars on the London stage this season. This is not something that we often talk about in the theatre world, particularly in the uk. Everyone's terrified of talking about money here. Jimmy Lloyd told Baz that he and Zegler met for a coffee in Manhattan, specifying that it was out of the way downtown, where there was less chance of them being spotted. Can you imagine? He said he was struck by her incredible passion for this show. And listen, she has always been a theatre kid, but this one in particular, she said was her dream role. In a statement that she gave to Deadline, she said, evita has been such an important musical to me since I was a little girl when my dad and I would sing Don't Cry for Me Argentina together on my back patio. And that is incredibly sweet, but also an objectively strange song to sing with your child. The opportunity to bring Jamie Lloyd's singular, visionary ideas to life on stage is an honor unlike any other. The stage has always felt like home to me and I can't wait to make my West End debut in such great company. I mean, that previous Evita revival that she was allegedly going to be attached to when it made its way to Broadway would not have been as bold, as edgy as, you know, as much of a conversation, conversation point as the Jamie Lloyd production this summer, for better or for Worse is bound to be. And you know, even Sunset Boulevard, which has had huge success, has been divisive. Not everyone is convinced by this new approach, by the use of cameras on stage, by this occasionally stripped back aesthetic. But it doesn't surprise me whatsoever that that would excite Rachel Zegler, who as I mentioned has always been a theater kid, has always been uploading videos of her singing onto social media. This news was actually preempted a little bit by her reposting a video of singing Don't Cry for Me Argentina to her Instagram story, I believe, and then quickly deleting it recently. Lloyd knew there and then that he was compelled to cast her in her western debut as the iconic Eva Perrone and that he was taken by her insights and ideas about the woman who, as Ava Duarte, rose from poverty to become the wife of military leader turned president Juan Peron. He said he's heard Rachel sing some of the score. She's going to blow the roof off of the London Palladium. And speaking about the production, he confirms that the version presented at the London Palladium will be entirely reimagined. This is going to be an exciting Ava for a whole new generation. And with this young star in the leading role, that seems like a pretty smart concept for this production. Now the official press release is just very similar, includes a couple of those quotes, points out that Rachel Zegler is a Golden Globe Award winning actress for her performance in west side Story. There's also a big focus on the fact that There will be 5,000 tickets available across the run at £25, exclusively for under 30s, key workers and those receiving guff government benefits. They are not yet on sale. That will all be announced at a later date. But with her having such a young fan base, there was recently a statistic about that Broadway production of Romeo and Juliet where I think it welcomed some of Broadway's youngest ticket buyers. That's going to be a huge component of this production, which according to Baz, has already taken upwards of £4 million in ticket sales. So what do I think about all of this? Well, Rachel is very different casting for this role than the names that we had been hearing. Than Nicole Scherzinger, than Ariana DeBose, than Lady Gaga. She is a lot younger, for one thing. Rachel Zegler is 23 years old. And Ava Perron, when she was Ava Duarte, was, I believe, 24 when she met Juan Peron, which is depicted within the first act of the musical. She was 33 at the time of her death. Death. Spoiler alert. And I think initially my inclination was that Rachel might still be a little young for the role or might read a little young for the role on stage with the show's original West End and Broadway stars Elaine Page and Patti LuPone having both, I believe, been around 30 when they played the role. Madonna on screen having been a little bit older, late 30s. But for one thing, I think I should combat both in myself and in society the idea that a woman should always be defined by her age. And for another, maybe there's a really interesting way to tell this story highlighting the age gap between Ava and her husband, the man who would soon thereafter become the leader of Argentina, Juan Peron. Maybe her willfulness and her ambition is all the more interesting in a very young girl. I think certainly that lends itself to a lot of the earlier scenes, a lot of the Act 1 material. I'm intrigued as to how she will potentially navigate some of the latest stuff, but I am excited to see it. I have no doubt that she is going to sound sensational. It was great seeing her on stage in Romeo and Juliet, which I reviewed here if you want to go and check out my thoughts thoughts on that production. But even as I was watching that, even with her singing a little bit in that show, you got the sense that she really needed to be doing a musical. And in a musical she would be at the full force of her powers and her having the opportunity to do a show that she really loves that is going to shine through in her performance as well. And so I Think that's quite exciting. Now, I did see the version of this that Jamie Lloyd directed at Regent's park with Samantha Pauley. I didn't see Sam Pauley. I saw Marcia Sonkom, who was her alternate, who was visibly pregnant at the time and crawling around in this white slip dress. Yes, Ava wears a white slip in this production, just like Norma wears a black slip in Sunset Boulevard. There are similarities between the two productions. With the one that was at Regent's park, there are also differences. There was a very bold and clever use of costuming in that production, also of colour and smoke, and someone actually got like, tarred and feathered on stage. Very visually striking as much Jamie Lloyd work has been also incredibly physical. It felt like a role for a dancer. And it was from there that the Ariana DeBose conversation always made a lot of sense to me. And Rachel Zegler, I believe, dances. I don't know that she's as accomplished a dancer as Ariana DeBose, but it'll be interesting to see if the production is adapted slightly. I mean, it's going to be interesting to see to what extent it's similar to that previous Open Air theater production. This could be a wholly new take on Evita that bears no similarity to the one he did a few years ago. Is there anything else that we can predict about it? I mean, I think, like Scherzinger, Rachel Zegler is going to be game for doing a lot of stuff here. I think she's going to really throw herself into this role, just like Nicole did. I remember back before Romeo and Juliet opened last year, I was wondering if they were going to do anything outside again, just like they did with Sunset Boulevard, whether the balcony scene was going to feature a real exterior balcony as part of the theatre's facade. I've heard rumbling that they might be trying to do something like that at the Palladium, but I think the idea of charging the audience to come and sit inside and then performing the biggest song in the show, Don't Cry for Me, Argentina from the Casa Rosada balcony. But reimagining it as they're outside of the Palladium to perform to the street, I think, A, that would annoy the ticket holders very much and B, I think it would cause a traffic accident. That road isn't pedestrianized. I'm also sort of hoping that we don't see cameras on stage in this production. I defend their use in Sunset Boulevard because I think it' inherently a cinematic story. It's being told from the perspective of a screenwriter. It's about a woman who finds herself and her version of herself still trapped on the screen. Evita doesn't have that. And I saw another production of Evita at the Leicester Curve, which I also reviewed here, if you want to find out more about that. Not too long ago. But after I saw Sunset Boulevard, which also used cameras on stage and a vertical screen, kind of putting across the idea of Eva Peron as an influencer before we really had that term. And I wasn't particularly enamoured with that creative choice or honestly with that product production. I think there is the opportunity here, and I hope they take it, to do something with a strong political message. We are talking, after all, about a controversial right wing political chapter. And look at the way that the world is right now. I'm also very curious about whether this is really being built wholeheartedly for the Palladium and for the West End, or whether, just like with Sunset Boulevard, this is sort of a precursor to a more substantial Broadway run. Finally, then, before we conclude this theatrical news recap, I promised you I would let you know the other names that I have been hearing. And this is where I start to get a little bit nervous because all the while, as we have had this musical chairs of different Eva Peron suggestions, there has been talk of Antonio Banderas. Antonio Banderas, who starred as Che in the Madonna led film, being in this production not as Che, but as. As Juan Peron, Ava's husband, which is all very well and which is casting that if it was Gaga, if it was Debose, I think would make a lot of sense. Antonio going back to the show. There's a lovely symmetry in that he's doing a lot of interesting work recently on stage, both as an actor and as a creative down in Spain. So the possibility of him being in the show would not have surprised me. The issue is the age gap. I mean, the historically accurate age gap relationship of Ava and Juan would be augmented if we were to cast Rachel Zeger opposite Antonio Banderas, because he is checking Google right now. Oh yeah. 64 years old. And at the time of him being in Evita, the Evita movie, when he was already, you know, a grown man. Rachel Zegler's age at that point in history was not applicable because she had not been born yet. So just trying to visualize the two of them singing this seductive act one song, I'd be surprisingly good for you. I. I just don't really want to go there. And I'm hoping that that's not that that's not what we end. That really would be a profound statement that I think would redefine the power dynamic of their relationship on stage in a very interesting and very pointed way. And yet that is not nearly as bizarre as the name that I have heard for Che. It was said to me just last week that for this production apparently it might be Jason Derulo. Now Jason Derulo, who is obviously a very popular recording artist, a man I do not know much about outside of his appearance appearance in the Cats movie. And listen, he was probably one of the better actors in the Cats movie. But you know, and I know that that is not high praise and I mean at this point with Jamie Lloyd, it wouldn't surprise me. Usually the blessing of having a big star at the center of these shows is that we see a lot of meaningful and authentic and talent led casting around them. I'm thinking about the rising stars Tom Francis and Grace Hodgett Young who got these big breaks in Sunset Boulevard alongside Nicole Scherzinger. I'm thinking about the brilliant Francesca Amawooda Rivers Oppos, Tom Holland in Romeo and Juliet. Some people had been saying is Mason Alexander park going to be in Evita? You know Mason having been in the two most recent Jamie Lloyd directed shows, the Tempest and Much Ado About Nothing, both at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber was in watching Much Ado About Nothing last week. Is a conversation happening there? I don't know perhaps if there is any truth to that. I may be able to find out a little bit more this weekend when Mason Alexander park joins me as one of my guest performers for my returning cabaret show Mickey Jo Theatre Live, which you can get tickets to see in person at the Phoenix Arts Club in London or virtually via live stream. That's Sunday 16th March at 7.30pm UK time. Seamless plug. But that also brings us to the end of everything that I know and we know so far about this upcoming production of Evita which will star Rachel Zegler. I'm very excited. This is going to be a hot ticket. I cannot wait to find out more about the casting. I cannot wait to go and see this show. I hope it's as exciting as Sunset Boulevard has been. I think that's driven a lot of really exciting buzz and conversation and it's great when theatre can do that. But as always those been my opinions and I would love to know what you think. Let us all know in the comments section down below. Thank you for listening to this theatre news recap. I hope that you've enjoyed and I hope that you're staying safe and you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh, my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.