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What's going on with EVITA?! | The truth about the Rachel Zegler balcony scene and rehearsal drama
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Mickey Jo
Don't cry for me Rachel Ziegler, because you're outside and I'm not gonna hear it if you do, cry for me inside if you want to, but otherwise there's very little point. 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 theatre and right now, dominating conversation both in the West End and over on Broadway is the soon to open West End revival on of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sir Tim Rice's Evita at the London Palladium. Directed in a new production by Jamie Lloyd and starring Rachel Zegler, the show has been creating considerable buzz in the theatre community over the last couple of weeks as it began preview performances. As a result of the last few rehearsals before it began preview performances and some of the things involved in this production, some of them harkening back to elements utilized in the recent Tony Award and Olivier Award winning revival of Sunset Boulevard. And I know that people have been talk because I have been inundated with messages and comments saying Mickey Jo, when are you going to talk about Evita? Mickey Jo, what are your thoughts on Evita? I have just yesterday, last night got back from a two week trip to the us. I went to New York and Chicago and a couple of other states seeing a handful of different shows. But now that I have landed, I am wasting no time. We are going to talk about Evita now. I have not seen the production yet that is happening next week. This is not my review of the show. This is a little bit of an overview as to why it's generating so much conversation as to what exactly about this production is surprising and perhaps even controversial. And I also want to address a huge misinformation campaign that has been perpetrated maliciously here on YouTube about the show's leading lady, Rachel Zegler. So plenty for us to cover in today's video and I am sure people will have strong opinions about this, so feel free to share those in the comments section down below. But I will preface that invitation to comment by saying I'm much more interested to hear what you have to say and what your thoughts are about seeing a theatrical production rather than your opinions about a woman in her early 20s trying to navigate a very public facing career. And also I think I'm most curious to hear from people who have already seen some of the show's first few preview performances. I want to know what your experience of this production was like from inside the auditorium rather than us all speculating about how we think we might feel about it. Anyway, if you enjoyed today's video, make sure that you are subscribed right here on YouTube. Turn on those notifications so you don't miss any of my upcoming videos or go follow me on other social media platforms, including all your favorite podcast apps. In the meantime, let's Talk about it oh what a circus. What is this show? Let's Talk About Evita so obviously we're going to venture into a little bit of spoiler territory here. In this first section I'm going to talk about what you may have seen already and everything that is happening outside of the theater. A little bit later in the video I will go into more detail about specific elements of the production that I have heard from friends who saw the very first preview performance. But for now, let's talk about the image seen around social media. I am talking about performance of Don't Cry for Me Argentina that happens during this production outside the London Palladium, on the balcony above the entrance to the collected audience on Argyll street, and before we even get into it, this is not necessarily surprising, not only because there's been so much conversation about the walk moment in Sunset Boulevard. If you don't know, this happens at the very top of the second act of the West End and Broadway revival of Sunset Boulevard and the star, Tom Francis, playing the role of Joe Gillis, begins with a camera following him around backstage before vent of the theatre. On most performances and walking in the UK it was from the stage door around the building into the entrance of the Savoy Theatre on Broadway. He crosses over 44th street, walks up Schubert Alley, turns around and comes back. Unless it's one of the variants that they do for slightly busier days of the week. And he does all this while singing, while singing live along with the orchestra, which he's hearing in his ears. I actually recently spoke to Tom Francis about this on the carpet of the Drama Desk Awards and he shares that the biggest challenge he faces is that occasionally because of bodies in the way between him and the theater, the sound cuts out entirely. I have no idea how he manages to stay so composed and continue to perform the song in those instances, but he does, and that's been a very talked about element of the show. So them replicating this kind of an idea with Evita wasn't necessarily surprising. I actually thought we were going to see it replicated much sooner. I thought they were potentially going to do something like this with Romeo and Juliet at the Duke of York's Theatre with Tom Holland. And in a way they did because there was a short scene that he played on the roof of the building, and again, cameras followed them around and they were in the foyer space. But I thought it was going to be the balcony scene. I thought they were literally going to again use that balcony at the Duke of York's Theatre and play it to the crowd on the street below. I dare say they may have considered this, but if the stage door was any indication, they wouldn't have been able to get the permission of Westminster City Council because the stage door had to be limited. Tom Holland was not allowed to stay and sign and meet fans for more than a certain amount of time because the collected crowd was so huge it completely blocked the street, which obviously became dangerous for cars and pedestrians alike. So then cut to Evita at the Palladium. And for some time people had been speculating that they were specifically looking at West End and Broadway theaters that had a balcony so that they could utilize it to perform that number outside. And I don't know that I necessarily believed that at the time, because it's the most obvious Jamie Lloyd that you would expect. And yet it seems to have materialized, because before the first preview performance, there was footage from people on Argyll street outside the Palladium of Rachel Zegler dressed as Eva Peron with cameras, with equipment all around her, singing Don't Cry For Me, Argentina. And even then, I wasn't 100% sure that this was confirmation that that's how they were going to do it in the show. I thought, is this a publicity stunt? Are they filming something for marketing? Are they capturing content to utilize as footage and she'll perform alongside it? And the biggest reason I was dubious is because this is not the first time that Jamie and his team have done Evita. They actually first staged the musical at Regent's Park Open Air Theater shortly before the pandemic in the summer of 2019. And while this is said to be a largely changed version of that same production, that was not something that they did in that performance. And also the aesthetic of Eva Peron, as she has always been depicted on stage with the blonde hair in the bun and the white ball gown and the necklace, was not something they necessarily utilized. Realized they toyed with it in that Regent's park production, but Ava was depicted in a very different way. More on that later. However, as of the first preview performance, it has now been confirmed that this is how they are doing. Don't Cry For Me, Argentina. Rachel Zegler apparently walks out onto the balcony of the London Palladium and performs the entirety of the song in that setting. She is streamed into the auditorium on screens via cameras and returns to perform the rest of the second act on the stage after the song is finished, meaning onlookers get watch and listen to her performance from Argyle Street. I think they also have members of the ensemble that go out onto the street as well. And much like Sunset Boulevard and the iconic walk, there is a security team and barriers involved in this as well. And a whole lot of technical wizardry in order to make this happen, in order to make sure that all of the audio is synchronized and the video and all of this coming together. It represents a huge amount of work. It also perhaps seems to be something that wasn't initially planned and then subsequently came together. Something that I have come to learn about the way that Jamie Lloyd shows are built is that they're not entirely prescribed by him before they arrive in rehearsals. He doesn't map everything out and then assign it to his actors and say, this is the show and now I'm going to tell you how to do it in a very traditional directing sense. Multiple collaborators and cast members of his have spoken about this space where a show is built collaboratively, that they don't read scripts around a table, that they enter into this sort of a playground. Everyone is mic'd up and then they devise the show and they play with it. And I think it's that, you know, exciting creative element that keeps attracting a lot of stars to his shows. He does work famously with a lot of high profile names and celebrities, admittedly, as well as profiling and launching the careers of undiscovered new talent, which is what's happening here with movie star Rachel Zegler alongside Diego Andres Rodriguez from the Broadway production of Sunset Boulevard. But the main reason why I don't think this balcony stunt was necessarily planned is that for the longest time there weren't any video creatives mentioned in attachment to this production of Evita. And curiously, it is not the same stage Debut award winning team that created all of the amazing video design for Sunset Boulevard. They were Nathan Amzi and Joe Ransom. They are working on a great many other projects. They're doing very well for themselves, but they seem to no longer be working, at least on this production with the Jamie Lloyd Company. Interestingly enough, and I believe what happened here is that a little way into rehearsals, an advertisement was put out for a video team for the show for video specific creatives. Certainly there was no video design mentioned in the earliest press releases. For the show, leading me to assume that we weren't going to see cameras on stage and video elements. Obviously, we know now that that is not the case. We are having screens and cameras and video again, though apparently only in the second act and without having yet seen the show either from outside or inside, because obviously you can both buy a ticket to go and watch it, or you can stand on the street at a certain time of night, I gather probably like an hour and 10 after the start time. Maybe don't quote me on that, but I'd assume that's kind of where it happens. You've got to get through the whole of the first act and then the interval. Don't Cry For Me, Argentina happens at the top of the second act, but without having yet seen it. I do have a couple of thoughts about the idea of doing this number on the balcony and how I think people are going to respond to it. For the most part, I am reserving judgment and I would encourage everyone to do so until I see the thing, until I see it in context. Because, you know, just seeing this. This out of context, it can seem confusing. It can seem like a bold and dissatisfying choice, particularly for the people sat inside the auditorium watching Don't Cry For Me, Argentina, inarguably the most iconic song from that show's score, performed outside to people who didn't buy a ticket for the show. I'm waiting to see how I feel when I am a part of that audience. I will probably at some point try and also go along to Argyle street and watch it from outside, just out of sheer curiosity. But I do think that inevitably people are going to have very strong opinions about this. And I understand it from multiple sides because I get the frustration of, you know, wanting to see and hear Rachel Zegler sing that song. And in a way, you still do because it's still being performed live and you still get to see it, you still get to hear it. It's just not happening right there in front of you. And something about theatre as a communal space where we're all in the same room has always been a very special quality. I do think that oftentimes the use of cameras can be that little bit emotionally distancing. You know, we don't get, I think, the same emotional response watching a music performance on screen as we do witnessing it on stage. There is more of an emotional immediacy and a connection. That's one of the biggest limiting factors. I thought about the recent production of the Picture of Dorian Gray starring Sarah Snook. And I said as much in my review when I saw it in the West End. The difference, I thought, between that and Sunset is that more often in Dorian Gray I was directed to look specifically at a camera. And there were extended sections when Sarah was away and off stage. And it was at those moments that I began to think I may as well be watching a cinema screen. Which is often the criticism I hear about these video inclusive productions. Some people said the same thing about Sunset, but I didn't necessarily agree there. Now, on the other hand, I think the idea of having her go out there and do Don't Cry for Me Argentina and the whole Casa Rosada speech on the balcony is kind of inspired and possibly makes more dramaturgical sense than any of the choices that have come before it, certainly than those moments in Romeo and Juliet, but possibly also than the Sunset Boulevard walk, which has always been an amazing moment, but is not to be taken too, too literally because you can always see that it's the streets of New York or London behind him as he's singing about being in California and he is nodding to the show poster. It's very fourth wall breaking. In that way you can see the marquee of the theater. It's never meant to be a literal depiction of his circumstances. And impressive as it is, that moment has always spoken more to Joe as the storyteller, as the narrator of this piece that he is creating on screen. And this slightly metatheatrical idea about what the show is in with Evita, with showing her on screen in her most public facing moment of her lifetime at that point thus far. I think that on many different exciting layers is an incredibly clever decision. And think about it. She began very much as a young woman of the people, from a humble background. She is very accessible to us throughout the first act. And as soon as she becomes part of the political elite and first lady of Argentina, she becomes less accessible to us. We see her on screen and we see her image and we see her on this balcony performing out to a crowd of people. And that really speaks to Ava's journey and her circumstances at that point, as well as the way that she was depicted. She goes from being quite literally among the people to this extraordinary, huge image that you can't quite reach. And that I think has the capacity to bring. Bring far more meaning to the moment than the moment in Sunset Boulevard. Now, something I agree a little less with, and I've seen a lot of comments around this, is the notion that she is performing it outside in order to bring the performance to a more accessible audience, to people who can just go along and watch it for free, who haven't had to pay the extraordinarily expensive ticket prices and to shame the wealthy people inside the building. Because it's Ava as a woman of the people, and I really don't think that that's the thinking behind this moment. If it is the thinking behind this moment, it's short sighted and it's a little tone deaf. Especially because thousands of tickets throughout the show's run have been made available to young people under 30 for a discounted rate to key workers. That's like NHS staff members, etc, to people receiving government benefits. Like, to do that and then to invite those people into the space at discounted rates and then to give them the middle finger of like, no wealthy people. We're gonna go and perform on the balcony to commoners seems simultaneously insulting to really everyone inside the auditorium and the commoners that you're playing to on street. Like, I've seen a lot of that in TikTok commentary and I don't think that that's what's happening here. I really think it's a lot more to do with an artistic interpretation of, like, how Eva Peron came to be depicted at this moment in her life and political career. But at the same time, it would be very naive of me not to acknowledge that this is the biggest song in the show and people are going to find it in the least surprising that they're doing it this way. And at most, potentially very disappointing. Perhaps once you see the show, everything works and people aren't leaving disappointed. I dare say some people still. Sunset Boulevard, in spite of all of its success, was still divisive. Some people did not buy into the concept, some people did not enjoy that. And one big difference between this and the Walk is that the title number, Sunset Boulevard, was for most people, not the most iconic song in the show or the reason that they were going in the first place. Because, you know, Tom Francis, brilliant as he is, was never framed as the show's greatest star. And most obvious selling point, it's always been the Norma Desmonds. So people were going to see and hear Nicole Scherzer Erzinger play this role. And had they done, for example, the entirety of as if We Never Said Goodbye, perhaps the greatest of the two songs that she sings in the show, though I am a big With One look fan myself. Had they done that all backstage with her walking around these dressing rooms and her walking around, like the bar spaces of the theater, which would really make sense dramaturgically for that song. As she's returning to this Hollywood soundstage and rediscovering this world that she had forgotten. I think audiences inevitably probably would have been disappointed with that choice. And there's a certain amount of emotional connectivity and power that wouldn't have come through of her performance through that screen, because the intensity and the physicality and like the duration of her holding that huge note, it's far more spectacular seeing and hearing her do that right in front of you on the stage there than on a giant screen. So I am curious, I am so, so curious how I'm going to feel next week with this performance of Don't Cry for Me, Argentina as part of the entire show. Let's talk a little bit more about the entire show and everything else I've heard about this Evita and what you can expect. But before we do, I do want to take a moment here, and this is something that I have ummed and ah'd about acknowledging here on YouTube because, you know, I don't want to pour gasoline on any kind of a fire, but I do want to take a moment to shut down a malicious misinformation campaign which has been spreading across this particular social media platform to such an extent that even before people, people were messaging me to say, mickey, Jo, what's going on with Evita in the balcony? And all this stuff, people were saying, looking forward to your review about all of the Rachel Zegler Evita rehearsal drama. And I was like, I haven't heard anything about this. What on earth are you talking about? And it turns out that numerous AI created YouTube accounts with no real person behind them, from what I can tell, had been propagating the same utterly fictionalized narrative about a dramatic Evita rehearsal a few weeks back in which Rachel Zegler had been thrown out of the theater and dragged away by security. And this had sent shockwaves through the West End. It's all very scandalous. It's all very juicy and dramatic. And of course, completely false. And obviously false. For one thing, there were so many giveaway details. This was weeks before the production went into technical rehearsals and they were talking about security dragging her off the stage. And they don't rehearse these kind of musicals anywhere that has a stage. They'd have been rehearsing in a giant dance studio space. For another thing, the day that I ended up seeing most of got messages about it. Later that evening, I went to a London opening night where I saw Rachel happily chatting with multiple members of the cast and creative team attending another show from the producer Michael Harrison, clearly everybody on great terms. This comes purely not from anything to do with the theatre community or anyone who is even aware of the theatre community. This comes from idiots outside the theatre community with political motivations and social motivations who want to create a targeted smear campaign against Rachel Zegle has been the focus of so much right wing propaganda and divisive culture war nonsense as a direct result, it seems, of her being, and you may want to brace yourselves before I say this, a young woman with opinions. I know, I know a very controversial thing to be really throughout history. And I would go as far as to say that it's disappointing that people even believe these videos in the first place. But a lot of this AI nonsense is, you know, getting scarily sophisticated. And the theater industry admittedly is also one where drama like this wouldn't be entire surprising. Hell, I've talked on here before about dramatic things happening backstage at previous West End productions. I shared some thoughts just recently about the upcoming West End production of Burlesque and possible allegations about weird backstage things happening on that show. But my point is no, obvious as it may seem now that the show has begun, Performances Rachel Zegler was not fired from Evita. Rachel Zegler was never dragged kicking and screaming from rehearsals of Evita. Everything that you have been hearing or you may not have been hearing about drama backstage during rehearsals has been fictionalized in order to try and smear her character. It's nonsense, it's foolish, it's terrifying, and it's scarily widespread, but it's not whatsoever true. Anyway, enough of that. Let's carry on with more thoughts about the production. So a friend of mine went to go and see the first preview performance and let me know. A handful of thoughts didn't give me too many spoilers, but there are going to be some details within this that you may not want to know about whatsoever. And coupled with that, there has also been footage and images from the show's curtain call, which has prompted people to draw instant comparisons with Sunset Boulevard because there is some visual overlap. And it seems as though Jamie Lloyd, in staging Evita, is reusing all of his Sunset Boulevard ideas, right? Wrong. These people have short theatrical memories because the key thing that is driving this conversation is that Diego as Shay is wearing underwear in the curtain call and is smeared with some kind of fluid that makes it sound very sexual. It's not. It's actually meant to be quite politically dark and intense. This from what I Remember of the Regent's park production was a moment in which Shea, as a political adversary speaking out against the Peron government, was essentially tarred and feathered on stage. And so I think what we're seeing of Diego in the Curtain Call is a moment in which that has happened. The production at Regent's park played an awful lot with costuming and people putting things on, taking things off, and the images of themselves and the people they were making themselves into and the people they were becoming. But I think he gets covered with, like, blue paint in an act of attempted political suppression, is what I remember. And it may have changed because they've said that the production is very changed from the Regent's park version. There are still many remnants, however, the staging on all of the steps going up the sort of bleachers, that is the same as it was at Regent's Park. A production which was meant to transfer to the Barbican, Interestingly enough, in 2020, obviously the world end, so it couldn't. It would be very curious to see where we would be now if that production had transferred. Would Sunset Boulevard have even happened in the same way? I don't know. Allegedly, the idea for Sunset came to Jamie Lloyd in a dream. So, you know, if even the circumstances of that one day of his life had been different, maybe that whole subconscious concept would never have presented itself in the first place. But back to Evita, because I'm pretty sure that I walked myself down a tangent there and escaped from my original point, it seems as though because of Diego wearing, like, black boxer shorts and being covered in blue stuff rather than red stuff, it makes it seem as though this is a copy of Sunset Boulevard, when in fact, if I'm not mistaken, and I haven't been able to find images or footage of the curtain call when it was at Regent's park, he was doing it first in Evita. So if anything, he took that idea and replicated it for Sunset. And in fact, there is one other piece of costuming that moves this production a little bit away from the original Regent's park version and away from Sunset Boulevard, because long before Nicole Scherzinger put on a black slip to play Norma Desmond, Samantha Pauly at Regent's park in Evita was wearing a white slip and sneakers, with no wig, with long dark hair and a handheld microphone in hand to play Eva Perron, this was the pre sunset days when Jamie Lloyd really loved a handheld microphone. Occasionally he still does, but also the blood that was a hallmark of many of his productions back before 2020, lots of blood, lots of microphones. The camera thing has only been a more recent addition. And also, you know, criticize all you want and say like, well, he's just reusing this trick for this other production. And, you know, it doesn't always work successfully. Was one of the bigger criticisms that I had of the production of Romeo and Juliet that I did not enjoy at the Duke of York's Theatre. But, you know, God forbid that a director has recognisable style and utilizes some of the same successful ideas or implements things over and over again. The whole notion of theatre makers having an iconic style. Think about Fosse choreography. Hell, think about, like Brechtian ideas in theatre, some of which a lot of Jamie Lloyd stuff is kind of loosely in conversation with, comes from the idea of them utilizing these similar things visually. And if nothing else, it creates a lot of conversation. And I love that there is a director with enough specific style and flair to make their work recognizable. I love that you can look at a production and say, you know, like, oh, that's a Jamie Lloyd production. You can look at other things in years to follow and be like, oh, this feels very inspired by the work of Jamie Lloyd. And you could say that about Jamie and you could say that about Ivo Van Hove because. Because they use these same kind of techniques repeatedly. I don't know that there are many other directors that you could say that about necessarily. Certainly not that the entire theater community, beyond critics, who see an awful lot of stuff, beyond producers and people in the business are having a conversation about, I mean, how many other theater directors are there right now where you could tell me the last five shows that they directed in order, and the next three projects that they have. That's where we are with Jamie Lloyd. That's where the whole theater industry is and all of the fans are with Jamie Lloyd right now. But carrying on with a video, Evita, Rachel Zegler is not wearing the white slip, which I think is a good choice. She also reads, as we've said, a great deal younger on stage, I think, as Ava. And they've given her kind of a more youthful outfit. She's got, I think like a skirt and a bralette top going on like a cute little black two piece. She's wearing black rather than wearing white. But the notion, I believe, around this version of Evita is Evita at Coachella, hence the handheld microphone, hence her looking like a little pop girly. And where this all comes from is the creatives and Jamie asking themselves, what does Eva Peron have kinship with in today's society, the idea of her becoming this hugely famous and beloved figure. Who are those people now in society? Because it's not political first ladies, necessarily, not in the current political climate. Who are the people that we are falling in love with, with their image and their brand and their voice and, you know, it's pop stars. I saw a production regionally in the UK of Evita. Ava was kind of reconceived as like the influencer of her time. And this isn't a million miles from that. And I have a little insight into that as well, because as you may or may not know, I have a regular cabaret show called Mickey Jo Theatre Live where I have various different guests. And a couple of months ago, one of my guests was the choreographer Fabian Alouise, who is the predominant choreographic collaborator of Jamie Lloyd and has worked on sunset and Evita pre2020 and the Shakespeares at Theatre Royal Drury Lane and is choreographing once again for Evita at the Palladium. And speaking about the original production back at Regions Prior park, he said that they thought a lot about Beyonce's Homecoming album and the concert tour and the idea of the steps and that's where that came from. And so Evita meets Beyonce is kind of, I think, the energy of this production a little bit more updated now with Rachel Zegler perhaps bringing to mind some of the younger pop girlies think more like Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo. And that, I think is the energy and the aesthetic that they are trying to conjure and invoke with this production. A handful of other details that I've heard about this. I hear that we are not utilizing cameras until the second act. There is not a lot that is shown on camera outside of that Don't Cry For Me Argentina moment, which I think is a good choice. I think, and I've said this many times, the reason why it works in Sunset is because it is an inherently cinema focused story. Norma is a character trapped within the screen of her past who can't escape that Jo is a screenwriter telling the story from his perspective. It's all about about Hollywood, it's all about movies. Evita does not have that. What it does have is an interesting relationship with media depictions. I also hear that for the most part, for the majority of the show, she is not dressed in the iconic, the blonde hair and the white ball gown, but she does put that on to do Don't Cry For Me Argentina, which is also interesting in combination with the cameras of it all. Because she's dressed as herself. And then she puts on this costume, this different hair, this different aesthetic. She creates this image in order to venture literally out into the street and present herself myself and be captured on camera. I think that's very interesting also. And having not yet seen it for myself, for what it's worth, I have also heard very exciting things we have not been hearing about audience members hugely disappointed by this production, walking out and saying that it was a waste of money and how dare they do that to Don't Cry for Me Argentina. And it's a scam. People have been really excited about this show. I am hearing great and positive things. But if you want to really know what I think, you're going to have to wait until next week. I am seeing the show within the next 77 days. I am very excited. I will of course be bringing a full review to social media right here on YouTube as well as podcast platforms as soon as I possibly can. Stay tuned for that. In the meantime, that I think is everything that I have to say about what we know so far about Evita. I am desperately curious to know what everyone else thinks about this in the comments section down below. How do we feel about Don't Cry for Me Argentina on video cameras? Are you planning to go and see this production? Are you planning to go go and watch from Argyll Street? Let me know all of your thoughts. And also in anticipation of my upcoming review of this production of Evita, make sure you're subscribed right here on YouTube. Turn on those notifications so that you don't miss it. Finally, if you want to gain more insights into current and upcoming West End shows, you can head along to Mickey Jo Theatre Live this coming Sunday, the 22nd of June at the Phoenix Arts Club in London. Or if you're not local or able to get there, you can also stream the whole show internationally. I'll be joined by some very exciting guests and I cannot wait to be there. In the meantime, thank you so much for listening to this. I hope that have enjoyed and I hope as always that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day for 10 more seconds. I'm Mickey Jo Theater. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.