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Oh, what a circus. Oh, what a show. Oh my God. Hey. Welcome back to my theater themed YouTube channel. My name is Mickey Jo and I'm obsessed with all things theatre. And boy, do we have some breaking West End news to discuss today. Now, I think by the time you're watching this video, this will have been yesterday's news. But for me, this has only just emerged a few hours ago. And in all fairness, this has been something of a poorly kept secret for the past few months. But it has now been announced that a big revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Sir Tim Rice's Evita will be playing at the London Palladium in the west end in summer 2025. Directed by who else? Jamie Lloyd. There is so much to say about this. There is much to discuss. They haven't yet announced casting, which I think is mind boggling. The only thing more mind boggling than announcing a production of Evita without announcing the casting alongside it for the West End is the scope of some of the names that I have been hearing attached to this production since I first heard rumors about this months ago. There are also a lot of questions that arise as a result of this announcement. Jamie Lloyd has directed Evita before, but outdoors is this same production. What do we already know about this from the press release that I'll be reading from here? And what else can we infer? What can we predict? What rumors can I start wildly here on the musical theatre Internet? That is what we are going to be discussing today, this newly announced show that may just turn out to be the most exciting thing happening in the west end in 2025. Now, of course, I am curious to know what you all think of this. Who will be getting tickets when they go on sale at some unspecified time in the new year? Because clearly they don't want anyone to buy these as Christmas presents. And before casting is officially announced, who would you like to see in the role of Eva Peron starring in this musical at the London Palladium? If you enjoy today's video commentary, make sure to subscribe to my theatre themed YouTube channel for more theatre news both in the West End and on Broadway, as well as all of the reviews of the shows that I get invited to go and see as a theatre critic. Also my theatre going vlogs. I have plenty of things to keep you entertained, don't you worry. In the meantime, let's start this conversation. Jamie Lloyd, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Evita. Who's it gonna be? Let's discuss. So, like I said, I had been hearing rumors about this for some time. And I will tell you the name that was attached to those rumors a little bit later on when we talk about potential casting. But otherwise, every detail of what I've been hearing is pretty accurate. I've been hearing summer 2025. I've been hearing London Palladium, which is interesting because the revival of hello Dolly that ran this summer at the Palladium with Imelda Staunton. They nearly said, Dame Imelda Staunton. Is she a dame? Has she been made a dame? She might be a dame. It's like my brain knew to correct my mouth. Hold on. Dame Imelda Staunton. She is a dame. Oh, good for her. Dame Imelda Staunton. I stand corrected. That production has been sort of lightly rumoured to be making a return. And so when we started hearing Evita for the Palladium the following summer, it seemed like maybe that wasn't going to happen. Or is hello Dolly going to catch the train from Yonkers to a different West End theatre? Maybe their originally planned home at the Adelphi? If Back to the Future comes to an end ahead of this summer, which I think is not necessari necessarily beyond the realms of possibility. But Evita in any case, has been announced by Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals. This is the new production company formed by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and Michael Harrison, the producer. Their partnership has given us many successful recent shows, including Starlight Express, including the huge revival of Sunset Boulevard that was at the Savoy, that's on Broadway. Multi award winning, directed, of course, by Jamie Lloyd, starring Nicole Scherzinger. Michael Harrison, also the producer of the newest production of Joseph that is just beginning to embark on its second UK tour, which also previously ran at the Palladium. He is responsible, in fact, for much of the theatrical programming at the Palladium because he also produced hello Dolly. He also produces and directs, I think, the Palladium pantomimes every year, which are a huge deal. And he's also producing Andrew and Webber's upcoming new musical, the Illusionist, which is also going to be directed by Jamie Lloyd, because I guess the three of them just love hanging out together and making theater happen. They jointly announced with the Jamie Lloyd Company, Jamie's own production company, that Tim Rice and Lloyd Webber's Evita will be at the London Palladium Summer 2025. We have more specific dates, in fact, it will run from 14 June to 6 September. It closes the day before my birthday. There you go. With full cast and creatives to be announced. Tickets go on sale in 2025. Dates to be announced. You can sign up for priority booking@evitathemusical.com Here is what Michael Harrison had to it's an honour to return to the London Palladium next summer with my 14th production at the theatre. I'm even more the Jamie Lloyd Company to be presenting Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's glorious musical Evita and to be collaborating again with Jamie following Sunset Boulevard. Jamie Lloyd said after an unforgettable experience on Sunset Boulevard, we are excited to continue our collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber and to take another look at Tim and Andrew's musical masterpiece Evita. Take another look. Interesting. I'll explain why it's a great privilege to do so at the incredible London Palladium alongside Michael Harrison. Then there's a little bit here about the show telling us things we already know. Essentially. The truth is I never left you is the quote they're pulling on. That's quite nice. Tim Rice and Android Webber's legendary Evita returns to the West End, reimagined by the visionary award winning director Jamie Lloyd. Reimagined, that's another important word. Featuring an iconic score including Don't Cry for Me, Argentina, oh, what a Circus, Another Suitcase in Another hall and the Oscar winning youg Must Love Me. I like that they put that in because that is in fact the only time I believe a new song has ever been added to the score of an existing musical when it's been adapted for film. That way around and not the other way around, where the new song has actually won the Academy Award. That's the only time it's worked. Fueled by ambition and passion, Eva Peron rose from poverty to become the most powerful woman in Latin America. A symbol of hope to many Argentines, her star shone brightly as she captured the nation's heart and divided its soul. Jamie Lloyd originally directed Evita at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre as part of their 2019 season. It says here in a standalone sentence then we have a lot about the creatives and Sir Tim Rice and his interest in cricket and I don't think there's anything else we can particularly glean from this. But I was very interested in two of those words with which the show was described. They said reimagined by Jamie Lloyd and they also in Jamie's own statement, he said it's a great privilege to take another look at the musical masterpiece Evita. Now this is where the question lies because Jamie Lloyd has directed Evita before at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. And in fact, that production was, I believe, slated to transfer to the Barbican. But it's one of many casualties of the Pandemic, and it never ended up doing so. When the Barbican eventually reopened, it was with a transfer of the Broadway revival of Anything Goes, starring Sutton Foster. We never saw that particular Evita again. And like many musical revivals at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, and like many revivals by Jamie Lloyd, this was a very stark, visually bold and striking minimalist production, allegedly. Here is the interesting thing. This is the production for which he first sought Nicole Scherzinger. Allegedly, he wanted her to star as Eva Perron in Evita at Regent's Park. And with Sunset Boulevard having now blown up and become this huge thing, you could look back at that Evita and look back at the production photos and think they were perhaps very similar. There are some similarities. There are also many differences. It didn't feature cameras on stage. She was wearing a white slip throughout the whole thing. But the way they used costuming and the way people sort of put things on and. And took things off and layers were added. And like, there was a child costumed as Evapron. The way they used that imagery and that aesthetic was very powerful and very striking. It wasn't that no one was wearing any kind of colorful costumes like in Sunset Boulevard, like in much of his current work. That was a very interesting feature of the production. And there were a lot of other visually striking elements to it as well. They released all of this smoke, this thick, thick, thick blue smoke that you could smell at one point. Someone got essentially tarred and feathered on stage. I don't think it was necessarily the most like, pivotal, perfect reimagining of Evita I've ever seen, but it was certainly impactful. Now, here is what I think is happening. Sunset Boulevard was a huge success for all involved. And so they have said to themselves, how can we replicate this? How can we do this again? Let's take another female led Lloyd Webber musical, let's put it on at another West End theater for another limited run. Let's put another star in it. Let's get Jamie Lloyd to do it again. Certainly based on what I was hearing, a huge, huge pop star is who they first were looking at for this role, but potentially no longer. My assumption, therefore, with Jamie Lloyd, certainly even since the Pandemic, having really come into his own as a creative force and having really solidified his own creative vision, is that this is going to be a Little different. It may retain elements from the Regent's park production where the set was all these, like, stone bleachers ascending to the back of the stage, possibly with Ava in a white slip. There may be elements of that that are carried through, but I would expect this also to be largely a new production. Do we think we're going to see cameras? Because there was a Leicester Curve revival of Evita not long ago that seemed to be following in the footsteps of Sunset Boulevard that also had a lot of cameras on stage and had this screen. I reviewed that here on YouTube, not particularly favorably, because I didn't like the way, especially the way cameras were used in that it seemed to be framing Ava as like, an influencer because it was, you know, transmitting the footage to this vertical screen rather than a portrait one, suggesting the cinematic quality of Sunset Boulevard. And I did like Jamie's Evita at Regent's Park. And I do trust Jamie Lloyd as a creative. I do wonder if he isn't a little too busy in 2025. Truly, I think there are world leaders who are just going to have more free time next year than Jamie Lloyd, who is not only helping to develop Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical, the Illusionist, as well as, you know, participating potentially in Broadway awards season for Sunset Boulevard, he is also working on Waiting for Godot on Broadway. The man has a lot going on, of course, the Tempest, which is about to open at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, followed by Much Ado About Nothing. Allegedly, there are rumors of him possibly being attached to a revival of Ragtime, which is something I don't know if I need to see. And it's not that I don't think he'll do something incredibly exciting with this revival. And, you know, I reserve the right to really enjoy it. But I also think, wouldn't it have been fun to get a. How many times have we had Evita directed by a female director? Because invariably, any version of this show, especially a reimagining, especially a bold take on it, is going to have some sort of a perspective by necessity on her and her decisions. What was her position? What was her morality? What was her goal? What was she trying to do? What did she achieve? How are we framing this woman, this not uncontroversial woman, and, I don't know, just the latest in a stream of men to have their say on her isn't quite as interesting to me as, like, a complex portrayal of her helmed by a female director. I don't know. Anyway, I'm pretty sure they're Trying to replicate Sunset Boulevard. I dare say this is going to be a updated version of the Regent's park staging. I think that production may have been the first time that Jamie worked with Fabienne Eloise as a choreographer who also worked on Sunset Boulevard. I'm sure, sure Sutra Gilmour did the set, so it's probably going to be the same team reuniting from. From that production and from Sunset Boulevard. Yes, Sutra did the set design and Alan Williams as musical director. The other thing to say here is I really like Evita. I think it's probably one of the strongest Lloyd Webber musicals. A lot of that is also owed to the genius and the brilliance of Tim Rice. And again, the way that it's framed with Shay as our narrator. We've seen a lot of shows since. I'm thinking Tammy Faye. I'm thinking Here Lies Love, where you have these controversial historical figures, often women. And, you know, it's not necessarily clear whether it's celebration or condemnation. And I think it's the lack of that sort of a Shay figure. If they had tried to do just Eva Peron without him as her enduring critic, shadowing her and passing judgment on all of her choices, then I don't know if this ever really would have been as successful. Of course, it also owes a huge part of its success to the iconic actresses who have played Eva Peron over the years, of course, originally Elaine Page on Stage and Patti LuPone. All of which begs the question, who will be playing Eva Peron at the London Palladium? Now, there have been, it seems, some attempts made to get a revival of Evita to Broadway. For a few years, there was talk of, is Rachel Zegler going to do it? Are we moving this regional production? Is this version going to come in? None of that ended up happening. There was a concert version at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, starring Ali e Cravaglio, better known as the voice of Disney's Moana, currently starring on Broadway as Sally Bowles in Cabaret. And some people think that she is going to be doing it at the Palladium. And I don't know that she necessarily has that kind of huge box office star power. I mean, Moana, too, is really big right now, but there seems to be, certainly, for Cabaret on Broadway, at least the slightest difficulty in translating that to figures at the box office. For Cabaret to come and see her specifically alongside Adam Lambert, he's proving a big draw. But I also wonder if the audience for Moana 2 and the audience for Cabaret at the Kitkat Club on Broadway don't have an awful lot of crossover. Now, the first name I heard for Evita at the Palladium, before I even knew this production was happening, was a really big one. It was Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga, who has been rumoured for so many theatre projects, most of them on Broadway. For years now, since she's been, you know, doing more acting, doing more films, singing on films, doing A Star Is Born, people have been talking about, when is she going to do Broadway? And I think it's something that she wants to do, but it has to be exactly the right project for her brand, for her image, for her reputation, something that would do well. But I do think this is what happened. I think they had Scherzinger do great in Sunset Boulevard and they were like, let's replicate that success. Let's do a Vita with Lady Gaga. I think that was the pitch that happened around the table. They were like, jamie's already done Evita before. Let's bring that production or some version of it without all the smoke that's going to set off the London Palladium smoke detectors to the Palladium stage. Let's get Lady Gaga to do it. We'll sell millions and millions of tickets. Everything's going to be great, we'll make loads of money. And I'm not saying that I wouldn't buy tickets to see Lady Gaga and Evita. I absolutely would. I don't think that is necessarily the role for her to make this long awaited stage debut in. I don't think that's the show that. I don't think that's the right one. And it's not, because I don't love the complexity of that character for her. I don't know that she's. I'd be intrigued to hear her sing it. I don't know that it's exactly where she is vocally, but also I think inevitably there's going to be some kind of a conversation around her cultural heritage and background and Eva Peron's own, and a lack of any kind of crossover. There's not that that has been particularly present in many castings of the past. I mean, Patti LuPone is like Sicilian and Elaine Page is incredibly British. Elena Roger, an Argentinian actress, did play Evita in a Michael Grandage directed revival of the musical at the Adelphi Theatre just under a couple of decades ago in London that transferred to Broadway. But just like when Beanie Feldstein did Funny Girl, there was a whole hoopla about whether or not she could sing it as well as Lupone as well as the Broadway audiences were expecting to hear. Now subsequently the Lady Gaga rumors have gone a little bit quiet and the name that I've been hearing instead is another big name, not quite as stratospheric, but certainly on the rise. Recently she has been doing the thing mostly on film. I am talking about Broadway star and Academy Award winning actress Ariana DeBose. And while she is also not Argentinian, she is Afro Latina. She has, I believe, Puerto Rican heritage. And funnily enough, when the Regent's park production directed by Jamie Lloyd first went on sale before they announced casting, it was Samantha Pauley from the original Broadway cast of Six and now the Great Gatsby who would end up playing Eva in that production. When they initially put the artwork up, it was of a black actress as Evita and that was very striking because I don't think that's something that's really been done on a major professional stage, certainly in the UK for the duration of the show's history. When it came to casting, that is not what they went with. I don't believe that Samantha Pauley is entirely of Caucasian heritage and Marcia Sonkom was her understudy alternate who is who I saw in the show and who was heavily pregnant at the time, crawling around in this white dress giving a thunderous, fantastic performance. She's amazing. But I am wondering if Jamie Lloyd or someone involved in that production had had some ambition to cast a black actress as Eva Peron and whether Ariana DeBose participates in that vision. Potentially she's another one whose stage returned since she blew up with west side Story and has then been enjoying work on screen has been highly anticipated. She's been rumoured for like workshops and revivals of shows like Sweet Charity and the Kiss of the Spider Woman. And she did do a solo concert at the Palladium. Was that foreshadowing her playing Eva Peron there? Well, I don't think it would have necessarily been set in stone or even possibly talked about at that point, but it's again, it's not beyond the realms of possibility. Before anyone speculates in the comments, if it's going to be Nicole Scherzinger, I don't think that's on the cards here. I think after, you know, the year that she's had doing Sunset Boulevard in London and on Broadway, she's going to have a big old rest and they're going to want her to be in that show through the Tony Awards, possibly beyond the Tony Awards, depending on what happens at the Tony Awards. So having her come over here to start rehearsals for Evita immediately or before then, I don't think it would work even if she wanted to, even if that was the plan. But that for now is all I know and all I can tell you. I am hugely intrigued to follow this and to see what happens next. I think there is no version of this where there's not a big starry name attached to the role of Eva Peron. We have seen the productions that Jamie Lloyd builds. They are always star centric and celebrity centric. I'm going to be really intrigued to see this, especially because when Romeo and Juliet with Tom Holland happened after Sunset Boulevard, a lot of people said, is he a one trick pony with Sunset? These are people who hadn't necessarily been following his extensive career before then and seen other productions like his Evita that had, you know, that had been of quality. But I think this is going to draw even more direct comparisons to Sunset Boulevard. Because it's another Lloyd Webber musical. Because it's another musical, first of all. And because again, it's going to be female star centric. I expect that is all we know so far. I will be back with more updates right here on YouTube. When we find out who is playing this role or if I hear anything exciting about it, I will be sure to let you know either on here or on one of my other social media pages, on TikTok, on Instagram, on Blue sky, on Threads. Go find me across the Internet if you want to stay up to date with this very exciting production. Of course I'll be trying my best to go there and review it for you in June of next year. If you don't want to miss any of this upcoming content, make sure you are subscribed right here on YouTube. Press the button somewhere below my face. Turn on notifications so you get updates every time I share a new video. Thank you for watching. I hope you've enjoyed. Make sure to weigh in in the comment section down below. Are you excited about this production? Who could you see starring in this show at the Palladium? I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day for 10 more seconds. I'm Mickey Jo, the oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.