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will EVITA work with no balcony? | thoughts on changes for the Rachel Zegler led Broadway transfer
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My perfect day has sand, salt water and friends, but my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis can take me out of the moment. Now I'm all in with clearer skin thanks to Skyrizi Risankizumab RZA, a prescription only 150mg injection for adults who are candidates for systemic or phototherapy. With Skyrizi, Most people saw 90% clearer skin and many were even 100% plaque free at four months. Skyrizi is just four doses a year after two starter doses.
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of work advice sounds good in theory, but falls apart when you actually try to use it. I'm on a mission to change that. I'm Molly Graham, a company builder and the new host of Work Life, a podcast from ted. I've spent my career inside fast growing companies and one thing I know for sure is that work is messy. In this new season, I'm excited to share my conversations with founders, operators and creatives about the real story behind their shiniest successes. The lessons that no one ever posts on LinkedIn. Listen now on Work Life wherever you get your podcasts. ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com well don't cry for me Argentina, because I got to see Rachel Zegler performing that iconic song both inside and outside of the London Palladium on multiple occasions. However, Broadway's audiences right now have no idea what version of that performance they can look forward to. The headline news is Jamie Lloyd's revival of Evita, starring Rachel Zegler is heading to Broadway next season. However, she won't be singing from the Balcony, which is to say that they have confirmed it won't be possible for the leading lady to perform the show's most iconic song to an audience collected outside of the theat she did when it ran last summer in the West End. And right now we have no idea how that number is going to be staged in the Broadway transfer. But what we can do is speculate wildly, just like we did when Sunset Boulevard walked its way from the Savoy to the St. James. And in doing so, we're going to address the question, does losing the Balcony hurt the Broadway production of Evita? Or actually help it? Plenty for us to unpack here, but before we do, a quick introduction to those of you meeting me for the very first time. Oh, my God. Hey, welcome to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to those of you listening to this on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Jo, and ah, I'm your savior. God, that was nasal. I am an independent theatre critic and a content creator here on social media, and I love nothing more than discussing the minutia of productions that I have had the chance to see around the world. Which is why, divisive though they may be, I love productions like this. And I love the work of Jamie Lloyd for giving us all something to talk about. When Sunset was running in the West End, when it was running on Broadway, there was so much discourse around the walk, around whether or not they would be able to replicate it, whether or not it was going to work in Manhattan, all of the different factors, whether it was safe, all of this conversation. And now we get to do the same thing with the Evita balcony moment and we get to thoroughly overthink the thing and its dramaturgical and logistical implications in the name of theatrical punditry. Now, I'm going to talk through what I think are the various different choices that they have here and the various options available to them, and I'm going to share my opinions about each. But this would not be a complete conversation if I didn't get the chance to hear yours. So please share all of your thoughts about this and the various options that I lay out here in the comments section down below. What do you think Evita should do? And more importantly, what do you think they will do? Also, if you're planning to see this revival in New York, let us know in the comment section down below as well. In the meantime, here are my thoughts about what's going to happen when Rachel Zegler and Evita go to Broadway. So the first thing to address is why they can't do the Balcony in the first place, because option A would obviously be just to replicate what they did at the London Palladium in the West End. And to be explicitly clear, this was in the official press release when the show was announced a few days ago, hours after their guerrilla marketing campaign began in Hell's Kitchen in Times Square and they started painting blue stars all over The Sidewalk. Jamie Lloyd said this. I was completely overwhelmed by the incredible response to Evita in London. It's an honor to work with Tim and Andrew, and I'm looking forward to revisiting the production with Rachel, whose stellar performance continues to inspire me. When we started discussing a New York production, it became apparent that our Palladium staging of Don't Cry for Me Argentina would not be possible. I am really excited to explore a new idea made especially for Broadway. And Sir Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, who, generally speaking, loves to reveal a few more details than he ought to when speaking to the press, had previously alluded to safety concerns and firearms in the U.S. now, Manhattan is a firearm free zone. But also there is, I think, an understandable difference between Rachel doing this daily at the same time, Argyle street versus in Midtown Manhattan. And that isn't necessarily a London versus New York sensibility problem, although I think that comes into play just a little bit. She's also that little bit more known in the us I think as much as anything else, it has to do with the immediate geography of the location. Because when Evita was rumored to be heading to Broadway, people were talking about all of these theaters. They were saying, oh, the balcony. The St. James seems to be being renovated right now. Surely that's for Evita. They've got Evita advertising on one of the doors. In fact, the renovations to the balcony of the St. James began far earlier pre Evita actually beginning performances in the West End. They spoke about Hadestown closing at the Walter Kerr just so Evita could use that balcony. And it quickly became apparent that even if there were a suitable balcony on one of these theaters, in the same way that there is at the Palladium, there isn't really enough space for a huge audience to gather on the sidewalk. It would become a logistical concern. The difference with Tom Francis's Sunset Boulevard walk that he did at the St. James up and Down Schubert, is that he is not a star of the same magnitude and celebrity status as Rachel Zegler. Though in fairness, given enough time in the screen career I predict for him, I've no doubt that he eventually will be, which will make it harder for him to walk around Manhattan while singing Act 2 opening numbers. But a bigger problem, I think, than the logistics of actually finding a balcony with enough space in front of it for hundreds, if not thousands of people to gather every day at the same time is the nature of midtown Manhattan and the theatre district, because it's all quite bustling. There are no real side streets. And the London Palladium is not only a little bit removed from the rest of the West End theaters, Argyll street itself is not a hub of activity. It is not in the immediate vicinity of Piccadilly Circus or Leicester Square or Trafalgar Square. It isn't bustling every single day. The fact they were able to close the road was somewhat miraculous, but it's a pretty quiet street with no other theaters. The only comparable option of Broadway houses might be the Vivian Beaumont at Lincoln center, though that wouldn't be without its own complications. I just know somebody's going to fall in the lake. And also the stage in that auditorium not particularly conducive for the existing staging of Evita, with all of those bleachers. And so between those logistical challenges and legitimate safety concerns, for Rachel Zegler, who has already been needlessly vilified by right wing nutjobs, doing any version of the balcony performance where she appears in public in the same spot at the same time every day seems a foolish move. She could do it in different places, like a pop up around New York. Like one day she's at the Union street subway station, another day she's at the Times Square Applebee's. However, she does have to, at the end of that number immediately, then go do the high flying adored, make her way down to the stage so she can't do it remotely. And people have, both in jest and in seriousness, speculated about other locations where she could perform this. It is believed but not confirmed that Evita is, I think at this point heading to the Winter Garden Theater and whimsical as it would be to have her perform the thing in Ellen's Stardust Diner. I don't know if you would get the same sense of natural majesty as we had when the camera panned to reveal the crowd silently watching her on Argyle street in their hundreds every day. I don't know that you would get the same thing when you panned to a table of tourists eating chicken on a waffle, which is no shade whatsoever by the way, to chicken on a waffle. The question becomes, though, if they aren't going to do an in person version of Don't Cry for Me Argentina performed via balcony, what are they going to do instead? So if option A was doing some version of it in person, which is not feasible, option B would then be to do some other Jamie Lloyd esque gimmick for the benefit of the patrons in the audience. Though it wouldn't necessarily benefit those waiting outside the theater who indeed would have no reason now to wait outside the theatre. I do wonder if people are going to stand there for first preview just in case something happens. And on that point I will say it's kind of thrilling that we don't know what' to happen for this production. I remember the excitement building when people noticed that they were rehearsing Don't Cry For Me Argentina from the balcony, and speculation began that this was going to be how the song was performed outside of the theater every night to a crowd on the streets. I remember the buzz after the very first preview of Sunset Boulevard in the West End, when that audience became the first people to discover how Tom Francis performed that song. And honestly, I cannot imagine the extraordinary excitement of being in that audience and finding that out organically without having it spoiled. I think it would have been even more fun if the same thing happened to DeVita and we hadn't seen her rehearsing in the days leading up to it. So not knowing what they're going to do on Broadway, that's quite exciting. But it does have big shoes to fill as a moment. And some have suggested that her performance could still be screened outside the theater, perhaps in Times Square. And I don't know that that really has the same impact. I think if they had done that in the West End, somewhere like Trafalgar Square or Piccadilly Circus, I dare say a crowd may have gathered, but people probably wouldn' stood there in rapture and awe. People would have chatted through it, people probably would have walked away. It's not the world's most compelling song. She sings it beautifully. But a huge part of that magnetic appeal was the fact that she was right there and we were watching her singing it live to us and we became the crowd. If she's there on a screen, then it doesn't work in the same way. And also, it was never really entirely about entertaining the people of the streets so much as it was about utilizing them to look like this adoring crowd. It was as much a coup d' theatre for the audience inside the Palladium as it was forever. Everybody outside. And so speaking of the audience inside, what else could they do instead? Well, they could still utilize screens. Don't Cry for Me Argentina was not the only filmed moment because the use of cameras and video screen continued through High Flying Adored as she slowly made her way back to the stage to perform Rainbow High. There is every possibility they could film her doing it in a different part of the Winter Garden Theater, not a Broadway house that I know. In fact, it's one of the few that I have yet to go and see a show at. So very much looking forward to crossing it off my list. Hopefully with this production of Evita, if indeed that is where this is heading. At the Palladium they used the Royal Circle bar for some of these moments. They did a similar thing with Romeo and Juliet in the West End, also directed by Jamie Lloyd, with Tom Holland moving between different parts of the building, some scenes up on the roof, some scenes in the foyer and bar areas. She could also appear in a different part of the auditorium. This is something I speculated about for Romeo and Juliet is that maybe they would use the Circle to do the balcony scene there. Maybe Rachel could appear elsewhere and a camera could follow her around. But at some point you have to question why you would position the audience inside the theater to watch the most iconic song in the show be performed through a video screen if nobody is getting to see it live and in person. And don't get me wrong, it's still live, but if she's not playing to someone face to face, what's the point of not just doing it on the stage? And make no mistake, it is good enough and she is good enough to just stand there and sing the song. What I'm wondering is whether that is what they end up doing and she performs Don't Cry For Me Argentina simply on the stage. Don't forget that this production of Evita is an evolution of a similar but slightly different earlier version directed by Jamie with many of the same creative team staged at Regent's Park Open Air Theater. No cameras, no screen, Don't Cry for Me Argentina simply sung on stage. What I'm wondering about is whether they utilize the screen and the cameras in a different moment of the show instead and really surprise the audience who aren't expecting that. Also worth pointing out, Jamie is working with a new video team since Sunset Boulevard and not to be messy in my journalism, but when Evita announced they were going to Broadway, Jamie Lloyd's former collaborator and prolific award winning video Designer Nathan Amzi, one half of the Sunset Boulevard video team, commented USA 829 with a eyes emoji which upon a little Google search it turns out is a union for scenic artists who work in film, theater, opera, ballet, television, industrial shows, commercials and exhibitions representing live performance, scenery, costume, lighting, sound and projection designers, motion picture and television costume designers. You get the idea. I'm not entirely sure what is being alluded to there, but it seems as though there was some sort of a creative falling out between these artists at some time which is a real shame because the video work done for Sunset Boulevard was peerless, I thought. Certainly Jamie Lloyd as a director is making some of the most creative use of video on stage, and certainly Nathan Amzy and Joe Ransom are some of the best in their field. But inevitably I keep coming back to the notion that if Rachel can't sing for a crowd other than the one in the auditorium, then she may as well just sing for the people in the auditorium. Which brings us to the final.
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- [15:09]
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Liberty Liberty, Liberty, Liberty. Null option. So option C is this she just performs the song on the stage and they just do away with the video of it all. And there was always some debate about whether or not the audience at the London Palladium were being shortchanged because she sings the entirety of the song to Argyll street and everyone inside the theatre who has paid for a ticket is just watching on a screen. People did comment on that being a sort of a class statement in and of itself. I also think a component of that viewing experience was getting to see that moment when it panned to Argyll street and see the gathered crowd live outside, I think that was always astonishing to witness. But also, here's what's getting smothered in the rest of this conversation. The rest of the show has many other astonishing moments. And because we spent the entire summer talking about the balcony scene, we didn't talk nearly enough about the staging and performance of Buenos Aires. We didn't talk nearly enough about the performance of Rainbow High of a new Argentina. Explosive, high octane, massive, hugely choreographed songs, brilliantly choreographed by Olivier Award winner Fabian Alouise, who better get a Tony nomination for this show after getting rudely snubbed for Sunset Boulevard. If it does transpire that Rachel simply performs Don't Cry For Me Argentina and maybe they do away with video in the show entirely, I think it would actually uplift those other moments and they would be even more appreciated. I think the revival might get just a little bit more praised for that, honestly. Which brings us to that question, does losing the balcony hurt Evita or help it? And certainly an enormous part of the buzz in London was the fact that she was doing this. It made a lot of people from outside of the theater sphere very much interested in the production when it first went on sale with her name attached. Once she had been announced, it wasn't selling out entirely and doing the wild dynamic pricing that subsequently happened after it started to go viral on TikTok and people started to talk about it. And people in my life who are aware of theater but don't follow every single thing quite as closely were very much aware of the Rachel Zegler Evita balcony performance. It's just something that people came to know about. Certainly it got far more attention than the Sunset Boulevard Walk ever did when it was at the Savoy. And so it would be a shame to lose the wider cultural impact of that moment and to have nothing reach out beyond the theater, because it was really unique and exciting for a show to be able to do that. At the same time, you can only assume that Broadway ticket prices are going to be higher than those in the West End and there will be even more of an expectation that that audience gets to see that number performed live. But talking about expectation, they, unlike the West End audiences who booked in advance, are going to know that that is what they did in London. So are they going to expect some sort of exciting novel coup d' e theatre for Don't Cry For Me Argentina, or will they just be content that it's actually being performed in front of them? I genuinely think it's going to split people in terms of which they would prefer. I do ultimately think a version of that song staged more traditionally without screams, scenes without cameras, would probably benefit the production. Rachel's performance and Jamie as a director and the way in which his work is perceived, because I think he's too often reduced to this singular gimmick when there are many other moments of creative brilliance in Evita. I think back to that production at Regent's park before it went to the Palladium. No cameras, no screens. And I think about their use of costuming and the use of imagery. And what you may or may not know is that for this moment in the show, this is the only time when you see her in the blonde wig and the white Dior ball gown in that iconic Eva Perron look. And they really played with that likeness at the park. And in the Palladium production, she just puts that on for this public appearance and then removes it again after she has turned away from the crowds and retreated back indoors. And we saw that transformation happen on stage at the end of the show. But some of the symbolism of it might come through a little more clearly if we get to see when she's singing Don't Cry for Me, Argentina. That's what I'm thinking. In the end, we can keep over analysing this and I dare say that we will. There are potentially some vantage points on this that I haven't considered. Maybe even an additional option as to how they could stage this. Let me know all of your thoughts in the comment section down below. What do you think they should do and what do you think they will do? Let me know also if you're planning to get tickets. For those of you who have yet to make up your minds about this production of Evita, you can go and check out the full review that I shared last summer when I saw it at the Palladium on opening night. What I will say is, as I mentioned before, the show is kind of getting smothered under conversation of the balcony performance. There is so much that is creatively rich about the way this is being brought to the stage. Rachel's award winning performance as Eva Peron is very much worth seeing, worth hearing. I think you do owe it to yourself to go and check out this production on Broadway, regardless of how they're going to tackle this one particular moment. Also, those early audiences are going to get to be the first people to find out, and I think that's pretty thrilling. Shortly thereafter, the rest of us will find out as well. And I dare say you will find me back here talking about it once more. I may even go and see the show again on Broadway on one of my subsequent trips, especially if they are going to be making changes in the meantime. Thank you so much for listening to my thoughts on this. If you would like to hear more of my thoughts about the theatre industry worldwide, make sure you're subscribed here on YouTube or following me on podcast platforms. I have been Mickey Jo and as always, I hope that everyone is staying safe and that 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.
- [21:51]
A
My perfect day has sand, salt water and friends, but my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis can take me out of the moment. Now I'm all in with clearer skin thanks to Skyrizi Risankizumab RZA, a prescription only 150mg injection for advanced adults who are candidates for systemic or phototherapy with Skyrizi. Most people saw 90% clearer skin and many were even 100% plaque free at four months. Skyrizi is just four doses a year. After two starter doses.
- [22:19]
B
Don't use if allergic to Skyrizi. Serious allergic reactions, increased infections or lower ability to fight them may occur before treatment. Get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor about any flu like symptoms or vaccines.
- [22:31]
A
Thanks to Skyrizi, there's nothing on my skin and that means means everything. Ask your doctor about Skyrizi, the number one dermatologist prescribed biologic in psoriasis. Visit skyrizi.com or call 1-866-Skyrizi to learn more.
- [22:52]
D
And Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show.
- [23:01]
C
Hey everyone, check out this guy and his bird. What is this your first date?
- [23:05]
D
Oh no. We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Together we're married. Me to a human, him to a bird.
- [23:12]
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Yeah, the bird looks out of your league.
- [23:13]
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