Evita at The London Palladium: ‘It’s an evolution’ explains Jamie Lloyd

WhatsOnStage was able to catch up with director Jamie Lloyd as he marked the start of a five-month Shakespeare spell at Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

Beginning with The Tempest, playing now and led by Sigourney Weaver, and being followed by Much Ado About Nothing starring Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell from next month, the season marks the first time the Bard has been performed on the venue’s stage since the 1950s.

Lloyd teased what to expect from his new production of Much Ado About Nothing, saying: “I suspect Much Ado will surprise people – that’s all I’m going to say.”

Beyond the Shakespeare season, Lloyd also teased what to expect from his production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Evita, running at The London Palladium from mid-June. The director previously helmed an award-winning revival of the musical outdoors at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre pre-pandemic.

“It’s an evolution of that production that we worked on in 2019. There’ll be a lot of new elements. Some ideas will be similar, but we’re all different people. Fabian Aloise, choreographer, Alan Williams, musical supervisor, Soutra Gilmour designer and I are all different, and we’ve all been through the experience of making Sunset Boulevard. So I think it’ll be interesting to come at that work afresh.”

Star casting for Evita has been recently rumoured for a long time, but nothing has been confirmed.

You can listen to the full interview with Weaver and Lloyd, as well as Lloyd’s explanation as to how Andrew Lloyd Webber was the one who kicked the Shakespeare season into motion, below: