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London
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2 July 2025
Rachel Zegler is a once-in-a-generation talent who should never have been doubted.
Today, the world has woken up to reviews unanimously praising her performance in Evita at The London Palladium.
It’s easy for me to lead this piece with that bold statement. I’ve been a fan of Rachel since West Side Story, and comparatively, I was a later fan than those who subscribed to her teenage YouTube channel. It’s on that very platform that she revealed that she had submitted a self-tape to be considered for the Steven Spielberg flick.
Audiences watched her soar as the wide-eyed Maria, picking up the Golden Globe and introducing her crystalline voice to the masses.
She’s doing the same here in London, singing to thousands each evening on Argyll Street.
It’s a role that she’s been desperate to play since performing the material with her father from a young age. In fact, she gave producer Michael Harrison the idea to cast her. “We saw an audition tape and she was sensational,” he told us in a past interview, “She worked with our musical supervisor in New York on the material, the versions of the songs were terrific.”
The Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical charts the rise of Eva Péron as the First Lady of Argentina. It’s the second time she, at only 24 years old, is playing a young woman who, by chance or by accident, became a political symbol of sorts. In 2023, Zegler led the film adaptation of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and noted in our exclusive WhatsOnStage interview that Eva is not so different from one Lucy Gray Baird.
“Evita has always been relevant, it’ll never stop being relevant. That’s what’s beautiful about art and why we revive things,” she explained, referencing The Hunger Games novelist Suzanne Collins pointedly writing Sunrise on the Reaping in response to rises of power and how they’re affecting the world. “I really hope that not only the story remains relevant in a way that people learn from, but that the music remains the soundtrack of our lives.”
Bravely outspoken, Zegler has been villainised in the press, particularly after her turn as an apple-biting Disney princess. Note: The film has topped the Disney Plus charts since its streaming release. While skeptics were quick to write sensationalist headlines, the Jamie Lloyd Company, as a collective, was quick to prove them wrong.
The director, who has faced questionable headlines himself (notably, his artistic decisions have mostly always paid off), has shown dedication to his casting choices. He recently helped make former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger‘s dreams a reality, with the help of a revolutionary creative team, and has once more defied expectations with Evita.
Meanwhile, Diego Andres Rodriguez made his Broadway debut with the Jamie Lloyd Company in Sunset Boulevard. Recognising a certain talent, Lloyd cast him as Che Guevara in this production, and the actor finished his stint early to fly to London to rehearse for his West End debut. You can listen to him discuss the journey in our exclusive podcast episode below:
Notably in the discussion, Rodriquez comments that a year after submitting for a different show, Sunset’s casting agents reached out inviting him to audition.
Casting director Will Burton, alongside Jim Carnahan (US casting director) and Harry Blumenau (children’s casting), have assembled a stellar line-up after years of keeping an eye on potential. Speaking on opening night, Rodriguez called Zegler “a pillar of hope for so many people, particularly for myself.”
He continued: “As a Latino in this industry who wants to achieve great stuff and to be someone to represent a community, she’s done that. And she continues to do that as Eva Perón, and I think she does it with so much grace. She is someone who brings so much excitement and joy to work with her.”
James Olivas plays Juan Perón, portrayed here as a younger figure than in traditional stagings. Though if this were your first Evita you’d have never known (unless you’re a history buff), he plays the role of a charming yet smarmy politician with familiarity in today’s landscape.
Before this, he had never visited London. In fact, Zegler acted as a tour guide for her two co-stars, both of whom match her levels of exhilaration in the show.
Speaking of, the 19-strong ensemble is breathtaking. A mixture of new and returning faces to the Jamie Lloyd Company, they deliver Fabian Aloise’s pacey, Argentine flamenco street dance with aplomb. Once more, Evita reunites Lloyd, Aloise, designer Soutra Gilmour, music supervisor and musical director Alan Williams, and sound designer Adam Fisher. The long-term collaborators, in tandem with Lloyd’s repertory approach to casting his Shakespeare season earlier this year (starring Sigourney Weaver, Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell, no less), have reinforced the idea of a collective and strengthened his directorial vision, to heck with naysayers.
It not only has a positive effect on the company, which surely must feel a sense of community and appreciation of their craft, but also on the audiences. In Sunset Boulevard, Tom Francis took strolls down busy, tourist-packed streets, belting the title tune, Romeo and Juliet had Tom Holland on a West End rooftop (likely place for Spider-Man to be), and Evita sees arguably the most well-known number, “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” performed outside of the theatre auditorium to ticket-less crowds.
It’s a move that cements the company’s commitment to accessibility, with, once again, thousands of tickets available across the run at £25 exclusively for under 30s, key workers and those receiving government benefits. These tickets are available across all levels of the theatre, and include the very front row.
Listen to our free podcast review of the show:
The spectacle, which has caused virality on social media, is attracting larger crowds as each performance passes. As a result, local businesses have written to Lloyd to tell him that their business is “booming.” He tells WhatsOnStage that one shop owner wrote: “This show has changed my life.”
It’s a life-changing show for all involved; the performers making their West End debuts, the creatives elevating a vision first seen outside six years ago, and even a new generation of theatre fans who have been spotted Googling Eva Péron in the interval. So, what happens now? We can’t wait to find out.
