Rachel Zegler is starring in one of London’s hottest West End productions right now, as former first lady of Argentina Eva Perón in Evita.
Posters are plastered around the city and ads line the tube (the London subway), but there’s one creative decision that may be doing a better job at marketing the show than anyone might have imagined, luring hundreds of spectators to the London Palladium every night.
Director Jamie Lloyd — considered playhouse royalty after his revival of Sunset Boulevard, as well as the Tom Holland-starring Romeo and Juliet — is breaking the fourth wall of theater by having Zegler, star of Snow White and West Side Story, perform live to the street outside.
You read that right. During the show, Zegler, in her West End debut, leaves the stage of the Soho theater for the exterior balcony where she belts out the iconic “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina”. The audience inside — who have paid up to a whopping £250 ($336) a ticket — are left with a livestream of the number. Those on the central London street below, some waiting for Zegler and some lucky enough to have been passing by at the time, get a free performance from a Golden Globe-winning actress.
The stunt has got London buzzing. Viral social media videos have people flocking to Argyll Street at 9 p.m. every night to catch Zegler’s heartfelt rendition. The crowds will, Lloyd certainly hopes, remain as fervid right until the end of the show’s run in September.
Some have lauded the creative decision. Chiefly, it’s getting culture to the masses and making a star like Zegler accessible to those who might not have the money to spend on live theater. But it also works in the context of honoring Perón. “This isn’t just clever staging or a viral moment for social media, although it’s certainly generating buzz,” said Chris Peterson, founder of OnStage Blog. “It’s a reimagined theatrical gesture that reframes everything we think we know about Eva Perón. It turns a moment of private confession into a public performance.”
But others have taken issue with the decision. Theater-goers have weighed in on a paying audience missing out on the musical’s most iconic song. One social media user wrote: “Sorry, are you saying I’ve paid £350 ($471) for 2 tickets and she’s singing the biggest number outside at people who haven’t paid?” Some have even directed their outrage at Zegler, as though she’d have much input in the production plans.
The show also took some heat when it was running at His Majesty’s Theatre for issuing trigger warnings on “loud music and sudden noises.” Toby Young, director of the U.K.’s Free Speech Union, told The Telegraph: “Warning fans of musical theater that they may hear loud music and sudden noises is beyond parody. Just how stupid do theater owners think their customers are?”
But trigger warnings are becoming the norm in the theater world, and vital in some cases: the West End production of Eline Arbo’s The Years, which ran from January to April this year, was interrupted almost every single night while fainters in the crowd were attended to. A blood-heavy at-home abortion scene was heavily alluded to online and on signage as audiences entered the venue.
The discourse is endless, but there’s one sure thing: people are talking about Evita. 24-year-old Zegler is the latest to take on the titular role in Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s 1978 musical. She joins a rank of impressive performers to have taken on Perón, the second wife of ex-president Juan Perón, such as Patti LuPon and Madonna in the 1996 film.
It’s not director Lloyd’s first time dabbling with theatrical livestreams. His Tony award-winning Sunset Boulevard also ordered another character out onto the street while the scene was streamed to audiences inside London’s Savoy theater, and his Romeo, in the Tom Holland-led Romeo and Juliet, performed on the roof of the Duke of York theater last year as drones captured the sequence for spectators.
