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As you may or may not know, nascent screen superstar Rachel Zegler is in town, currently starring as loveable dictator’s wife Eva Perón in Jamie Lloyd’s revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita.
A lot of people clearly do know this, as it’s rapidly caught on that at around 9pm every night Zegler is heading up to the outside balcony of the London Palladium to sing the showstopping ‘Don’t Cry for Me Argentina’ – not to the audience in the theatre, but to the passing masses of central London (ticketholders see it on a big screen in the theatre, a similiar idea to the infamous ‘street walk’ section of Lloyd’s phenomenal take on Webber’s Sunset Boulevard). Aside from casual passers by, it’s been reported that up to 600 people have been gathering per night, specifically to see her sing.
Although the show is a couple of week from officially opening, there has already been raging online debate as to the merits of the scene: there are those who think everything Jamie Lloyd does is infuriatingly faddish and he should just back off from live video entirely; there are those who think having the populist Evita singing directly to the masses – and not the ‘elite’ ticketholders is actually pretty resonant with the themes of the show.
I’m not going to pass judgement until I’ve seen it. But I do think it’s fundanetally a cool idea that at 9pm each night you can see a very famous person sing a very famous song for free – London can be exasperating at times, but it’s this sort of high-powered whimsy that makes life in a megalopolis worthwhile. Hopefully word being out about Zegler’s nightly appearance won’t jeapordise said appearances - it’s late enough that things shouldn’t get too disruptive, and it’s a lot more fun that loitering at stage door to watch Zegler running into a cab (although presumably quite a lot of people will be doing that too).
Evita is at the London Palladium until Sep 6. Performances are Monday to Saturday with matinees Thursday and Saturday. If you actually want to see it in the theatre, buy tickets here.
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