by Director Jamie Lloyd outraged some theater goers who apparently change briefly after he paid Rachel Zegler well as Eva Perón. In a scene she hikes from the stage and to an outward balcony to sing a magnetic repriser by Don’t Cry for me Argentina opposite the assembled crowd outside the theater.
What do these grumps complain about? Not too long ago Lloyd Romeo and Julia organized in the west end, but here is a balcony scene like no other. It ensures a sensational moment in which Perón triumphantly addresses the crowd of their husband’s election victory. It is a 360-degree theater for the rich inside (which you can see in a video feed) and for the “Hoi Polloi” outside-very much for Perón, given their contempt for the rich.
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It is no less than the largest coup in the director’s theater: the public itself is registered for its mise, close scene of the populist rallies, the audience hypnotism and the authoritarian charm. The crowd could represent Buenos Aires at the end of the 1940s – or in America in mid -2020, under the spell to become “great” again. It doesn’t matter to complain to complaints from a free show – maybe Lloyd should pay you.
Previously, Lloyd organized this Andrew Lloyd Webber Musical (with texts by Tim Rice) in the Regent’s Park Open Air Theater in 2019. Then it seemed like a dark high school musical, with stairs such as grandstands and actors, which are similar with teenagers with Flinty-Eyed. This iteration has a strip of it, but is brave, polished and pumped.
Zegler is phenomenal on her west end debut. It has been deducted in underwear and is indifferent to Perón, connecting, delicious, malignant, pocket -sized and yet steeler, in extreme value: a perfect ice queen. She steps on the hips with her hands in her unstoppable ambition.
In her relationship with the singer Agustín Magaldi (Aaron Lee Lambert, who sings a thousand stars in a brilliant, barrel -like baritone that night), she disposes that she quickly met by Juan Perón (James Olivas). The new couple is well suited, their chemistry in the duet would be surprisingly good for them.
If a successful musical is simply the singing, dancing and the spectacle, it rises. The choreography of Fabian Aloise, who previously worked on three other Lloyd shows, is imaginative outside of the world. The ensemble Mesmerise with its sexual energy and charismatic aggression. Every time a weapon is fired, a dark military figure bursts body pops and balloons one after the other.
These movements, this mood and this striking melodrama would not look out of place in a show Gaga or Beyoncé Stadium. Jon Clark’s light design and Adam Fisher’s Sound Design: They are also thundering and pulsating.
It is hypnotic, but the narrative takes a back seat for this rock musical, which is sung almost exclusively, with what feels like a thin connective tissue in its history. They see that perónetism slips into authoritarianism, but not quite understand how. In Lloyd’s earlier staging, the character of Che (Diego Andres Rodriguez, also the singing counter) was a che Guevara T-shirt to let the audience know who he was. Now he is black and for those who are new to this story, he could remain anonymous.
There is an approximation to the characters as a whole with very little focus on Perón’s inwardness. Maybe that’s not the point, but how can the audience feel the tragedy of their premature death – which takes so much time in the second half of the musical – if they cannot combine them emotionally?
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The sound changes after the balcony scene and changes from Blingy and Bombastic to a calmer, sadter register. For the first time you see Perón’s private emotion after your great public exhibition when she sits in tears in her dressing room. It is an revealing moment, but this shimmer is not enforced in something affected. So the end bears an empty space as soon as the spectacle has decreased – as if the true show was completed some time ago. Don’t cry for me, Argentina, she sings and you are dry -eyed, although Zegler is a vocal power plant, as is the other actors.
If you have refused the subtleties of history, character and comment on populist power, you still have a striking night. And the balcony scene is a stroke of genius.
