{"id":22209,"date":"2026-04-29T16:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T16:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/22209\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T16:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T16:31:08","slug":"evita-starring-rachel-zegler-is-heading-to-broadway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/22209\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Evita,\u2019 Starring Rachel Zegler, Is Heading to Broadway"},"content":{"rendered":"

A reimagined \u201cEvita<\/a>,\u201d with Rachel Zegler portraying the Argentine first lady like a pop star, was a sensation last year in London, drawing crowds into the theater, and to the streets just outside it. Next year, the musical, written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, is transferring to Broadway.<\/p>\n

The show\u2019s producers announced on Wednesday that this \u201cEvita,\u201d reconceived by the British director Jamie Lloyd, would play at an unspecified Shubert theater next spring. Zegler, who earlier this month won an Olivier Award<\/a> for her performance in the London run, will reprise the role in New York.<\/p>\n

There will be one key difference. In London, a signature element of the production was that, at each performance, Zegler sang the show\u2019s best known song, \u201cDon\u2019t Cry for Me, Argentina,\u201d outdoors, from a theater balcony, for a crowd of nonpaying onlookers<\/a>. The scene (which ticket holders could see on a screen) had symbolic value \u2014 Eva Per\u00f3n<\/a>, although ultimately powerful and wealthy, often professed her solidarity with the working poor.<\/p>\n

But in New York, that feat will not be repeated. \u201cWhen we started discussing a New York production, it became apparent that our Palladium staging of \u2018Don\u2019t Cry for Me, Argentina\u2019 would not be possible,\u201d Lloyd said in a statement. \u201cI am really excited to explore a new idea, made especially for Broadway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why outdoors in London and not in New York? The production did not offer a specific explanation, but in recent months Lloyd Webber has been clear that he believes the level of gun violence in the United States made the outdoor scene too risky. \u201cThe one thing that absolutely cannot happen is what we did in London on the balcony,\u201d he told USA Today<\/a> last month. \u201cWe can\u2019t do that in New York. I mean, something awful could happen. We have gun laws in Britain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other concerns arose, too, including the complexity of tempting large crowds of spectators to assemble regularly along a congested Times Square street. \u201cThere are many creative and practical considerations,\u201d Lloyd said in an telephone interview. \u201cThere\u2019s not one reason why we\u2019re doing it differently \u2014 there\u2019s many many different considerations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lloyd said he already has a new concept for staging the scene, but that he\u2019s not ready to share it with the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvita,\u201d which was conceived as a rock opera, originally opened in London in 1978. That production, directed by Hal Prince<\/a>, ran for nearly eight years. Prince also directed<\/a> the first Broadway production, which opened in 1979<\/a>, won seven Tony Awards, including for best musical, and ran until 1983. The show was revived on Broadway once before, in 2012<\/a>. In 1996 it was also adapted into a movie<\/a>, starring Madonna.<\/p>\n

Next year\u2019s revival will be produced by Lloyd\u2019s production arm, the Jamie Lloyd Company<\/a> and, Lloyd Webber\u2019s production team, Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals, which is led by Michael Harrison.<\/p>\n

Zegler, 24, a New Jersey native, had her breakout role in Steven Spielberg\u2019s 2021 film adaptation of \u201cWest Side Story<\/a>.\u201d She has worked steadily since, and in 2024 she starred<\/a> in a Broadway production of \u201cRomeo + Juliet<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lloyd, 45, has built his reputation with radically rethought revivals of classic works by Pinter, Ibsen, Sondheim, Lloyd Webber and Shakespeare, among others. He directed the Tony-winning<\/a> 2024 Broadway revival of Lloyd Webber\u2019s \u201cSunset Boulevard\u201d (which featured one of the lead actors singing the title song while walking backstage and through Shubert Alley<\/a>) as well as this season\u2019s Broadway revival<\/a> of Beckett\u2019s \u201cWaiting for Godot<\/a>,\u201d and this fall he is planning to bring to Broadway a revival of Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cMuch Ado About Nothing<\/a>,\u201d which he previously directed in London.<\/p>\n

This production is Lloyd\u2019s second go at \u201cEvita\u201d \u2014 he previously directed the show at Regent\u2019s Park Open Air Theater in London in 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is, I think, one of the all-time great musicals, and I\u2019m a huge fan of the score, and it\u2019s a fascinating character,\u201d Lloyd said. \u201cThe puzzle is how you reinvent it, because Hal Prince\u2019s production was iconic. Part of the fun of it is how you reinvent each and every moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A reimagined \u201cEvita,\u201d with Rachel Zegler portraying the Argentine first lady like a pop star, was a sensation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[13178,13485,8,13092,13482,13481,9,13484,8196,12729,7,13483],"class_list":{"0":"post-22209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-andrew","9":"tag-evita-play","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-jamie","12":"tag-lloyd","13":"tag-lloyd-webber","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-rachel","16":"tag-theater","17":"tag-theater-broadway","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-zegler"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116488954373671177","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}