{"id":199786,"date":"2025-06-20T11:57:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T11:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/199786\/"},"modified":"2025-06-20T11:57:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T11:57:16","slug":"rachel-zegler-serenades-crowd-for-free-in-a-new-evita-production-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/199786\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachel Zegler serenades crowd for free in a new ‘Evita’ production in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON (AP) \u2014 In a new production of \u201cEvita,\u201d one of the biggest moments isn\u2019t on the stage.<\/p>\n

Midway through the show, Rachel Zegler<\/a>, playing Argentine first lady Eva Per\u00f3n<\/a>, emerges onto an exterior balcony at the London Palladium and sings \u201cDon\u2019t Cry for Me, Argentina,\u201d to whoever is passing by below. The performance is streamed back on video to the audience inside.<\/p>\n

News has spread quickly since the show began previews this week, and hundreds have gathered outside the historic venue in London\u2019s West End theaterland to enjoy the free serenade by the \u201cSnow White\u201d<\/a> star.<\/p>\n

The show\u2019s composer, Andrew Lloyd Webber<\/a>, said that it makes for \u201can extraordinary moment\u201d in his musical about a woman who rose from poverty to power and was adored by the masses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin the theater, it\u2019s really exciting because suddenly you see her with a genuine huge crowd, which you can\u2019t do onstage,\u201d Lloyd Webber told The Associated Press on Thursday. \u201cI think there will be people who are disappointed that she hasn\u2019t sung it live in the theater, but I think it\u2019s goinag to be greatly outweighed by the theatricality of using film in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision by director Jamie Lloyd<\/a> has sparked some grumbling from ticketholders who paid up to 245 pounds ($330) for a seat, only for the musical\u2019s most famous number to be sung offstage.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a technique Lloyd has used before. He had a character in \u201cSunset Boulevard\u201d perform a song while walking down the street outside the theater, and his production of \u201cRomeo and Juliet\u201d saw star Tom Holland play a key scene on the theater roof.<\/p>\n

Theater blogger Carl Woodward told the BBC that he could understand why some theatregoers who\u2019d forked out for a ticket felt \u201ca bit aggrieved,\u201d since \u201ca trip to the theater for some is really a once-a-year occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Lloyd Webber cited an opinion piece in The Times of London noting that the gesture is \u201ckind of what Eva Per\u00f3n would have wanted \u2014 that people are actually experiencing her big anthem, as it were, for free.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Lizzie Knight contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON (AP) \u2014 In a new production of \u201cEvita,\u201d one of the biggest moments isn\u2019t on the stage.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[80841,10105,748,80842,16925,393,77,4179,4884,80840,257,80186,69219,11727,2780,16,15,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-199786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-alessio-zerbin","9":"tag-argentina","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-carl-woodward","12":"tag-classical-music","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-great-britain","17":"tag-jamie-lloyd","18":"tag-london","19":"tag-rachel-zegler","20":"tag-streaming-media","21":"tag-television","22":"tag-tom-holland","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom","25":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114715573831765782","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}