Jamie Lloyd’s production of Evita has been referred to as the hottest ticket in the West End right now, with audiences paying as much as £250 for a seat.
But theatregoers keen to watch one of the biggest showstoppers in musical history – Eva Perón’s performance of Don’t Cry for Me Argentina – were left bitterly disappointed when they learned that the scene would not take place on stage.
Instead, the Snow White actor Rachel Zegler, in her West End debut, is performing the song and a short piece of dialogue on the balcony of the London Palladium for passersby each night, while a video is projected to those inside.
The 24-year-old, who rose to fame in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, surprised hundreds of people on the streets of Soho on Saturday when she belted out the song on the balcony for the show’s second-half curtain raiser.
Crowds are now expected to assemble at the spot on Argyll Street at about 9pm every night for the duration of the show’s run, which ends in September.
It is a move that has divided theatregoers. One fan said on social media that they “go to the theatre to share the same space with a performer”, while another said: “Sorry, are you saying I’ve paid £350 for 2 tickets and she’s singing the biggest number outside at people who haven’t paid?”
But others have argued that the outdoor performance reinforces key themes in Evita, such as spectacle and political theatre.
Chris Peterson, the founder of OnStage Blog, wrote: “This isn’t just clever staging or a viral moment for social media, although it’s certainly generating buzz. 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.”
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Meanwhile, members of the crowd outside called it a unique immersive experience. “You might be a bit gutted to have missed the most important song [if you were in the theatre], but you’ve still got the rest of it to go and it’s given a good night to a lot of people who wouldn’t normally be able to get that experience,” one person told Metro newspaper.
Zegler is the latest big name to star in the musical, which was created in 1978 by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice and is based on the life of the Argentinian political leader Eva Perón, the second wife of the former president Juan Perón.
Other actors to have played the role include Elaine Paige and Patti LuPone on stage, and Madonna in the 1996 film adaptation.
Lloyd, who directed Evita at Regent’s Park open air theatre six years ago, is known for his use of video screens and radical interpretations of the classics. His Olivier- and Tony-winning reboot of another Lloyd Webber classic, Sunset Boulevard, similarly sent a character out on to the street for a scene, which was streamed to audiences inside the Savoy theatre.
And as part of his production of Romeo and Juliet, the Spider-Man star Tom Holland was sent to the roof of the Duke of York’s theatre, with his performance filmed by drones and beamed into the auditorium.
Zegler, who found herself at the centre of controversy during the release of Snow White for her pro-Palestine activism and dismissal of Disney’s old-fashioned themes, has previously spoken of her love for the musical.
“Evita has been such an important musical to me since I was a little girl, when my dad and I would sing Don’t Cry for Me Argentina together on my back patio,” she said. “The opportunity to bring Jamie Lloyd’s singular, visionary ideas to life on stage is an honour unlike any other.”
She leads a cast that includes Diego Andres Rodriguez as Che, James Olivas as Juan Perón, Aaron Lee Lambert as Agustín Magaldi and Bella Brown as the Mistress.
