Fresh off his Tony-winning minimalist revival of Sunset Blvd., Jamie Lloyd is launching a minimalist Evita in the West End, in which apparently Rachel Zegler spends MOST of the show in a bra but then goes full Eva Peron to perform “Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina,” on… the balcony outside the theater.(Sunset did a similar thing with the titular song.) There’s a lot of debate about this: Given ticket prices, does it suck that the most famous song from the show isn’t performed live in the room with the people who paid for tickets? Or is it a super effective commentary, especially as she enthralls the crowds outside as Evita would but then the people in the theater get behind the veil? Personally, I think both things can be true. It sorta sucks for the ticket-holders AND it might also work surprisingly well.
But I am also starting to think Jamie Lloyd is a one-trick pony and look forward to him motoring through the rest of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s oeuvre. Joseph without his technicolor dreamcoat, because WHO NEEDS IT. Cats, but subtract the cats, they’re beside the point. Phantom of the Opera, but he’s not actually in it and neither is the theater and the “chandelier” is just someone throwing a wine glass off the roof outside. It’s gonna be EPIC.
