Jamie Lloyd Confirms Unusual 'Evita' Staging in Conversation about London Revival

When the video dropped of Rachel Zegler as Eva Perón singing "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" from a balcony facing the street of the London Palladium, it was first assumed it was an event to promote the show. It turns out that it is another of director Jamie Lloyd's staging concepts, and this is the way it will be performed during the production's run (through September). This means that those who can find a spot beneath the balcony every night around 9 pm will have the opportunity to watch Zegler sing "Evita's" most famous song live, while those paying customers inside will watch as it is streamed to large monitors on the stage.

"It is a move that has divided theatregoers," reports The Guardian. "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?'"

Others, though, think the move reinforces key themes of the musical as a public spectacle and political theater.

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."

The show is already the hottest ticket in the West End, with audiences paying as much as £250 for a seat. And is getting strong word of mouth. "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.

It also is being seen as a way of Jamie Lloyd making a backhanded comment about the theater's haves and have nots by placing the live performance in a public space where it can be seen for free, while those who paid the premium prices for seats watch on a video monitor. This is the inverse of the way this kind of public performance is usually done. Metro music writer Danni Scott writes that "Jamie Lloyd's production works on the symbolism that those in the theatre are the 'rich' bourgeoisie, while those on the street are the 'poor' Argentines, to whom Evita is singing." She goes on say that, at first, if she and her family had purchased tickets they would have been "devastated to miss out on the big number." However, after watching Zegler perform the number on the public balcony, she changed her mind. "I realised it was exactly people in my position growing up that she was singing for. The crowd was heavily made up of young fans in their late teens to mid 20s, who possibly couldn't afford to see the show. This might have been their only chance to witness such a sensational performer in real life – and money shouldn't stop them."

"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," writes the Guardian.

Lloyd has quickly become one of London and New York's most in-demand directors. He came onto the London theater scene when he was named associated director of the the Donmar Warehouse, where he stayed until 2011, winning praise for his productions of "Piaf" and "Passion." In 2013, with the Ambassador Theatre Group, he launched The Jamie Lloyd Company and began his partnership with actor James McAvoy, who appeared in productions of "Macbeth," "The Ruling Class," "Three Days of Rain," and "Cyrano de Bergerac." In 2018 he directed a six-month season of Harold Pinter plays at the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End. His revival of "Betrayal," the final play in that season, featuring Tom Hiddleston, Zawe Ashton, and Charlie Cox, transferred to Broadway, where Lloyd received his first Tony nomination for Best Direction of a Play.

In 2019 Lloyd helmed three plays at the Playhouse Theatre under the banner of the Jamie Lloyd Company. The season consisted of "Cyrano de Bergerac" with McAvoy in a new version by Martin Crimp, "The Seagull" starring Emilia Clarke in a version by Anya Reiss, and "A Doll's House" starring Jessica Chastain. As part of the Playhouse Season, the Jamie Lloyd Company committed to a wide-ranging outreach programme, giving away 15,000 tickets for free to each production to first-time theatre goers, and with a further 15,000 £15 seats to young and low-income audience members.

In 2023, his production of "A Doll's House" starring Chastain played Broadway to much acclaim. Both he and Chastain received Tony nominations. The same year, he directed Nicole Scherzinger in a radically rethought revival of "Sunset Boulevard" at London's Savoy Theatre. The production won seven Olivier Awards, including one for Lloyd as Best Director of a Musical and one for Scherzinger for Best Actress in a Musical. The production transferred to Broadway last fall with Scherzinger, where it received seven Tony Award nominations (including one for Lloyd's direction) and won three (Scherzinger for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, Best Revival of a Musical, and Best Lighting Design of a Musical). He also directed a controversial revival of "Romeo and Juliet" starring Tom Holland in the West End that was initially scheduled to transfer to Broadway, but did not.

The current production of "Evita" is Lloyd's second rethinking of an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. It is also his second time directing the piece. In 2019 he staged it in Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, and it was scheduled to be transferred to the Barbican Theatre in 2020, before the closure of British theatres due to COVID-19. In the fall he returns to Broadway in a new production of "Waiting for Godot" that will star Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, reuniting the stars of "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure."

That earlier "Evita" was staged like a rock opera against a bank of bleachers. Today, he sees the Palladium production is an evolution of that idea. "It's completely different to Prince's production, which really can't be bettered," Lloyd told Vogue in a recent interview. "We're trying to see things from a different point of view." (Note: Lloyd is referencing Harold Prince, who staged the original West End and Broadway productions of "Evita.")

He hinted to Vogue about how he planned on staging "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" as a public moment on the Palladium balcony that would be streamed onto the stage. Zegler calls it "Eva Perón's Coachella set," and it is in keeping with Lloyd's credo of opening theater up to as wide an audience as possible. To this end, "Evita" has 5,000 £25 tickets that are on sale for under 30s, key workers, and those on benefits.

Lloyd agrees that Eva Perón can be seen as a pop star, and embraces that notion for his staging. "There's so much complexity in it. It's almost like a series of tableaux in a way. You've got to embrace the fact that it's jagged and weird and there are various musical styles. This journey from her humble beginnings to icon makes sense for a contemporary audience in terms of the pop stars of today, those iconic people in popular culture. Making it into a Coachella or Glastonbury set is an interesting way of harnessing the power of the music."

He traces his love of "Evita" to his dad, telling Vogue Magazine: "My dad was a truck driver, and he used to play Evita in the cab as he drove. It was his favorite musical. Hearing it again, I suddenly had these vivid memories of sitting in the passenger seat of his big HGV driving around industrial estates and up these bleak, gray motorways up and down the country. He knew every word, and he'd sing along."

He added: "If my dad were around, it would just blow his mind."

Lloyd first spotted Zegler performing on YouTube. "She's this amazing vocalist," he told Vogue. "Hearing her singing this material, I get goosebumps." When he is casting a show, he always asks himself if he feels a connection with the actors. "At the first sing-through, when other people were at their music stands being very polite and formal, she was just ripping around the room and expressing herself fully. I just love that. The way I work relies on actors to feel free."

Lloyd recalled how, when he was a child, his family lived above a dress shop and he use to sneak downstairs and dress up as various characters. "Sometimes I'd stand in the shop window pretending to be a mannequin and move and wave when I saw a passerby."

He was also obsessed with Michael Jackson, and remembers seeing the performer during his "Bad" tour. "We were right at the back and at the side, but I have this vivid memory of seeing him, tiny because we were so far away, and the big screens, and the thrill of him when he would stop mid-song and just hold, waiting for the response before going back into the song. It wasn't theater, but it was entertainment, one of the moments when it all kind of makes sense."

He feels that his not coming from a traditional theater background has influenced his work. "So many of my contemporaries saw iconic Shakespearean performances. That was their starting point," he said, wryly. "Whereas, mine was paddling with pythons in the paddling pool because we had a lodger who was a snake charmer."

But he also felt like an imposter during his apprentice period, working with such renowned directors as Trevor Nunn on "Anything Goes" and Michael Grandage on "Guys and Dolls." Pics of him during this time make him appear like Harry Potter. "I always used to wear a blazer, dress smarter, speak a bit posher, and try to fit in. There was a sense of imposter syndrome."

Today Lloyd would never be confused with that JK Rowling's character. He arrived at the Vogue interview "wearing a grey Calvin Klein denim jacket, Carhartt shorts, and Nike Sequoias. Only his legs are free from tattoos; elaborate patterns cover his head, neck, arms, and fingers.

The tattoos, he said, are "like a hobby. I'm really obsessed with the history of tattooing, and the fact that it's in so many cultures around the world. There's a kind of community around it that means you often have conversations with people about their tattoos and who's tattooed you. I just love it."

Nor does he feel like a superstar director: "I don't feel that." He added, "The hardest thing we ever do as an artist and as a human being is learning that what anyone thinks of you is none of your business. That need for approval, that need to be liked or thought of as important or cool, is so deep within us. I heard the other day that people's biggest regret when they are dying is that they wish they'd lived life on their own terms, instead of doing what other people expected. What a terrible regret to have!"

One regret he is not having is being public about his personal life. On social media he has been open about his relationship with Brandon LaVar, an American dancer and actor who appeared in the Broadway production of "Sunset Boulevard."

Vogue writes that until a few years ago, he was in a longstanding relationship with the actor Suzie Toase, and the pair have three sons. "I've never said I was a straight person," Lloyd said "When I met Suzie, who is my best friend to this day, she knew me as an out queer person. We fell in love, and we've had these three amazing kids. People just assumed I was straight because I've been in a monogamous relationship with a woman, but obviously all my friends know that's not the case."

Loyd and Suzie separated before the pandemic. "I genuinely didn't think I would be with anyone else, to be honest, and I certainly wasn't interested in having a relationship with someone at work, but there was an amazing moment in rehearsals when Brandon gave me a little fist bump and we made eye contact and my heart skipped a beat. We just fell in love, and it was beautiful. I feel incredibly fortunate."

"His three boys – aged 18, 12, and eight – love Brandon too," Vogue writes.

"Everyone's been open and it's all very joyous," Loyd explained. "Suzie and I coparent these amazing kids, and we all spend so much time together like this amazing extended family."