Latest news with #RachelZegler
New York Post
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Rachel Zegler breaks silence after suffering health scare during ‘Evita' performance
Rachel Zegler is speaking out. The actress, 24, has broken her silence after abruptly bringing her 'Evita' performance to a grinding halt last week over a mystery illness. Zegler took to social media Saturday to thank the cast and crew of the London-based theater production after she was forced to exit stage left mid-performance last Thursday. Advertisement 5 Rachel Zegler has broken her silence after abruptly bringing her 'Evita' performance to a grinding halt last week over a mystery illness. The 'Snow White' star shared a photo of herself on stage at the London Palladium on the West End on her Instagram Story. 'Cannot describe the love in this building every night, but today in particular,' Zegler wrote to her 2.5 million followers on the platform. Advertisement 'I am in awe of this company. The way they come together and never leave anyone behind.' Zegler praised the cast's response to her abrupt time-out, saying they 'truly hold each other's hands throughout each number, act and show.' 'The result speaks for itself,' she went on. 'Well done swing nation. Today… my heart literally overflows for you all.' 5 Zegler took to social media Saturday to thank the cast and crew of the London-based theater production. Instagram/Rachel Zegler Advertisement The actress marked her return to the stage Friday on her Instagram Story by sharing several photos of herself on stage at the West End theater. And although she unexpectedly left mid-performance Thursday, it was reported that her departure was not announced until intermission. Bella Brown, Zegler's understudy, took over during the musical's second act and performed the production's signature song, 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina.' 5 Zegler praised the cast's response to her abrupt time-out, saying they 'truly hold each other's hands throughout each number, act and show.' Raphael Pour-Hashemi/Mega Advertisement 5 'I am in awe of this company. The way they come together and never leave anyone behind,' Zegler wrote. Raphael Pour-Hashemi/Mega The audience was so pleased with Brown's performance that they gave the young starlet an almost five-minute standing ovation. 'Today really showed just how important swings and covers are within this industry,' Brown wrote after the performance. 'They are pillars of a show! A proud day to be at 'Evita.'' 'What a lucky audience getting to see both me and MY ANGEL REG ZEG!' 5 Zeglar stars as the former first lady of Argentina, Eva Perón, in director Jamie Lloyd's revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber classic. JP / BACKGRID Zeglar stars as the former first lady of Argentina, Eva Perón, in director Jamie Lloyd's revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber classic. The production, which kicked off in June and is scheduled to run through September, marks Zegler's London stage debut.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Rachel Zegler breaks her silence after suffering mystery health scare that derailed Evita performance
thanked the cast and crew of Evita in an emotional post on social media Saturday after she was forced to exit the show mid-performance on Thursday due to a mystery illness. The actress, 24, shared a snap of herself on stage at the London Palladium, where she has been performing six nights and two matinees a week as former Argentinian First Lady Eva Perron in Evita. Regarding the way she was treated following her medical mystery, the Golden Globe winner said, 'Cannot describe the love in this building every night, but today in particular.' 'I am in awe of this company. The way they come together and never leave anyone behind.' Describing the unity of the cast, she wrote, 'We really, truly hold each other's hands throughout each number, and each act and each show to make sure we work as a crew. And the result speaks for itself.' 'Well done swing nation,' she said, referring the the cast members who work as swings, performers who understudy multiple roles, usually within the ensemble, and is ready to step in for any cast member who is absent. In Zegler's case, Bella Brown, who plays The Mistress in the show, filled in after the Snow White star had to end her performance. Following her performance of Don't Cry for Me Argentina, the stand-in received a five minute standing ovation. Zegler pointed out costars Nathan Louis-Fernand, Kirsty Anne Shaw and Myla Carmen, writing, 'my heart literally overflows for you all.' Sitting in the audience her return was Bridgerton star Nichola Coughlin, 38. The Barbie actress did not mince words when remarking on Zegler's portrayal of the controversial Evita. 'When I say @rachelzegler once in a generation talent I can't tell you how deeply i mean it. That is a star,' the BAFTA nominee wrote in an Instagram Story showing Zegler's final bow. In another example of team work, Zegler took the time to wish her Shazam! Fury of the Gods costar Helen Mirren a happy birthday on Friday. 'Happy birthday diva,' she wrote on a photo of Mirren holding up a drink at a table with several yummy looking pastries. '80 never looked so fabulous. Seriously.' The revival began previews on June 14, and Zegler made her West End debut in the Tony award winning musical on July 1. She has received rave reviews for her work with, Variety saying her performance 'at times gives you goosebumps.' The production was scheduled to continue through September 6. Zegler, director Jamie Lloyd, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber have all stated they would like the show to move to Broadway 'as soon as possible', according to Deadline.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Evita' Theater Review: Rachel Zegler Takes London by Storm as Eva Perón in Otherwise Uneven Revival
Could it be time for Jamie Lloyd to hit the pause button? The prolific director, whose radically reimagined Sunset Blvd. last month won Tony Awards for best musical revival and lead actress Nicole Scherzinger, is rolling out productions at such a rate that his template — big stars, event theater, a style that might be described as minimalist swagger — is beginning to look entrenched, and a bit hit-or-miss. Spectacle worked wonders with his recent, disco-dancing Much Ado About Nothing starring Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell. But while there was a glorious opportunity for a revisionist take on Evita — to reconfigure the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice mega-musical from the 1970s for a more politically confused and troubled age — Lloyd has simply turned up the volume. More from The Hollywood Reporter Foo Fighters Are Back With First Song Since 2023 to Celebrate 30th Anniversary What the Hell Happened With the Sean "Diddy" Combs Verdict? 50 Cent, Kesha, Aubrey O'Day and More Stars React to Diddy Verdict: "The Cultural Weight of This Decision Is Immeasurable" The result feels decidedly erratic. The central performance from Rachel Zegler at times gives you goosebumps, but at others is in desperate need of direction; showstoppers bring usually reserved London audiences to their feet (mostly unheard of here, though it happened too during Much Ado); directorial choices damage whatever narrative interest the work might have. It's entertaining and galling in equal measure. As ever, the immediate set is minimal: bare, except for tiered steps that run the length of the stage and a giant sign, EVITA, across the back (in what does feel like a contemporary spin, Eva Perón is presented here more as a brand than an icon). Other than that, the staging will be accompanied by carefully selected props: the live camera that has become ubiquitous in Lloyd's productions, a shower of blue and white confetti, blood and paint. The show opens as a tease, the song 'Requiem for Evita' sung almost as a Gregorian chant, by cowled figures gliding through dry ice. But any thought that this might be a pared-back evening are immediately cast aside as the curtain rises to reveal the Evita sign and a strutting Zegler, oozing feline sexiness in leather bra and hot pants. At the same time, Che (Diego Andres Rodriguez), an ambiguous character from Eva's own poor background, begins his protracted debunking of the Perón legend with 'Oh What a Circus.' And the musical's real face blasts into action. Throughout this number, and for some time after, Zegler endures her most difficult phase of the revival: physically commanding the stage (as she does the entire evening) but with a single, fixed expression, something akin to a teenager's attempt to appear superior, that suggests there's next to nothing going on behind the pose. It quickly becomes apparent, too, that the evening is going to be dominated by over-miked excess — the volume way too loud, the songs pitched too shrilly. Not only can this lead, at times, to a self-defeating sensory overload, but it exacerbates the issue often raised by sung-through musicals, of plot and character simply getting lost in the mix. While 'Buenos Aires' is one of the big-belt numbers — accompanied by thrilling choreography involving the whole cast — that bring down the house, many of the production's most satisfying moments involve a rare dialing down and focus. One is 'Another Suitcase in Another Hall,' poignantly sung by Bella Brown as the discarded mistress of Juan Perón (James Olivas), in a welcome change of tempo and temperature. Another, and not surprisingly the show's high point, is when Zegler puts her stamp on 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina.' There was mild controversy when it was discovered in previews that Zegler would perform the show's signature song not in the auditorium, but on the Palladium's exterior balcony for the benefit of passers-by gathered in the street — who, horror of horrors, have not paid handsomely for a ticket. As it turns out, this is Lloyd's greatest stroke of inspiration (similar to what he did with Tom Francis' Joe Gillis for the title song in Sunset Blvd. or Jessica Chastain's Nora at the end of A Doll's House). The theater audience does see the actress of course, captured on a giant, wide screen as she moves through the ornate Edwardian building. Her vampish garb replaced by a First Lady's majestic white dress, bejeweled, her dark hair now white, she sings from the balcony, the camera dissolving between her cinematic close-ups and the rapt crowd. Zegler crushes the song, eking out of it every ounce of emotion, real and contrived. The number is brilliantly conceived and executed, a genuine goosebump moment. But with the Palladium neatly filling in for Buenos Aires' Casa Rosada, it also tellingly offers what Lloyd's minimalist abstraction has hitherto denied: a sense of context and color. While there was a glimpse of Eva's feistiness and strength in the first half, Zegler as a performer is now fully unleashed. Set free from the limitations of lyricist Rice's crass social climber, the actress finds much more expression and emotion in the second half, as Eva navigates ambition, public perception and illness. Zegler's rendition of the dying Eva's 'You Must Love Me,' the song added for Alan Parker's 1996 film with Madonna, is extremely moving. It's a pity that the men can't really match her. Though he delivers the songs competently, Rodriguez (Sunset Blvd.) suffers in the way of all Ches. The character's high and mighty put-downs wear thin as the show progresses, and any political objections he may have to the Peróns are undermined by smug preening. Lloyd's casting of Olivas as Perón — in reality 23 years Eva's senior and invariably played by an older actor — seems perplexing. Why have a young man who looks exactly the same as the monolithic blockheads who are Perón's followers and henchmen? Why circumvent an inescapable age dynamic in the relationship? It doesn't help that Olivas is rather bland in the role. Lloyd's early reputation was partly built on an imaginative knack for tapping new meaning from the darkest and most interesting recesses of a play, notably but not only Harold Pinter's work (Lloyd's Betrayal, also with Hiddleston, was lauded on both sides of the Atlantic). Evita isn't the same kind of animal, but there's juice in the albeit contestable nature of Perón's political leanings. That could have resonated at a time of ever-growing right-wing populism, but is not capitalized upon here. It seems typical of the production that one brutally telling moment, Che's face and body suddenly becoming bloodied during a Peronist march, is easily lost with the actor stranded downstage as confetti distractingly showers the audience. Given that the director has cast Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter in his upcoming Broadway production of Waiting for Godot, there may well be an electric guitar in the mix. Nonetheless, let's pray he doesn't drown out the Beckett play's marvelous silence. Venue: The London Palladium, LondonCast: Rachel Zegler, Diego Andres Rodriguez, James Olivas, Aaron Lee Lambert, Bella BrownLyrics: Tim RiceMusic: Andrew Lloyd WebberDirector: Jamie LloydSet and costume designer: Soutra Gilmour Lighting designer: Jon ClarkSound designer: Adam FisherMusic supervisor and musical director: Alan WilliamsChoreographer: Fabian AloisePresented by Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals and The Jamie Lloyd Company Best of The Hollywood Reporter Seeing Double? 25 Pairs of Celebrities Who Look Nearly Identical From 'Lady in the Lake' to 'It Ends With Us': 29 New and Upcoming Book Adaptations in 2024 Meet the Superstars Who Glam Up Hollywood's A-List Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Rachel Zegler Returns to ‘Evita' in London Friday After Exiting Performance Mid-Show Thursday Night
Rachel Zegler is returning to her starring role in Evita on Friday after making an unexpected exit during her Thursday night performance. The actress, who is performing in her London stage debut as former first lady of Argentina Eva Perón in director Jamie Lloyd's revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, exited the stage during the show's Thursday evening performance, due to illness. More from The Hollywood Reporter A Chat With Imax's CEO On How Global Box Office Dynamics Are Shifting Freddie Highmore Is Back to His British Roots (and Loving It) in 'The Assassin' Tom Basden Wants the Heartwarming Success of 'The Ballad of Wallis Island' to Give British Indie Filmmakers Hope According to People magazine, Zegler's departure was announced during the show's intermission. Understudy Bella Brown reportedly stepped in for Zegler for Act 2 and received a standing ovation that lasted nearly five minutes. 'Today really showed just how important swings and covers are within this industry,' Brown wrote in an Instagram Story. 'They are pillars of a show!! A proud day to be at Evita.' Despite having stepped away from the Thursday show, Zegler was scheduled to return and perform Friday evening, her rep confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. Evita is currently scheduled to run until Sept. 6 in London. The production opened on July 1. 'I can honestly say that the sheer amount of talent in the building each day is enough to blow the roof off. and we do. eight times a week,' Zegler wrote on Instagram when the show opened. 'I never thought i would get to live my dream this way, surrounded by the most amazing people. I feel so held.' For the show, Zegler leaves the Soho theater to perform 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina' on the exterior balcony, which has become a new spectacle for onlookers hoping to catch a glimpse of the performance and has been commonly featured in viral social media videos. THR's review of the show said of the performance, 'The number is brilliantly conceived and executed, a genuine goosebump moment.' The original Evita, which featured music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice, centers on the life of Argentine political leader Perón, the second wife of Argentine president Juan Perón. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Seeing Double? 25 Pairs of Celebrities Who Look Nearly Identical From 'Lady in the Lake' to 'It Ends With Us': 29 New and Upcoming Book Adaptations in 2024 Meet the Superstars Who Glam Up Hollywood's A-List Solve the daily Crossword
New York Post
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Rachel Zegler returns to ‘Evita' — one day after suffering health scare mid-performance
The show must go on. Rachel Zegler, 24, returned to her role in 'Evita' on Friday, July 25, after abruptly leaving the London Palladium one day earlier due to a mystery illness. The actress marked her surprising return on her Instagram Stories, where she shared several photos of herself back on stage at the West End theater. 10 Rachel Zegler returned to her role in 'Evita' on Friday after abruptly leaving the London Palladium one day earlier due to illness. Instagram/@lulukener 10 Rachel Zegler marked her return on Instagram, where she shared several photos of herself back on stage at the West End theater. Instagram/@loesnikken Zegler also shared a clip of herself taking a final bow at the end of Friday night's show. 'An incredible performance,' one fan captioned a photo that Zegler later posted. 'Me walking into the Palladium for a two-show day here at Evita,' the actress added in another pic shared Saturday morning. 10 The actress also shared a clip of herself taking a final bow at the end of Friday night's show. Instagram/@joshhopkins Although the 'Snow White' actress suddenly left 'Evita' on Thursday evening due to an unspecified illness, People reported that her departure was not announced until intermission. Bella Brown, Zegler's understudy, took over during the musical's second act and performed the production's signature song, 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina.' The London audience was so pleased with Brown's performance that they gave the young starlet an almost five-minute standing ovation. 10 tktk Instagram/@rachelzegler 'Today really showed just how important swings and covers are within this industry,' the actress wrote on her Instagram Stories after Thursday night's show. 'They are pillars of a show! A proud day to be at 'Evita.'' 'What a lucky audience getting to see both me and MY ANGEL REG ZEG!' Brown added in a follow-up post. The Post reached out to Zegler's rep for comment. 10 Rachel Zegler and cast attend the press night after party for 'Evita' at the London Palladium on July 1, 2025, in London, stars as the former first lady of Argentina, Eva Perón, in director Jamie Lloyd's revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber classic. The production, which kicked off in June and is scheduled to run through September, marks Zegler's London stage debut. 'I couldn't be luckier,' the actress wrote on Instagram before the musical's opening night. 'I have such a deep love for everyone who has touched this production.' 10 Rachel Zegler attends the press night after party for 'Evita' at the London Palladium on July 1, 2025 in London, England.'I never thought I would get to live my dream this way. Surrounded by the most amazing people. I feel so held,' she added. Zegler also revealed that starring in Jamie Lloyd's 'Evita' had always been a dream of hers. ''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 told Deadline in March. 'The opportunity to bring Jamie Lloyd's singular, visionary ideas to life onstage is an honor unlike any other.' 10 Rachel Zegler out and about in London during a break from 'Evita.' BACKGRID 'The stage has always felt like home to me, and I can't wait to make my West End debut in such great company,' she said. Still, the 'West Side Story' star's 'Evita' performance has not been without criticism. During the iconic tune 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina,' Zegler leaves the London Palladium stage and performs the song from an outdoor balcony while those in the audience stay inside and watch from a screen. 'I'm excited to see her, but not sure how I feel about paying that much to watch the most iconic moment on a screen,' one person complained. 10 Rachel Zegler performing 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina' from a balcony outside the London Palladium. John Rainford / 10 Rachel Zegler performing 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina' from a balcony outside the London Palladium. John Rainford/INSTARimages 'Sorry, are you saying I've paid that much for 2 tickets and she's singing the biggest number outside at people who haven't paid?' another paying theatergoer fussed. However, others praised the 'incredible' and 'emotional' balcony scene. 'Absolutely stunning idea and a beautiful symbol – while the rich sit inside the theatre watching from the screen, Evita is outside on the balcony of the theatre addressing all those who can't afford to go to the theatre and/or are living on the streets of London,' one attendee gushed on X. 10 Rachel Zegler and backup dancer Nathan Louis-Fernand at a Sabrina Carpenter concert together on July 6. BACKGRID Meanwhile, Zegler has been enjoying her time behind the scenes of 'Evita.' She was spotted kissing backup dancer Nathan Louis-Fernand at Hyde Park earlier this month, and the pair were pictured holding hands at a Sabrina Carpenter concert on July 6. Zegler previously faced backlash while promoting Disney's live-action 'Snow White,' which flopped at the box office earlier this year. After slamming those who voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 election, she allegedly butted heads with co-star Gal Gadot over their differences regarding the Israel-Palestinian war in Gaza.
