Lord Lloyd-Webber has said the lesson of Evita is “even more important” now than it might have been at the time the musical was written due to the rise of extremism, which is “beginning to show its voice all over Europe”.
00:00And it's what happens when you allow an extremist, and particularly in the case of Abel Perron, a very attractive extremist, to get power.
00:11And I think, therefore, the lesson right now is even more important for people to take home than it was maybe when we wrote it.
00:22A letter written by Lord Lloyd Webber, who was born in South Kensington, and Sir Tim Rice has long been a West End staple.
00:34It premiered in 1978 and charts the rise of Eva Perron from a poor child to ambitious actress turned wife of populist leader President Juan Perron.
00:46The musical was recently revived at the London Palladium, starring Rachel Zegler as Eva, the first lady of Argentina, who was idolised as a champion of the poor and helped women obtain the right to vote.
01:05We were, I think, blessed with really the greatest Evita we could possibly have found in Rachel Zegler.
01:13I mean, it was absolutely extraordinary what she did.
01:17And unlike with any of the other productions, she did basically all of the shows.
01:24When originally Evita came on, the Eva only did six shows a week, and there was an alternate for two shows.
01:31And that's always been the case since then.
01:34But she did with only like four shows exception.
01:38She played all eight, which was extraordinary.
01:41I mean, I'm not sure how advisable it is, actually, because the voice is a muscle and you don't want to strain it.
01:48But I've never seen a performance like, well, from a young girl like Rachel, never seen anything like it.
01:55We said to the council we wanted her to do this.
01:57They said, oh, no, you can't close a street, and it'd be bad for the local businesses.
02:02No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
02:03And my theatre people, because the Palladium is one of my theatres, we really, really went on with the council.
02:11And Rachel doesn't know this, but we did a deal.
02:14We were using her in vain.
02:16They said, well, okay, well, we might consider it if she does West End live in Trafalgar Square.
02:21So we all said, absolutely, she's going to do it.
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