Evita album with Rachel Zegler review

The rainbow highs keep rollin’ in - Album out now

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It’s one thing to capture the electricity of Jamie Lloyd’s Evita within the grandeur of The London Palladium, but quite another to bottle it so convincingly in sound. This new highlights album – recorded live from the sound desk – manages exactly that. While Lloyd’s production was a riot of directorial flair and visual audacity, this release strips everything back to what lies at its heart: the performers’ voices.

Rachel Zegler proves once again why she’s one of the most exciting talents of her generation. Her performance as Eva is, quite simply, incandescent. We’ve all heard her “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” – performed nightly from the Palladium balcony and already something of a London legend – but it’s the chance to hear her dig into the steel and swagger of “A New Argentina” and the glittering confidence of “Rainbow High” that really cements this as one of her career-defining turns (and that’s saying something for someone with so many highlights already).

This may be only a highlights album, mixed adeptly by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Lee McCutcheon and Mike Crossey, but it’s impossible not to wish for more. A complete recording would have given listeners the full emotional arc of Eva’s story, right through to “Lament,” which would have been thrilling to hear with Zegler’s formidable dramatic instincts. Still, what’s here is enough to remind us of her magnetism – the precision, the phrasing, the sense of danger in every note. The show has, excitingly, teased a full version for next year.

Among the supporting cast, Bella Brown delivers a hauntingly raw rendition of “Another Suitcase in Another Hall,” her voice filled with quiet heartbreak. It’s a performance that lingers long after the final chord fades. Meanwhile, Diego Andres Rodriguez’s Che fizzes with charisma and rebellious charm, particularly in the swaggering “Oh What a Circus” and the razor-edged “The Money Kept Rolling In (And Out Again).” The album gives him his moment in the spotlight alongside Zegler, and it’s a joy to hear their vocal chemistry captured so vividly (maybe one day we’ll also get “A Waltz for Eva and Che”).

Lloyd Webber’s timeless orchestrations, aided no end by sound designer Adam Fisher, are especially potent in the big, bombastic moments of “Oh What a Circus” and “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.” The soaring percussion and brass don’t just dazzle – they underscore the fascist grandeur of Perón’s Argentina, all bluster and spectacle, while seducing you with their sheer musical beauty. It’s a masterstroke of contradiction: you’re repelled and entranced at once.

Ultimately, this Evita highlights album stands as both a memento of a visually dazzling stage production and a showcase for the extraordinary vocal performances that powered it. If you were lucky enough to see Lloyd’s reinvention in the flesh, this is the perfect souvenir; if not, it’s the next best thing – proof that even without the visuals, the voices alone can still stop you in your tracks.

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