Andrew Lloyd Webber isn’t ruling out a long-rumored and much-hoped-for Broadway transfer of last year’s hit London Evita revival, but he’s absolutely drawing the line at a re-enactment of the ballyhooed outdoor balcony performance of “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.”
“I’m afraid with Evita, there are still some hoops to be gone through, but I’d love it to go,” Lloyd Webber says in a new interview with USA Today. “It’s an extraordinary production. The one thing that absolutely cannot happen is what we did in London on the balcony. We can’t do that in New York. I mean, something awful could happen. We have gun laws in Britain.”
Ouch.
The Evita revival, directed by Jamie Lloyd and starring Rachel Zegler in the title role originally made famous on Broadway in 1979 by Patti LuPone, was staged on the West End at the London Palladium in 2025. As with Lloyd’s radical 2024 re-imagining of Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard (re-styled as Sunset Blvd.) starring Nicole Scherzinger, his Evita broke with show tradition by having Zegler perform stand-out number “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” on the Palladium’s outdoor balcony to gathering street crowds.
Last week, Zegler received an Olivier Award nomination for her performance, and Evita was nominated in the Best Musical Revival category. Winners will be announced April 12.
Director Lloyd spoke to Deadline’s Baz Bamigboye last summer about his desire to transfer Evita to Broadway “straight away,” though he acknowledged the logistical difficulties. “I would love to see [the balcony scene] go to Broadway,” Lloyd said. “We’ve just got to find the right theater.”
Although early word had producers eyeing a 2026 transfer, a 2027 move now seems likelier though not certain.
