Rachel Zegler singing “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina”

I thought she was cancelled

Is Gal Gadot playing Che?

Is that the Fort Lee HS spring music festival?

Needs more spine

"OMG. This lady was a real person???"

She would probably not be able to place Argentina on the map.

Has Patti commented yet?

Pretty but needs a full on Patti-like belt.

She's endorsing fascism, spread the word.

¡Fascita!

Eva Peron was a white supremacist coloniser!

Ar—hen—tina!

Paying Evita audience upset as Don’t Cry delivered offstage to West End passersby for free….

All I see is a giant forehead.

I saw those earrings on Miss Universe— …1987

This is a kindler, gentler eva

I don’t like the pauses. Not the way the composer intended! My Latin friend thinks so too

The keys are all wrung.

They need to figure out how to give that number more life.

Her voice is absolutely beautiful. But it’s feeling slow to me. You have to sell that song, and if you are just going to stand there at the balcony without much movement, I think there needs to be more expression in the voice to pull us in.

The song can’t just be pretty, because we already know it and the novelty is gone. You need to sell it, honey.

Wouldn´t it be funny if she looks down into the crowd and sees this?

She looks horrible as a blonde.

[quote] The song can’t just be pretty, because we already know it and the novelty is gone. You need to sell it, honey.

Audra, you may think that, but we're telling you: that approach just didn't work out so well for you.

I'm happy to try.

So explain to me why they’re having an actress/singer with the gravitas of a Twinkie playing the part of the political Diva-Bad-Bitch Perron?

Jamie Lloyd is same old same old, now.

Does these young dumb cunts know that Peron was a nasty cunt as well? Or do they think they are playing some kind of princess?

Bitch had the opportunities of a lifetime. Two major releases. As Spielberg film remake of Westside Story. Fucking Disney’s Snow White. Trash. 😂. Learn to keep that mouth shut.

Bad set design for the balcony scene. The Casa Rosada is pink.

R28 she performs it each night outside of the theater on the theater balcony. A camera projects it inside, as passers by gather round and watch her.

Given her political babble... I hope she can hold a note and duck at the same time, because these days, anything seems fair game. And that's before Disney gets its revenge for Snow White.

R30 fuck off freak.

Sounds like a cat wailing.

R24 = Ariana De Bose

[quote] Jamie Lloyd is same old same old, now.

He’ll tattoo his eyeballs then get the great idea of setting Phantom Of The Opera’s lair in a sewer.

[quote]Does these young dumb cunts know that Peron was a nasty cunt as well? Or do they think they are playing some kind of princess?

Yes, Eva and Juan Peron destroyed the middle class, which she hated for personal reasons.

Argentina was super rich and a world power when he was elected president in 1946 but was bankrupt and irrelevant by the early 1950s, after years of their excessive spending and mismanagement.

It has never recovered over 70 years later. They're always having some financial crisis.

That's why when Eva dies, Che laments, "It's our funeral, too!"

Eva is the villain in the piece which Che tries to warn us about throughout the show.

Screw the middle classes! I will never accept them. And they will never deny me anything again. My father's other family were middle class. And we were kept out of sight, hidden from view at his funeral.

Argentina was never a superpower LOL

Fuck you too, R31. Get an anger class.

R37, it was an economic powerhouse at one time. The Perons killed it

Can someone explain WTF the song even means??

That’s not what superpower means …

R37/R41 it was on its way to becoming a superpower post-WW2 (like the US).

What's new, Buenos Aires? Your nation, which a few years ago had the second-largest gold reserves in the world, is bankrupt. A country which grew up and grew rich on beef is rationing it. La Prensa, one of the few newspapers which dares to oppose Peronism, has been silenced -- and so have all other reasonable voices! I'll tell you what's new, Buenos Aires!

They did like to take that Nazi money

R38 get not being a retard classes.

R42 types crazy —with what? It was useless in WWII, and suddenly it would be a military giant? You can stop now.

Not a military giant. Who's claiming that?

It was on its way to being an economic superpower

Superpower is a military term ignatz.

In no universe has anyone included Argentina in the definition of superpower. Don’t play the fool.

No it wasn’t a military, political, or economic superpower. The Argies had beef and wheat in a world short of both thanks to WW II, getting top dollar for a couple of years. They had no industries. It was over before Eva was. They didn’t have oil, for starters. Argentina didn’t build ships, didn’t have a steel mill, didn’t make autos, didn’t even have electricity in most of the country or even make their own guns. Franco had to lend Eva the plane for her Rainbow Tour. The guns had to be imported, one of the things that hastened Eva’s end and disgraced Prince Bernhardt when his role selling them was exposed.

Argentina remained neutral for most of WW2 (despite pressure from the US to join the Allies) but at the last minute in 1945 declared war on the Axis Powers, who at that stage were already defeated, so they never saw combat.

This was the time in which the US was overtaking the UK in terms of political and economic hegemony. Argentina had not yet adjusted to the new situation and defied the US by not joining the side of the Allies when the US entered the conflict in full force after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

IOW, not a superpower. Thank you.

At any rate, Argentina was very rich when the Perons rose to power and was bankrupt by the time Eva died during Juan's second term.

Barbra Streisand refused to sign Don't Cry For Me Argentina because "the woman was a fascist!"

Lana Del Rey sung a cover of You Must Love Me for a compilation, as Andrew Lloyd Webber is one of her biggest influences.

[quote]Can someone explain WTF the song even means??

It is meant to be bullshit populist rhetoric, R40. Tim Rice is still baffled that people take it seriously. Zegler's failure to eyeball her audience shows she doesn't understand it yet either. Elaine Paige delivered it with maximum "I am a river to my people" rizz, and then when she turned, apparently distraught, to Peron for comfort in the middle, visibly cocked her ear for the response before coming back bigger than ever. She was the only performer I ever saw who "got" it. (She also realised that Eva's emphases in "Waltz for Eva and Che" were grunts of pain.)

Rice and Lloyd Webber should both have royalties deducted every time the song is played for the line "I kept my promise, don't keep your distance", which is lyrically, er, cryptic, and musically as banal as it gets.

Here is DAME Elaine Paige talking about Don't Cry For Me Argentina, and how Hal Prince directed her.

OP is really invested in making her happen.

R54 one of the few non ignorants when it comes to the subject. You know that whole "Argentina is full of nazis because they invited them to seek refuge after WW2" stereotype? While wildly exagerrated by americans (who seem to ignore they took in their fair share), it was in fact Peron that welcomed them in.

They let themselves in, more or less…

R53 Argentina was megarich until the 30s, were both the Great Depression and the first military coup made its first big dent. Peron did make things infinitely worse though.

*where, though it really should be when

It was not mega rich. It was comparatively rich, due to largeascale immigration and resource exploitation. A lot of “wealth” was transferred overseas. It did not last long. The “golden age” lasted less than 20 years.

Their economic history has been studied to death...there’s no reason to exaggerate the relative success of the early 20th c.

It was the 9th richest country around the 1910's/20's. Idk if that is MEGA rich but its pretty damn rich. R63

You don’t know too much about the 1920s. That’s ok.

And for reference,the U.S is now considered the 9th richest country in the world. Obviously the world was different, but that's the truth.

Such a shame she wandered into our enclosure

How unfortunate this person has forced us to be blunt

No, we wouldn't mind seeing her at Harrods

But behind the jewelry counter, not in front

Per capita Gee Dee Pee is not what defines megarich or economic power…Luxembourg is no one’s idea of a new Argentina—lol.

One third of the entire world’s wealth is in the USA. That’s megarich.

R68 it seems to be the definition everyone is using online, hun. Deal. And I never mentioned "economic power"...thats another thing alltogether.

It seems you never studied economic history…you just look things up on the internet. I bet you didn’t get past the AI summary in Google search results. Again, that’s OK. Just expect pushback, and maybe learn from it.

R70 your fragility over a latam country having been rich and the U.S only being considered the 9th richest is suspect. Go squish your stress toy a few times and come back when you're ready to discuss things as an adult.

Don’t cry for me…TIA

Performed in London today as part of West End Live.

Her voice is perfectly fine but to me it's just so bland, like someone performing it on a reality show. As one of the posters earlier in this thread says she needs to sell it.

The more I see of Zegler the more I think of Rachel Barry.

R40

“Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” is one of the most famously misunderstood songs in musical theater. On its surface, it sounds like a sincere, even humble, appeal for sympathy. But contextually—within Evita—it’s deeply cynical.

Here’s why:

1. It’s a performance, not a confession

The song is delivered by Eva Perón during a balcony speech meant to consolidate her power and popularity. She’s not baring her soul; she’s manipulating the crowd. The lyrics project humility—“I never expected it to…”—but the staging and her rise to power suggest calculated populism. It’s theater within theater.

2. False modesty

Lines like “I kept my promise / Don’t keep your distance” present her as a martyr or servant to the people, but by this point in the show, it’s clear that Eva is intoxicated by fame and ambition. She’s cloaking her self-interest in a veil of virtue—classic demagoguery.

3. Irony through contrast

The music is sweeping and beautiful, almost operatic in its emotional appeal. But Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice juxtapose this with biting context. This is a woman who rose through opportunism and seduction, delivering a saintly aria to masses who are both worshipful and exploited.

4. The narrator knows better

The entire musical is narrated by Che (a quasi–Che Guevara figure), who offers constant critique of Eva’s manipulation, corruption, and myth-making. When he’s watching her sing this, we as the audience are meant to see the gap between image and reality.

⸻

In short, “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” is not a plea for understanding—it’s a political performance, a masterpiece of spin. That’s what gives it its enduring power: it’s beautiful, haunting, and hollow, all at once.

The director did the same trick with Sunset Blvd with Joe singing the title tune outside the theater on the street. Nobody goes to see Sunset Blvd for that forgettable number, so it was kind of cute. But if Norma sang As if We Never Said Goodbye to a crowd on the street and the audience got to watch on TV, I’d be pissed.

“Don’t Cry for Me Argentina?” I’m surprised there aren’t riots in the theater.

From the same event - THIS is a performance.

Staging “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” from the balcony of the London Palladium, with the crowd below and the live-stream going inside, weaponizes the inherent cynicism of the song in the most evocative way possible.

Here’s why it’s so remarkable:

⸻

It transforms architecture into narrative

The original scene in Evita—Eva addressing her people from the Casa Rosada—was always meant to invoke power, spectacle, and manipulation. Doing it from an actual theater balcony blurs the line between politics and performance, which is the core theme of Evita. It’s not just theatrical—it’s meta-theatrical.

⸻

The dual audience: inside and outside

By live-streaming Zegler’s performance into the theater while she sings to the outside crowd, the production fractures the notion of authenticity:

• To the public, she’s a glamorous myth.

• To the audience inside, she’s a mediated image.

This literalizes the contradiction of Eva Perón’s persona—simultaneously adored by the masses and framed by the machine of political theater. The dual audience reinforces that everything about her is performance.

She has zero charisma and there is something mildly repulsive about her.

no one’s topped sinead

Please stop CGPTing answers here. It's such a dick-wilter.

Don’t tell R78 that Madonna sang it at the actual Casa Rosada, and still it didn’t work.

R77 rather

Those eyebrows are about to wake up and crawl away .

Agree with the person who said she’s repulsive.