Sam Waite – Writer & Reviewer

After 12 weeks of high flying adoration leading Jamie Lloyd’s Evita revival, Rachel Zegler brought her time in London to a close with a one-night-only return to The London Palladium on Sunday, October 5th. Thanks to the sheer number of tickets purchased in such a minute amount of time, a matinee performance was added and both performances sold out within an hour.

It’s safe to say that Zegler’s naysayers, vocal though they may be, are outnumbered by the hoards of fans willing to return to the Palladium to see her, not even knowing what material a solo concert might feature. We all stepped into the auditorium with our own ideas of what she might sing, and while some no-brainer numbers made their way into the set, there were also a solid group of surprises.

One thing that fans had no reason to doubt was her vocal quality. Making her professional debut in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, Zegler’s first professional recordings are therefore in a more classical, head-voice-forward mode – I can totally understand a smattering of comments some months ago that she wasn’t a fit vocally for the belty Evita track. Since then, she’s adapted to the folk-pop of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes‘ Covey Band, the Pasek and Paul power ballads of Disney’s Snow White reboot, and released a single produced by Jack Antonoff as part of her Broadway debut. Don’t be fooled by the Maria of it all, Zegler’s is a flexible and impressively malleable instrument.

Versatility was proven early on, where the Sondheim mashup opening the show (“Anyone Can Whistle” and Company closer “Being Alive”) was followed, after some introductions to the evening, by a Taylor Swift cover in reference to Zegler’s early days as a teenager covering songs on YouTube. Even though her own robust voice is heftier and brighter than Swift’s, the superstar’s influence is particularly apparent on a pair of self-penned numbers making their debut at these Palladium shows. With one still untitled and neither with a solid plan for release, the obvious nerves Rachel expresses about this first experience onstage without a character to shield her seemed to vanish when actually singing her confessional lyrics. At the top of the show she mentioned having been much more nervous at the matinee performance, and there was a breezy intimacy with the 2300-strong audience by the time she refers to the two originals as, “Before and after you f*** around and find out.”

Backed by musical director Adam Hoskins, and a group of six musicians, both the singer and her band sound terrific throughout. Tom Knowles (keys, alongside Hoskins), Lewis Dunsmore (guitar), Hugh Richardson (bass), Glesni Roberts (viola), Daniel Hornberger (cello), and Ollie Woods (drums), not only play exceptionally well on each song, but ensure that the disparate genres never sound jarring or too severe a sonic jump. The infamously difficult work of Jason Robert Brown seemed a non-issue for this troupe, with a soaring “I Can Do Better Than That” (a personal favourite of the musical theatre canon) sounding as strong as it ever has, followed swiftly by the softer, more delicate Hunger Games song “Pure as the Driven Snow.” Rachel sounded sensational on each number, but the musicians surrounding her deserve their share of the praise for their own flexibility and sheer demonstration of skill.

The between-song patter that brings a human quality to such a performance began awkwardly, though likably so. This was, of course, Zegler’s first time where two hours of peoples’ lives were undeniably focused on her, a diminutive and only 24 year old actor who less than a decade ago was plucked out of relative obscurity while still attending high school. Progressively, though, she made the intimidating scale of the venue fade away, bringing a genuine sense of intimacy to the evening even while acknowledging the grandeur – comparisons are made between the Palladium and Broadway’s Circle in the Square Theatre, an in-the-round 800-seater where her Broadway debut allowed her to see every face in the audience. The difference of audience size and placement in such a short time in professional theatre sounds daunting, but by the time she batted aside an audience member’s shouted request with a laughing, “That’s not how this works!” she could have been singing to a group of close friends in her living room, so little did the audience seem to affect her.

A major expectation of concerts headlined by musical theatre stars is at least one special guest. Jeremy Jordan hosted mini-reunions for both Smash and Bonnie & Clyde, while Marisha Wallace brought a Waitress trio back to much delight, and Zegler’s own guest for both performances was a true moment of manifestation in practise. A fan of both the Les Mis and Phantom 25th anniversary concerts, she surprised her London fans with Ramin Karimloo, appearing following her own take on Les Mis‘ “Stars” (“I wanna be Javert,” she says cheekily, touching on the ever-growing trend of singing from unlikely dream roles) to perform one of his own unasked roles – having never been cast in a Sondheim show, he made a strong case for himself as the pair delivered a stunning rendition of “Move On,” the powerful 11 o’clock number from Sunday in the Park with George.

Believe it or not, I’m fighting myself to not simply talk through every number Zegler performed at her evening show. But if you were there, you can understand why I feel so compelled to mention so many of these songs. With her act one set alone spanning Disney, dystopia, musical theatre, pop music and even The Muppets, a tribute to Palladium (and all-around) legend Judy Garland was a fitting act one closer, and provided a glimpse into another mode of her vocals. There was a beautiful breathiness to her lower notes, but still with a solid heft behind it that shifted seamlessly into more of her bright, seemingly effortless belting.

With a second act touching on more of her career highlights, from West Side Story to Romeo + Juliet‘s Antonoff number, and dream-casting herself in the form of the aforementioned “Stars” and a bright rendering of Waitress‘ “When He Sees Me,” a lovely rendition of Mary Poppins‘ “Feed The Birds” seemed to end the musical theatre leanings of the evening, with a welcome foray into pop-forward choices following. A self-constructed mashup of Amy Winehouse and Ariana Grande demonstrated, alongside her own lyrics in the original numbers, that her film and stage careers could be joined by a foray into the music industry to great success, and an impassioned cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Silver Springs” would have been a fitting closer.

And in fact, at the matinee “Silver Springs” was just that, joined by a return to Rachel’s musical theatre instincts with that most classic of coplas, that iconic number of both Fanny Bryce and Barbra Streisand’s discographies, that song which made my internet-addled brain silently announce to no one, “They did this on Glee!” For her encore in the matinee concert, and the end of her second act in the evening, Miss Zegler belted out a triumphant cover of heartbreaking anthem “My Man,” to raucous applause. Were the character of Rachel Berry real, I can only imagine she would be Googling crack-houses near Oxford Circus as those final notes glided effortlessly from Zegler’s mouth, but the starlet had one more trick up her proverbial sleeve.

Anyone having attended both shows (which I did not, I hasten to add) may have been surprised that the encore seemed to have been added to the main set, and wondered whether there was nothing more to come. However, Rachel had another guest in the building, in the form of venue owner (or his company, I guess…) Andrew Lloyd Webber. Webber accompanied her on the piano, while Zegler proved once again just how adaptable, how malleable, and how strong her vocal abilities are with a stirring Phantom number, the sweeping “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again.” “Let me say… goodbye,” she sang, and frankly, I’m not sure that the audience on Sunday night were ready to do any such thing.

A strong concert debut my any measure, but also a fabulous exploration of a short-but-stellar career and a preview of many successes to come, Rachel Zegler Live at The London Palladium was a demonstration of an actor still so fresh and exciting, but totally at home in her abilities, and with the vibrancy of character and sheer charisma of a true superstar. I certainly hope we haven’t seen the last of Rachel Zegler on the London stage, and having been proven right in my years-ago assessment that, yes, this is perfect casting for Maria, I look forward massively to seeing what she does next.

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