Watch N.J.’s Rachel Zegler wow London crowd from her ‘Evita’ balcony — outside the theater

Rachel Zegler is no stranger to big balcony scenes.

She sang “Tonight” on a balcony/fire escape as Maria in her first film, Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” (2021), for which she won a Golden Globe.

Now the New Jersey actor takes to the balcony outside the London Palladium every show day for “Evita.”

It’s a free taste of the Zegler’s Eva Perón that anyone walking by on the street can see. (Watch video below.)

Standing above the crowd in a platinum blond wig, white gown and jewels, Clifton’s Zegler delivers “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” one of the most recognizable songs in the revival of the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.

Since the show started previews June 14, onlookers have been gathering on the street to see Zegler in her West End debut as the audience inside the theater gets a livestream version of the song.

Jamie Lloyd, whose revival of “Sunset Boulevard” just won a Tony, is the director behind this reimagined “Evita.”

Zegler, 24, who made her Broadway debut last year in the “West Side Story”-adjacent play “Romeo + Juliet‚” is starring in London’s “Evita” for 12 weeks.

It’s been a dream role for the young actor.

"‘Evita’ has been such an important musical to me since I was a little girl, when my dad and I would sing ‘Evita’ together on my back patio," Zegler said in a statement when her casting was announced in March.

In playing Eva Perón, former first lady of Argentina, Zegler, who grew up performing in school musicals at Immaculate Conception High School in Lodi, follows in the footsteps of other actors who have won awards for taking on the shining role.

The musical, which started as a concept album, debuted as a musical on the West End in 1978.

Elaine Paige was the first actor to play Perón in the show, and she won a Laurence Olivier Award for her performance. Julie Covington sang as Evita on the concept album.

Patti LuPone was the star of “Evita” on Broadway in 1979, winning her first Tony for the role. Madonna won a Golden Globe for her performance in the 1996 film adaptation of “Evita."

Besides “West Side Story” and “Evita,” Zegler has applied her musical talents to starring roles in Disney’s live-action adaptation of “Snow White,” which recently hit streaming on Disney+, and “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” (2023).

Despite it being a play, she also had some songs in the reimagining of “Romeo + Juliet,” which was nominated for a Tony for best revival of a play.

Zegler, whose screen credits include DC’s “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” (2023) and the teen comedy “Y2K," will add another to her surging career playing Marisa Tomei’s daughter in the movie “She Gets it From Me.”

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Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and followed at @AmyKup on Twitter/X, @amykup.bsky.social on Bluesky and @kupamy on Instagram and Threads.