Snow White's Rachel Zegler lands West End role in revival of huge musical

Disney's Snow White will be released in the UK next week and it's now been announced that star Rachel Zegler will be heading to London later this year for a revival of Evita

Rachel Zegler has landed the lead role in a West End revival of an acclaimed musical that will launch in the summer.

It's been announced that Rachel, 23, will portray Eva Perón during a 12-week run of Evita at the London Palladium later this year. The musical will be "reimagined" by director Jamie Lloyd, 45, for its upcoming revival at the theatre in London. Following the news of her casting, Rachel - who starred in Romeo & Juliet on Broadway just months ago - confirmed her involvement by expressing her excitement. She wrote on Instagram about the project: "I couldn't be more excited."

The post - which included a headline announcing her role - was also met with enthusiasm in the comments section. Fellow theatre star Samantha Barks wrote: "This is beyond exciting, booked my tickets already." Others congratulated Rachel over the news ahead of her West End debut.

Rachel follows in the footsteps of performers like Elaine Paige and Patti LuPone who have previously portrayed Eva - also known as Evita - on stage. The show, which features music from Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice, centres on the political leader's life, which included being the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952.

Evita - which premiered in 1978 - will return to the West End from June 14. The revival was announced in December last year and comes following the success of Sunset Boulevard's revival at the Savoy Theatre back in 2023. Jamie had also reimagined that musical - also with music by Andrew - and he won an Olivier Award for directing that new production, which had starred Nicole Scherzinger, who herself won Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Norma Desmond.

Announcing the revival of Evita last year, LW Theatres teased: "Surprise! #TimRice and @AndrewLloydWebber's #Evita returns in Summer 2025 for a 12-week run at The London Palladium. The legendary musical @officialevita featuring an iconic score including Don’t Cry For Me Argentina, will be reimagined by the visionary award-winning director #JamieLloyd, produced by Michael Harrison for Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals and @jamielloydco."

The announcement that Rachel will lead the cast comes as she promotes Disney's Snow White ahead of its release in the UK next week. The actor plays the lead in the live action remake, which has faced various controversies - appearing alongside the likes of Gal Gadot and Andrew Burnap.

The film - which is a 'reimagining' of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) - was met with criticism even before production began. Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage, who's an actor with dwarfism, had said that it was "f***ing backward" to have "seven dwarfs living in a cave together".

He said on an episode of the WTF with Marc Maron podcast released back in January 2022: "I was a little taken aback by the ... they were very proud to cast a Latino actress as Snow White. But you're still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Take a step back and look at what you're doing there. It makes no sense to me. You're progressive in one way but then you're still making that f***ing backward story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together."

Disney later addressed his comments in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter and other outlets. A spokesperson for Disney shared at the time: "To avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film, we are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community."

It was then reported in 2023 that the seven dwarfs would be referred to as "magical creatures" instead. And there has recently been criticism of the decision to have made the characters CGI, rather than showcase actors with dwarfism - which one critic branded "discriminating in a sense".

There had also been a backlash over Rachel playing the role of Snow White as an actor of Latin descent. The casting has however been defended for providing diversity and Rachel told Variety in 2022: "You don't normally see Snow Whites that are of Latin descent. [...] You don't particularly see people who look like me or are me playing roles like that."

She's prompted criticism in recent years for her comments about the animated original. She told Extra TV in 2022: "The original cartoon came out in 1937 and very evidently so. There's a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird. Weird. So we didn't do that this time."

Evita isn't Rachel's first stage role as she has a background in theatre. She even made her film debut as Maria in Steven Spielberg's West Side Story (2021), leading the cast of the film adaptation of that musical beside Ansel Elgort. Her other acting credits include roles in the Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes and Shazam! Fury of the Gods.

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