★★★★

“it’s gaudy, funny and charming”

And for my final trick, I’ll let you in on the joke!

Hailing from the USA, Penn & Teller are magic’s favourite double act and Las Vegas’ longest running residency in history. They are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their extraordinary career with a show that promises brand new tricks and a healthy dose of slapstick comedy. Penn is the charismatic showman, leading audience interaction with irreverent off-the-cuff commentary. Teller is the silent and goofy trickster. Together, they let us into their world where reason and logic will be tested. We skirt to the edge of our seats. We laugh! But are we fooled?

Exiting the theatre, I overheard an audience member describing the show as a comedy act with magic – and that might just be the sum of it. You would expect the self-described ‘kings of magic’ to blow you away with an act that makes you truly question how it was pulled off. However, though some tricks will make you scratch your head a bit, the magic aspect of the show is surprisingly lack-lustre. The show consists of content we haven’t seen from them before, but the tricks themselves are not new – rather, they are repackaged, and their success relies on highly creative presentation. Maybe it’s unfair to expect something truly unique when reinvention is the true nature of the magician’s craft. This pair of magicians are celebrating fifty years of mastering theirs. If you are expecting someone to convince you that you are witnessing a new magic trick, you would expect it from performers with their level of experience – especially when they make that promise at the top of the show. To our disappointment, they fall short on that promise but that’s also the key to their brand identity.

The show is a spectacle with playful costumes, piles of confetti and lots of audience participation. Gradually it becomes clear that the aim of the show is not to trick your brain, but to use the magician’s craft to deliver a punchline with ‘the magician’ as the butt of the joke. That’s Penn & Teller. In this show, with grand promises of performing miracles, they draw your attention to the obvious deception of magic. As they have done in the past, they also sometimes explain the mechanics of a trick with a demonstration before performing it again on a larger scale with added obstacles. Penn & Teller are showmen who lean into the concept of the magician as the conman who never reveals his secrets. What makes them special is that they are honest conmen, so whilst their tricks might not be unique, they are. I am convinced that one of their tricks, which is performed as a means to prove that they don’t use stooges in the show, is ironically and purposefully their only trick that is actually pulled off with a stooge – which is hilarious! They have built their brand on persona and letting the audience in on the joke so we can all laugh about it. It’s gaudy, funny and charming – resulting in a decades long career that deserves celebration.

Penn & Teller deliver a roaring comedy act about magic – with magic. With deception in plain sight, they might just have you fooled. Do not miss this show and find out why Penn & Teller are the ‘kings of magic’.

EVITA

The London Palladium

★★★★

“an enjoyably bold twist on a classic”

In a theatre landscape overrun by the contemporary glitz of Six, & Juliet and yet another adaptation of an early 2000s chick-flick – it’s a big ask to dazzle audiences with a seventies relic telling the tale of an Argentine political powerhouse, but Jamie Lloyd’s new production of Evita certainly gives it a good go.

From the off it almost feels as if you could be sitting in NYC watching the recent Sunset Boulevard: this is classic Lloyd. We’re talking sparse stage, bleak colours and characters refusing to look each other in the eye. But despite the harsh initial impression it leaves, this production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s classic musical packs a mighty punch and certainly pushes the boat out for what we’ve come to love and expect of the usually colourful, safe Lloyd Webber shows.

Just in case you’ve managed to dodge the plot for the past fifty years, Evita follows the story of Eva Peron, an Argentine political leader and second wife to former president Juan Peron. We follow Eva from her days of ambitious youth in the slums of Argentina to her remarkable ascension to power and fame, and finally through to her untimely demise. Rachel Zegler takes on the role of Eva with fierce, soaring vocals that bring a desperately needed new lease of life to this score. The American actress exudes seemingly endless energy as she struts, gyrates and bops her way around the stage (choreography by Fabian Aloise). Indeed, Zegler barely has a moment to catch her breath (as emphasised by Diego Andres Rodriguez, who plays Che, sneaking her water bottle onstage mid dance break) and is present for Eva’s entire journey. Despite her youth, Zegler plays the two decades span of Eva’s life with clarity and grace; often reminding us that Eva herself was only thirty-three years old when she passed away from cervical cancer. However, one can’t help but wish Zegler would step outside of her box a little more and really take the bull by the horns: a little less prettiness and a little more grit would been welcome.

Throughout Lloyd’s updated production one can really tell they are watching a show made for 2025. Some of the modernisms work beautifully (groovy drum solos during Dangerous Jade and the ensemble twerking to Eva, Beware of the City; I’m looking at you) and some of them really miss the mark: the Camp Rock style E-V-I-T-A chant implanted into Rainbow High implants the audience in entirely the wrong atmosphere.

A much-anticipated stand out moment of the show was of course Zegler’s Don’t Cry For Me Argentina delivered live from an outside balcony thanks to the help of some handy camerawork. For those of us inside the theatre, it really felt as if Eva was becoming untouchable as she rose power; no longer a tangible entity for us to hold. Either that or she was out with her Descamisados in the street and we, the elite, were not privy to her love stuck inside our bejewelled theatre boxes. Either way the FOMO was real.

The plight of the Descamisados (‘without shirts’ in Spanish which is quite literal for Rodriguez in this production) has never been more clearly shown than with the brutal visuals of Che; bloodied, battered and cowering on the floor, cruelly doused in paint in the colours of the country he adores. Rodriguez brings a charismatic charm to the role which matches the sass of Zegler perfectly. Indeed, the pair have beautiful chemistry, playfully flirting their way through the score in an effort to make Eva’s rise and Che’s fall all the more heartbreaking and impactful.

The design elements of the show (Soutra Gilmour set and costume, Jon Clark lighting and Adam Fisher sound) take a while to get going. One feels, much like Eva’s own story, that the show peaks in the middle, with the bookends being a little sluggish and dull. While Zegler prances around mostly in a bralette and shorts (not what you typically expect of Eva Peron), the ensemble costumes seem to grow to match the acquisition of Eva’s wealth. There’s a nice touch towards the end of act one as the ensemble emerge dressed identically to the two Perons: a people united in reflecting their leaders.

The real standout song of the show is The Art of the Possible. Traditionally a moment devoted to the hyper-masculine, military ensemble, Llyod has reimagined this moment as a beautiful reminder of the power Eva held. While still sung by men, the song is led by a female ensemble member who, whilst dressed to the nines in a pseudo military get up, exudes power and sultriness as she guides each female assassin standing behind the soldiers in their executions. Deaths that come in the package of a popped balloon (or not popped in the case of one poor ensemble member) and Argentinian blue confetti.

We are happily appeased by the traditional image we crave of Eva Person – the jewels, the gown, the blonde hair – though Zegler’s stark stripping of these elements as we watch through the camera lens is yet another reminder that this is a show that’s fighting back against our desires. Still, the act one finale gives us the grandiose we yearn for: more confetti canons than you’ve seen in your life and elated ensemble vocals drowning out a bloodied, broken Che. In fact, the ensemble excel throughout and seamlessly fill the stage with their flowing, coordinated movements, though one does feel these start to get samey pretty quickly. The ending, much like the beginning, is stark, modern, and just a little uninteresting given the heights we’ve seen this show reach before. Despite a few teething problems (a very noisy backdrop that insisted on being lowered during quiet songs and the ensemble’s lack of ability to coordinate their consonant placement) this production holds real power and is a clear reminder of the harsh, cruel reality of Evita’s story.

While the highlighted elements of elected power versus the power of the people are certainly relevant to today’s bleak political landscape, the show lacks the overall gritty punch of a call to arms. But whether this is the most needed piece of theatre right now or not, it’s certainly an entertaining night out and an enjoyably bold twist on a classic.

PENN & TELLER 50 YEARS OF MAGIC

London Palladium

★★★★

“it’s gaudy, funny and charming”

PENN & TELLER 50 YEARS OF MAGIC

London Palladium

Reviewed on 13th September 2025

by Lara van Huyssteen

Photography by Joan Marcus from performance at Radio City Music Hall

Previously reviewed at this venue:

PENN

PENN

PENN

EVITA

The London Palladium

★★★★

“an enjoyably bold twist on a classic”

EVITA

The London Palladium

Reviewed by Kathryn McQueen

Photography by Marc Brenner

Previously reviewed at this venue:

EVITA

EVITA

EVITA

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