Last summer at the London Palladium it was the Rachel Zeigler show, as the American star headlined a phenomenal revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Evita. So successful was this glossy formula that it has been lightly tweaked and repeated for 2026, with Sam Ryder making his theatre debut in Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar, presented in a scintillating production by Tim Sheader.
Ryder, who went superstellar overnight as he bagged second place for the UK in Eurovision 2022, certainly had the hair – flowing, scruffy – for the part, but could he provide the rest? The answer is a resounding yes.
This sung-through show, about the final days of Jesus’s life and his betrayal by Judas, started life as a concept album in 1970 before opening on Broadway a year later. It proves the perfect fit for Ryder, given that no spoken word acting is required, just incredibly powerful and expressive singing, which he can supply in spades.
Near the start of the second half, he lets rips so powerfully in vocal-chord-busting solo “Gethsemane” that the first night audience gave it a standing ovation. How he will manage to sustain this eight times a week for months on end as the production continues is another question.
