Patti LuPone on getting bullied by Broadway

"My PA brought back my peppermint latte and it was hot, not superhot the way i like it. I threw its contents right in his face while i screamed at him--I won;t stand for such obvious bullying."

Her face looks a bit like Patti Clarkson's in that photo, what with the lighting, the angle, and that devious smile.

Very good interview. I love Patti, been a fan for decades. She is so honest it must have been a reason she has had tough time with her career.

....

[italic]Has[/italic] she had a tough time in her career? I really don't think so.

You bitches want to talk about a tough time?

How 'bout the reaming out I got when I used my cell phone during one of Ms. LuPone's "performances."

She is really appreciative of her audience when she can tell they are into it. A friend of mine and I went to see "War Paint", and sat in the front row. Petrified of what might happen, I took the battery out of my phone "just in case". She was in front of us at one point and we were very enthusiastic about her number and applauded loudly. She looked down at us with a smirk that indicated, "Well at least I know the gays like me!" But it was obvious that she was pleased. Bernadette pointed at us when we were in nearly the same distance at "Hello, Dolly!". Theater people love it when their audiences pay attention!

She's a true brassy Brooklyn broad. Love her

Can someone post the article? I'm not subscribing to the Times to read it.

She wasn't honest about coking it up during LES MIZ, according to some of the cast.

[quote]She wasn't honest about coking it up during LES MIZ, according to some of the cast.

Especially since she had been coking it at least since Evita.

She would do a full performance of Evita and then go down and do her cabaret act at Les Mouches.

I think Prince was itching to fire her and bring in Paige. It's surprising they never did bring in Paige. From what I gather, the London replacements were on the whole more successful than the NY ones.

This ugly ass possum has some nerve. A bully talking about being bullied. haha. Bitch doesn't deserve a career at all. UGLY as sin, HORRID actress and bland insincere singer. Fuck off and die you old biddy.

R8 She is from Long Island.

[quote]I think Prince was itching to fire her and bring in Paige.

For Evita? He had plenty of chances. LuPone stayed with the show on Broadway for two years, which back then was unheard of. The leads usually did 6 months or at most 1 year and then departed the show. A full two years was unheard of.

r13 = Christine Ebersole

LuPone was a success in EVITA but even she claims that the understudy got better notices in the LA tryout.

[quote]LuPone was a success in EVITA but even she claims that the understudy got better notices in the LA tryout.

And as she herself says, in the tryout period, she couldn't sing the role.

And then for the next 30 years, she trashed Andrew Lloyd-Webber saying he couldn't write for women.

I can't imagine going thru life such a crank. If she hadn't been chosen for "Evita" there is a chance she'd be back on Long Island babysitting the grandchildren but she never passes a moment to attack Andrew Lloyd Webber. She's in show business and he made a business decision with "Sunset Blvd", you'd think he stole her first born.

[quote]I thought “Evita” was the best thing he and Tim Rice did. But the rest of it is schmaltz.

No Dear, it's music you can't sing.

[quote]I knew at 4 years old where I was going and what I was going to do,” said LuPone .....“And I didn’t think I was going to be in the chorus.”

[quote]It diminished my status in the company as the leading lady. He treated me like a stupid chorus girl.

For someone who demands such respect, she doesn't have much for the chorus.

r9 Album with the article and the accompanying photos.

[Quote] No Dear, it's music you can't sing.

But wasn't LuPone the only major Norma Desmond to sing the songs as originally written?

Patti can be great, but also really tedious without great material.

She did a "Torch Songs" concert at Lincoln Center some years back, and it was truly one of the dullest nights out I have endured, and I thought I really liked her. She was incredibly uninteresting, which was a huge shock. I thought it would never end.

It makes you realize how magical certain performers are who can just stand there, sing, and hold your attention. Brian Stokes Mitchell, another talented singer/actor was also duller than watching paint dry in a solo concert at Carnegie Hall some years ago.

[quote]But wasn't LuPone the only major Norma Desmond to sing the songs as originally written?

She should, he wrote it for her.

[quote]But wasn't LuPone the only major Norma Desmond to sing the songs as originally written?

Patti was ROYALLY pissed when the Sunset Boulevard box office opened and the hold music was Barbra Streisand singing "With One Look."

[quote]I thought “Evita” was the best thing he and Tim Rice did. But the rest of it is schmaltz.

I'm surprised not everyone on earth doesn't realize that "Evita" is pure 1970s schmaltz!

It IS!

Well, she's not wrong about Lloyd Webber. Most of his musicals do suck. Evita and Sunset Boulevard are the only watchable ones and the latter would be better without all those awful chorus numbers that just sit there.

I've never thought she was the world's best actress, but she does have more stage presence than 50 of those theatre school kids combined. When she's well cast, she's brilliant. I think her main issue is that she's not very surprising. I remember seeing her in Gypsy and thinking "yep, this is exactly how I'd imagine Patti would deliver that line or sing that lyric."

If they ever make a (musical) movie of "Sunset Boulevard", they should do what Howard Hawks did to "Gentleman Prefer Blondes" and cut the songs down to a minimum (i.e. retain Norma's songs, mostly).

That's the only way I could see a movie version of Sunset working. Even get rid of that terrible love ballad for Joe and Betty. Every time I've seen it on stage, that scene stalls the story horribly.

Generally bad diction. She's the Joan Sutherland of Broadway.

It was the producers for Evita who wanted to replace her and bring in the equally tiresome Elaine Paige, who had done the role in London.

[quote]replace her and bring in the equally tiresome Elaine Paige, who had done the role in London.

They didn't because Elaine is a midget and they would have had to recast Mandy, Bob Gunton and half the chorus.

How long had Paige been doing the show in London by the time of the New York opening?

Fun interview- she's honest. I have a hard time watching her on stage however. Funny because on camera (film) she is much more real- not all overplayed movement and emotion and that mouth zig zagging everywhere like on stage. And the voice- it is Mermanesque in that it is loud and grating- almost like chalk on a blackboard. So... I saw Evita in San Francisco before it came to NYC (with Patti). I thought she was beneath the level of the show- so I agree with Hal Prince! I think she grew into the role. Mandy P. as Che was the star (little did I know what a maniac he would turn out to be.)

I saw Paige when she finally made it to the US (I think it was Sweeney Todd, but I can't remember).

It was totally underwhelming. Maybe she was better at the height of her British career.

LuPone only started bashing Lloyd Webber after the Sunset Blvd debacle. Before that, she was just fine with his music.

Paige was actually the best Norma in Sunset.

And now for your musical enjoyment.

Stephen Sondheim Celebration - Carnegie Hall -1992

Butter.

R35 I saw her Betty and Patti in London and I thought Elaine was the worst. Not bad but not my favorite. Patti was excellent Betty was very good but Elaine’s Norma tried to bee funny, didn’t work for me.

[quote]I saw her Betty and Patti in London and I thought Elaine was the worst.

Elaine was better than Pet Clarke. Talk about miscast!

Patti, are you okay? No one ever asks Patti if she’s okay. It’s tough, isn’t it? Would it be safe to say you’re not okay? Tell us, Patti.

You’re welcome, Patti.

R38 Yes! Petula’s performance based on youtube was less than perfect.

I guess Paige settled into the role by the time she joined the New York production then.

[quote]Yes! Petula’s performance based on youtube was less than perfect.

I saw her in London. It looked like a good fit on paper. Pet could do that overblown, faded star bit. However, the performance I saw, she was very flirty and girlish. You could never believe that someone so "giggly" could pull the trigger.

[Quote] You could never believe that someone so "giggly" could pull the trigger.

I gotta pee.

She loves Paris

After watching the last revival of Evita on Bway with the Argentine actress with the awful raspy voice, I thought that Evita needed to be a bulldozer like Patti's version to be effective.

This summer, I saw Evita in Regent's Park, London. An American with a solid voice (Samantha Pauly) played her younger, more coy and vulnerable, and that won me over. Now it's hard to listen to Patti's version. Patti can hit the notes gloriously but she portrays Evita as having balls of steel from the beginning.

There really was only one person that ever really captured all of Evita. I think we all know who that was.

I still like the punky Julie Covington.

High School Musical....

Hot damn! That high school girl is fantastic. That's raw talent right there. It's a great fit for her voice.

Miss Haley Gustafson....

[quote]High School Musical....

Geez, the tempo on that is at half the pace it should be. Can't those teenagers speed it up a bit?

LuPone was pretty unknown when she starred in EVITA, so its no wonder she stayed with it for so long: what else was she going to do? Even when she left she did pretty uninteresting work in theater and film, and when she finally did ANYTHING GOES at Lincoln Center a few years later it was considered a big Broadway comeback.

Her replacements in EVITA were really awful: I saw both Derin Altay and Loni Ackerman in the part, and they were both terrible. I've yet to see someone play it other than LuPone (and reputedly Elaine Page--I never actually saw her play it) who could really command the stage.

WTF is any high school attempting Evita?

Haven't they done FOLLIEs in high school(s)?

R52, I saw Loni Ackerman and thought she was fine.

Granted I was in high school and had the flu during the show, so, I'm sure anyone would have sounded fine.

Ackerman could at least dance it, r52....

Yes, r54......

r56, when I saw Ackerman she spoke-sang almost all her songs. i don't know if her voice was suffering from strain or what, but it was like watching Rex Harrison perform the role.

Not at all a Patti fan ever since hearing her screaming her way through Anything Goes. You can belt Porter but you can't scream his songs the way you can Lloyd Weber.

That being said she was wonderful in War Paint. And it didn't even have one decent song in it which was kind of astonishing. How does any professional composer do that? That dinosaur song was as bad as An Ordinary Couple. In fact every song in it was as bad as An Ordinary couple.

When she got the role in Evita, People magazine did a profile and their title called her an acting nobody LOL. Her understudy was Terri Klausner, who Lupone called a real life Eve Harrington. She sounds like a real pill.

[quote]Generally bad diction.

She acknowledges it in the interview and says her teacher, the future Oscar winner John Houseman actually put his hands around her neck to choke her because he was so frustrated by it.

I imagine she was suffering from vocal strain, r58, because she does have pipes....

Didn't Patti have a Tony nomination before EVITA? She wasn't a star but she was hardly picked out of a cattle call.

....at Les Mouches

She was in WORKING.....

[quote]She acknowledges it in the interview and says her teacher, the future Oscar winner John Houseman actually put his hands around her neck to choke her because he was so frustrated by it.

Which is probably a lie because during her Anything Goes days, she said that nobody told her that her diction was bad. And it was so bad that Forbidden Broadway even did a spoof about it.

[quote]Didn't Patti have a Tony nomination before EVITA? She wasn't a star but she was hardly picked out of a cattle call.

She was nominated in 1976 for The Robber Bridegroom. Her brother was also nominated that year for A Chorus Line. Both went home empty handed.

[Quote] Forbidden Broadway even did a spoof about it

I begtadiffyabilly!

I saw all of the well known Norma Desmonds in Sunset Boulevard including Petula Clark and Diahann Carrol. No one came close to Mrs. Tom Bradford. The quality is bad because it's obviously pirated.

Many concur R69

Love Patti!!!! Unpopular opinion.....Glenn Close was much better as Norma Desmond.

Patti is more than a little justified in her rancor against ALW. She had a contract to record the first two singles from Sunset Blvd., and to appear in the show on Broadway. ALW broke the contract and she successfully sued him. I saw her do the show in London and agreed with the critics who said she was too young for the role, and I hated the show itself. I saw it years later on Broadway with Elaine Paige, and while I still hated the show she was fabulous. ALW said that he wished the show had opened in London with her, as it would still be running now.

I've seen more than a few Evitas through the years. Didn't see Lupone in the role, but I saw Derin Altay and Loni Ackerman several times each. Both sang the show well and gave excellent performances. Stephanie Lawrence in London was good too.

Patti needs good material and a strong director to shine. She was dazzling in Women On The Verge (show was much better than its reviews).

R72 Yeah Patti has every right to be bitter about that, and I'm glad she got the "Andrew Lloyd Webber Memorial Pool" out of it. It's interesting because I agree with you that she appeared too young for the part. Ironically, Glenn Close is only two years older than Patti, but she looked older. I agree with R71 that Glenn Close was better in the role. I saw Patti in the original and then Glenn when she reprized the role in 2017. Patti sang it wonderfully, but I didn't buy her as Norma. To be blunt she lacked the glamour needed to pull off a silent movie star.

Patti was one of the best singers of the score easily, but just wasn't the right type for Norma. She's was perfect for a delusional, salt of the earth Depression-era mother in Gypsy, but not as a delusional, washed up silent film starlet.

R72 I saw LuPone Buckley and Paige in London and liked Elaine the least. Patti and Betty were different but sensational.

Patti was unwilling to be ugly and scary and rapacious as Norma--she just wanted to be vulnerable and frightened.

R74 Yes, Patti can sing circles around the other ladies. When Glenn Close took over the role, they had to transpose the end of 'With One Voice' two tones because Close couldn't reach the final note. The put in a modulation in the line 'this time I'm staying, I'm staying for good' and it is horrific if you compare it to the original score. That being said, I agree Patti was totally miscast as Norma. Part of the issue between her and ALW was that she resisted what he and Trevor Nunn wanted her to do with the role which was to make her scary and unbalanced. This was why they went with Glenn Close for Broadway because she was willing to go there...and in fact went over the top with it in a sick but campy way. Hands down, however, Buckley was the best Norma. I saw close a few years ago when she revived the part in London and she was a little too Cruella De Ville for my liking.

I might get bitch slapped for this, but I've always felt LuPone was overrated as an actress. She's the same in every role. It's Patti LuPone being Patti LuPone.

I saw Glenn Close