They don’t make leading women like Patti LuPone anymore – or perhaps, they never did. As a bonafide icon of musical theatre, LuPone carved her own path to fame and recognition on Broadway and the West End, propelled by her incredible voice and an admirably defiant attitude in the face of scrutiny. With the star in Australia for the Patti LuPone: A Life in Notes tour, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to speak with this living legend. For the uninitiated, here are a few iconic things you must know about Patti LuPone:
- She originated some of the most famous roles in musical theatre, including Eva Perón in Evita, which she won a Tony Award for.
- She famously named her pool the “Andrew Lloyd Webber Memorial Pool”, which she had built with funds gained from successfully suing the heavyweight musical composer (because he fired her from the Broadway-bound debut of Sunset Boulevard, replacing her at the eleventh-hour with Glenn Close).
- And lately, the 75-year-old has gone viral with her radical stance against poor theatre etiquette, including confiscating a mobile phone from an audience member who was texting throughout a show (without breaking character).
- She is simply a badass.
“I'm still the type of person that says what's on her mind, and I probably would be more punished in an earlier decade, I think,” says LuPone, in response to a question about her rocky path to success. “But I don't know whether it's any better for women now than it was when I was coming of age in this business.”
LuPone’s breakthrough role in Evita came at the “mature” age of 30, after years of touring the States in productions with her fellow Juilliard School alumni. She beat out big name stars for the leading role, none of whom could sing the role with the power she afforded. Yet, she says that working on that production was not an enjoyable experience – she was treated like an unknown backstage, while she was expected to turn out a star performance on stage. In interviews during and after the Broadway run, LuPone’s candid personality and high standards for artistic integrity led her to be subjected to harsh scrutiny. She was also often unkindly compared to her ex-boyfriend Kevin Kline, who went on to star in Hollywood movies. LuPone also didn’t hold back in criticising Evita’s notoriously problematic elements, saying that her part “could only have been written by a man who hates women”. (Honestly? Slay, Patti.)
LuPone has actually said that she finally came to enjoy her role in Evita when she reprised it on the Sydney stage in the early ’80s – so really, her Australian shows at the City Recital Hall are set to be a homecoming of sorts. What also might surprise you, is that she does not stick to singing only show tunes for A Life in Notes.
“Basically, it's my life – it's how I experienced music growing up in America. I grew up in the ’50s and ’60s on Long Island, and it was the burgeoning of Rock’n’Roll, [which was] my first major musical influence,” says LuPone, when describing the new tour.
“We've all had the same experience where you hear a song now and you remember exactly where you were when you first heard it, and the impact the song had on you… [for example] there was a time where I was on stage doing Anything Goes, it was during the AIDS crisis and New York City was in chaos. So the songs reflect decades, and they're also personal touchstones – a love lost, a love discovered, or just, you know, having a transistor radio and cutting school and going to the beach, those kinds of things a kid will do…”
Broadway fans, don’t be deterred, three of the biggest songs from her musical career are also featured in the show – including, of course, ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ from Les Misérables (our gal was casually invited to originate the role of Fantine over in London).
When asked about the highs and lows of her career, LuPone is quick to recall her unceremonious booting from Sunset Boulevard. A significant controversy in Broadway’s history, it is said that Lloyd Webber replaced her with the other well-known star to play Norma Desmond due to concerns for the show’s commercial viability, despite the fact that LuPone had been receiving rave reviews for originating the show on the West End. (It is quite uncanny timing that Australia’s new production of Sunset Boulevard just opened in Melbourne with concerning reviews about Sarah Brightman’s performance, ahead of the Sydney season in August.)
“Yeah, the worst would have to be Sunset Boulevard,” says LuPone. “The way that Andrew Lloyd Webber treated me, that was the worst. But the best was Gypsy, and the best was in Australia when I did Evita, London's Company, and New York City's Company – the best continues to be. The experiences have been great. You know, everybody has to have one bad one [experience] before you can have tons of good ones.”
Looking at what's in store for the future of musical theatre, LuPone sounds less than impressed by what a lot of new productions waste money on – “volume too loud, and they spend too much money on sets!” – however, there is a lot that excites her. “Some of the stuff that I've seen on stage this year has been fantastic. The play Stereophonic is my favourite, and my favourite musical is The Outsiders – the direction, the cast, the production values, the choreography, it all worked, as far as I'm concerned,” she says. You can’t deny LuPone’s eye for what works – days after our conversation, the aforementioned shows came out on top at the 2024 Tony Awards.
So, with such a prolific career to celebrate, what does Patti LuPone hope for her legacy to be? She hesitates, protesting that she “doesn’t think that way” – then she says: “That I was loyal, that I was a good friend, that I was a good mother and a good wife.”
Don’t cry for her, everything’s coming up roses for Patti.
The Australian tour of Patti LuPone: A Life in Notes kicks off with a headline performance at Adelaide Cabaret Festival on Wednesday, June 19, before heading to Sydney’s City Recital Hall (on Friday, June 21 + Saturday, June 22) and on to dates in Melbourne and Brisbane. Tickets start at $99.90. Find out more and snap up final tickets over here.
Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for the best in arts and culture, food & drink inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox.