NY Times RAVES About Leslie Kritzer IS Patti LuPone at Les Mouches

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/8/06 at 7:57am

I saw the original once and I'm seeing this one tonight for the 3rd time. You all know how much I love Patti. Well, Lesley Kritzer is THAT good.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES

Patti LuPone lives! Oops, yes, of course Patti LuPone lives. We all just saw her and loved her in “Sweeney Todd.” What I mean is that the Patti LuPone of 1980 lives again, at Joe’s Pub, in the enterprising person of Leslie Kritzer, above, a would-be, should-be Broadway diva paying homage to one of the last of the greats in a strange but wonderful new club act. Skip to next paragraphBack when Ms. LuPone was flinging her arms skyward nightly as the title character in “Evita,” she kept loose by performing on Saturday nights at a club in Chelsea called Les Mouches. Ms. Kritzer, a powerful young singer still awaiting her own Broadway break, has now recreated that show, song for song, with the help of Ms. LuPone’s original musical director, David Lewis, who is once again at the piano. Ms. Kritzer doesn’t particularly resemble Ms. LuPone, but her vocal intonations are eerily precise and very funny. She hits all the right notes in the songs and the kookily wrong ones in the patter, which is also recreated, word for word. (In the house tonight: Stephen Sondheim — Patti would just love to do one of his shows — and Andy Warhol!) The repertory is redolent of the era too. The highlight for me was hearing one Patti with an “i” pay tribute to another, Patti Smith, with “Because the Night.” (Tonight and tomorrow night at 11:30, and Jan. 3 and 6, Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, at Astor Place, East Village, 212-539-8778, joespub.com; $25.) CHARLES ISHERWOOD

Updated On: 12/8/06 at 07:57 AM