Broadway.com ASK A STAR: PATTI LUPONE....... — Page 2

She didn't answer MY question! Damn Broadway.com! Directors are people too!

My question-
"You've worked with numerous prolific and prominant directors- Hal Prince, John Doyle and now, Arthur Laurents, just to name a few. Out of all of the directors you worked with, who did you learn the most from and what did you learn?"

Either Broadway.com is being dumb, like they usually are, or she didn't want to bring up Hal.

Hal has nothing but praise for her, but she and Hal supposedly didn't get along. There's the old story that she slapped Daisy Prince for laughing at one of her costumes. I don't believe it, but I know Hal was really rough on her.
Pal Joey probably knows more about this than me. He's both a Patti and a Hal Prince expert. I could be completely false too.

Updated On: 12/16/08 at 10:04 PM

Obviously, Patti is very talented and she worked very hard to get where she is but just the way that she worded it and the tone that she used made it sound a little patronizing like "Why would you even ask that question?" and a little like she thinks her **** don't stink.

Why do people get upset when a star reveals that she isn't required to audtion anymore? I remember when Cheno joked about not having to audition anymore (during the Drama Desk Awards) and there was a definite audience reaction and she quickly said she was kidding. If these performers' bodies of work prove what their are cabable of, then why would they have to audition?

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Her diva attitude? If you're talented and you work hard, she'll love you forever. If you don't fit into that critera, she won't. Every actor should be that demanding with their peers.

jv92, she often comes across as being unnecessarily bitchy. I didn't see that in this interview and I now have some more respect for her as a person. When she said "I don't audition anymore," she just seemed to be poking fun at herself. It was a dumb question (no offense, Maggie). Nobody at that point in their career has to audition.

You know, a lot of this about Hal is because she had such a difficult time doing Evita because the role was so demanding and she never really got the help she wanted with the role like how to not blow out her voice and stuff. Believe me, I know how frustrating that can be. I just finished up Charlie Brown at my school and our Sally was struggling with My New Philosophy during rehearsals and she would go to the music director for help and frankly, the music director didn't help her at all. But she took care of things on her own and knocked it out of the park every night. Still don't think she got the laughs she deserved but that's another story.

And on another note, she should tell Patti just starting out to stay the hell away from Andrew Lloyd Webber.

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Updated On: 12/19/08 at 10:56 PM

No, I'm not comparing Patti's Tony-Award winning role in Evita to a girl playing Sally in CB in what was a college production for your information. I'm just saying I know how frustrating it is to need help with the technical aspects of a role and not get any.

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Do you people even know what "sarcasm" means?

Hey wha, just for the record, what exactly does someone's **** smell like?

But that's so weird. Hal isn't a handholder, to my knowledge, but he supported leading ladies like Lenya, Alexis Smith & Dorothy Collins and Glynis Johns and helped them to the best of his ability.
The only thing I can think of is that he had staged the show in London and didn't really want to do anything but just restage it in America without too much difficulty.
Anyway, Hal has used words like "outstanding", "excellent" and "profound" to describe Patti in the lead, so he must have been pleased with the results.