Can someone explain Patti LuPone?- Page 3
Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#50re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/22/06 at 10:21pm
Good: She has a strong, versatile belt voice
Bad: Her diction is horrible. So bad that Forbidden Broadway spoofed it.
Good: She has a strong, versatile belt voice
Bad: There is no subtlety in her acting. She acts like a mack truck driving 90 miles per hour.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#51re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/22/06 at 10:29pm
Gothampc, I would have agreed with you, until the current Sweeney. She showed an amazing acting range and gave a subtle sexy performance.
As to her diction: She's been notoriously ridiculed for it! However, she has said: "No one ever told me." If you look at her more recent work, since they've "told" her, her diction has improved...greatly! Again, check out Sweeney.
"It's not so much do what you like, as it is that you like what you do." SS
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
#52re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/22/06 at 10:29pmElphaba3: You said you haven't seen her live. Um, well that explains it. It's kind of silly to say you don't "get" how she's such a grand success in her business if you haven't seen her at work. She is a performer. Of course you're not going to "get it" if you haven't seen her perform. So, go see her live and THEN tell us what you think of her.
Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and, instead of bleeding, he sings.
#53re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/22/06 at 10:30pm
"My God, you guys. If someone doesn't understand the appeal of Patti LuPone, it's not the end of the f*cking world. And maybe you should get to know a person better before you assume what their taste in music is like"
Thank you! Honestly I'm a little hurt by some of the responses here. I wasn't like "every1 whos in wikid is god!!!!!!!!! patty lapoon sux!!!!!!!!"
Luvinbroadway
Leading Actor Joined: 7/18/03
#54re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/22/06 at 10:32pm
"There is no subtlety in her acting. She acts like a mack truck driving 90 miles per hour"
GothamPC. Which performances is this statement based upon. I would argue the opposite. Most recently with Gypsy, Sweeney, Can Can, and the Old Neighborhood.
#55re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/22/06 at 10:48pm
For those of us old enough to have seen her Evita, we remember it as having witnessed a force of nature, dazzling, shocking, thrilling. You cannot imagine what it was like to see her sing "He supports you / For he loves you, / Understands you, / Is one of you. / If not, how could he love me?" I get chills just remembering.
Around the same time, we had Jennifer Holiday in Dreamgirls, who was also breathtaking and astonishing, but Jennifer was an untrained accident of art, whereas Patti was a Juilliard-trained actress, who had been touring the country in John Houseman's Acting Company, with former classmates like Kevin Kline and Robin Williams. She was a singing actress with a world-class belt--an Ethel Merman who could act the classics. And that belt voice inspired a generation of singers.
Some of us knew her from The Baker's Wife, with her gorgeous "Meadowlark." Some of us knew her from the Acting Company's school matinee of the one-act "Diary of Adam and Eve," from The Apple Tree, which she played to lucky unknowing schoolkids with her sometime real-life lover Kevin Kline. Her "What Makes Me Love Him" taught cynical high-school teenagers how to cry at the theater.
Some of us knew her from the Acting Company's Robber Bridegroom, or as the young prince, Edward III, in Edward II. Some of us knew her from Working. Most of us saw her brother, Robert LuPone, create the role of Zack in A Chorus Line. They were talented--and cool.
The stories abounded that Hal Prince was a tyrant of a director to her, and she lived through it to create a portrait of Eva Peron that made the Andrew Lloyd Webber material soar beyond the British recordings.
And then, improbably, she went to England, and ended up in the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she "Dreamed a Dream" and originated the role of Fantine.
She came back to the US, and in Anything Goes, she dazzled again, this time in an old-fashioned musical-comedy star kind of way. Forbidden Broadway lampooned her much-vaunted inability to sing consonants, but in reality, she could have perfect Juilliard-trained diction--when she wanted to. She did a TV series and seemed to be on a ride to superstardom.
But then her ride to stardom crashed on a rocky road called Sunset Boulevard. The same Andrew Lloyd Webber whose music she had elevated in Evita turned sadistic and fired her, viciously, publicly and humiliatingly. Rumors abounded that he was forced to pay her off in 6 figures, 7 figures, 8 figures... He became the most hated man in musical theater, with fans and professionals hoping and praying for his karmic failure. And she became, temporarily, a victim.
Then, one night, Patti appeared at Carnegie Hall in Sondheim: A Celebration, where she proceeded to redefine the formerly male "Being Alive." She raised the roof of Carnegie Hall and told us all that yes! she was still alive and that no Andrew Lloyd Webber could destroy her. Then she appeared at Encores in Pal Joey (!), singing a mature and dynamic "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered." She had arrived.
In between she played Maria Callas in Master Class and did farce in Noises Off, proving and re-proving her endless versatility. But it was the series of Sondheim concerts at Ravinia that finally turned Patti into an artist. Candide, Sweeney Todd, Passion, Sunday. Now Gypsy, playing the role she was born to play--and that all of us were born to SEE her play, and again she faces an evil wizard, keeping her from playing the star-making role in New York.
Why do we love her? Simple: her world-class acting, her force-of-nature singing voice and her Italian-American tough-girl elegant-despite-being-rough-around the edges spunk.
She is as American as...Ethel Merman.
#56re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/22/06 at 11:03pm
My, PalJoey, I'm hearing a rousing chorus of "Attend the tale of Patti LuPone."
Although, thank you, that's pretty thorough. I want to hear more about the "Sunset Boulevard" tragedy.
And, her "Being Alive" is one my favorite performances to watch.
Some people paint, some people sew, I meddle.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#57re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/22/06 at 11:06pm
that was beautiful, PalJoey.
made me proud to be a part of this community.
#58re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/22/06 at 11:10pm
Gosh, I got to this thread a bit late, but I have to give a little more Patti love!
She has an amazing, commanding presence and a strong voice. She conveys emotions extremely well in her songs (duh, it's musical theatre, that's what you're supposed to do, not just sing the songs pretty). She's Patti LuFreakingPone! She's legendary for a reason!
See her perform "Being Alive" and "A New Argentina" both available on DVD. (Sondheim: A Celebration and Broadway's Lost Treasures)
PS PalJoey said it best! 
Updated On: 8/22/06 at 11:10 PM
#59re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/22/06 at 11:12pm
Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
She's Patti F#%king LuPone. Don't mess with her.
haha. that made me laugh so much.
One time, Patti LuPone punched me in the face...
It was awesome. - theaterkid1015
It was awesome. - theaterkid1015
#60re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/22/06 at 11:14pm
PalJoey, high marks for such a beautiful synopsis of her career!
She's more than the next best thing since Merman...
"It's not so much do what you like, as it is that you like what you do." SS
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#61re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/22/06 at 11:37pm
"GothamPC. Which performances is this statement based upon. I would argue the opposite. Most recently with Gypsy, Sweeney, Can Can, and the Old Neighborhood."
I think in musicals she is fine because her singing outshines her acting. I saw Can Can and she sang it great.
She was horrible in the Old Neighborhood. It was all technique and no inner work going on. Her screen work in Summer of Sam, State & Main and Life Goes On were all "Patti LuPone" in different costumes.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#63re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/22/06 at 11:49pm
Thank you, PalJoey 
That was wonderful.
"TO LOVE ANOTHER PERSON IS TO SEE THE FACE OF GOD"- LES MISERABLES---
"THERE'S A SPECIAL KIND OF PEOPLE KNOWN AS SHOW PEOPLE... WE'RE BORN EVERY NIGHT AT HALF HOUR CALL!"--- CURTAINS
#64re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/22/06 at 11:53pmand who can sing like merman these days?
#65re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/22/06 at 11:57pm
Wow, PalJoey. The Patti fans should be thankful for your post. I think what you said is what we all want to convey.
I think must see performances for those who don't get Patti, or for those who want to get to know her.'
- A NEW ARGENTINA (Tony Performance Seen on Broadway's lost treasures
- BEING ALIVE (Sondheim Tribute at Carnegie Hall) On DVD.
- ANYTHING GOES (Tonys) Broadway's Lost Treasures as well. Shows a different side of Patti, and it's great.
Those are probally the 3 main must sees. Then check out her Sweeney Concert with Hearn. She shines in WORST PIES, and she even makes something of what is kind of a useless song, WAIT.
When she belts I FEEL something. I feel like she takes me on a journey when she sings, especially when she starts belting. No other performer can really do this for me.
I don't really know what else to say. Now if people start asking how to get Gwen Verdon, I might have to whoop some asses!
Updated On: 8/22/06 at 11:57 PM
#66re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/22/06 at 11:57pm
I think Elphaba3 is very justified in asking this question. Obviously they are very open to hear why you all think Patti is a Goddess, other wise they wouldn't have started the thread. So show your love for her, and get on with your life!.
I was the same with Bernie until I saw her in Concert. Holy God! She was amazing!
There are many Broadway legends that I don't find to be that great, but I still appreciate what they have given to the world.
"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it." -Stephen Colbert
#67re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/22/06 at 11:59pm
I have seen Patti's version of Being Alive from the Sondheim tribute. It didn't do anything for me. In my opinion, Bernadette's is the definitive version.
Updated On: 8/23/06 at 11:59 PM
#68re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/23/06 at 12:03am
If you enjoy the sound of a dying cat, then enjoy Bernadette's BEING ALIVE.
I like the orchestrations of Bernies though.
#69re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/23/06 at 12:06am
PalJoey - YOU ARE THE BEST!!!!!
and i also agree with:
"She's Patti F#%king LuPone. Don't mess with her."
YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!
and in my opinion, bernadette's "being alive", although wonderful, can't hold a candle to patti's. i have been obsessed with that sondheim celebration recording for years. AMAZING.
thevolleyballer
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/29/04
#70re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/23/06 at 12:07am
Bah. I don't like Patti LuPone. Her voice oozes cockiness and arrogance, to me -- even her speaking. I don't like the woman. And her voice isn't all that lovely to hear.
(And don't you dare say, "Well, why don't YOU try to sing like that?" Yeah, okay, I can't. That doesn't mean I'm not allowed to decide whether someone's voice appeals to me.)
#71re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/23/06 at 12:12am
"If you enjoy the sound of a dying cat, then enjoy Bernadette's BEING ALIVE."
Okay, tht was uncalled for. If we're not allowed to bash Patti, we shouldn't be allowed to bash Bernadette.
#72re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/23/06 at 12:18am
Sigh--I just watched "A New Argentina" from the 1980 Tony on the site-that-shall-not-be-named. Such vocal power! I've always wondered what it must have been like for Bob Gundon to be belted-at at such close range.
#73re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/23/06 at 12:21amBut you seee I wasn't bashing Bernadette. Because the only way I can think of to describe her BEING ALVIE is the sounds of a dying cat. I'm not trying to be rude OR funny. That's what I relate her version to.
#74re: Can someone explain Patti LuPone?
Posted: 8/23/06 at 12:31amTo me, Bernadette sounds like a goddess when she sings just about anything. Some people worship Patti; I worship Bernadette.
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