Feud: Patti and Hal
Feud: Patti and Hal
Musicaldudepeter
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/18/10
#1Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 12:39pm
Patti (LuPone) recently appeared as a guest on Ilana Levine's theater podcast and had some interesting things to say about Hal Prince - she said she's kept quiet about saying these things up to this point, but has decided to speak out now that she read snippets from his new (?) book. Link below
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-76-patti-lupone/id1114174900?i=1000398889818&mt=2
#2Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 12:48pmLol, who doesn’t Patti have a feud with?
My father (AIDS)
My sister (AIDS)
My uncle and my cousin and her best friend (AIDS, AIDS, AIDS)
The gays and the straights
And the white and the spades
#3Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 12:50pm
For those of us who don't have the luxury of listening to a full podcast, but can read while pretending to work - does anyone have highlights or a transcript?
nasty_khakis
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/15/07
#4Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 12:56pm
She didn't say much other than "he doesn't know how to direct." and that he was cruel to her (she never gave an example of how) and his stage management team were "ineffective" and it was a war-zone from her dressing room to the stage.
I think she just didn't respond well to essentially being a "replacement" told where to stand, when to raise an arm, etc. Hal knew his staging from London worked and didn't want to baby Patti and make her feel special by saying "where do YOU want to stand?"
Musicaldudepeter
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/18/10
#5Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 1:00pm
She basically said he can't direct, and that she was "abused in rehearsal" by him and his stage management who were indifferent. She goes on to say that she was sent his new book by a fan who sends her books (which by the way is an hysterical notion to me), and she felt that he "totally dismissed my impact in that part in that production. And I am appalled and shocked at his pettiness, his smallness. And so--but he’s given me permission to talk about what I went through in Evita. I’ve kept my mouth shut to this point. And he actually offered me A Doll’s Life afterward. And I swore I would never work with this man again.”
It's probably no more than she has said in her own book, the frustration levels she felt with (as the above poster said) being in a carbon copy production that Elaine had already done. I wonder if there was more to it though. Lolling at how she's kept her mouth shut-- when exactly?
Buscee
Featured Actor Joined: 7/9/05
#6Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 1:19pm
Of course there are three sides to every story "His" "Hers" and the "Truth". I am sure she had problems which she discussed in her book with EVITA, but if you read her book carefully you will notice that anyone that has ever criticized her or did something she did not like she has a problem with. EVERYONE! She still goes on about ALW and its over 20 years. In SUNSET she got bad reviews they chose to replace her, she sued. She won over breach of contract. Now all she does is knock his music, and that its all crap. If it was all crap she should be happy she was fired. She totally negates the fact that without Andrew LLoyd Webber or Hal Prince she wouldn't have been the STAR she is, or got a Tony.
SH*T Happens
BrodyFosse123
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
#7Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 1:27pm
Hal Prince & 30 year old Patti LuPone circa 1979 rehearsing EVITA: 
Musicaldudepeter
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/18/10
#8Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 1:34pm
I think one of the saddest things about the first Bway production of Evita is that LuPone was not being supported with her vocal issues. On one level, I'm siding with her because the creative staff should've been more helpful on that front; however why the hell didn't Patti go and get herself a voice teacher and vocal coach/accompanist at the start of rehearsals to help her fully realize the vocal heft of the role and get a solid technique that would have saved her a sh!tload of anxiety and agony. Surely the difficulty of the vocals of the role dawned on her at the start of the process... so why didn't she do that?
Updated On: 1/3/18 at 01:34 PM
jbird5
Broadway Star Joined: 12/20/15
#9Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 1:44pm
Musicaldudepeter said: "I think one of the saddest things about the first Bway production of Evita is that LuPone was not being supported with her vocal issues. On one level, I'm siding with her because the creative staff should've been more helpful on that front; however why the hell didn't Patti go and get herself a voice teacher and vocal coach/accompanist at the start of rehearsals to help her fully realize the vocal heft of the role and get a solid technique that would have saved her a sh!tload of anxiety and agony. Surely the difficulty of the vocals of the role dawned on her at the start of the process... so why didn't she do that?"
Or they could have just replaced her.
#10Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 2:09pm
jbird5 wrote "Or they could have just replaced her."
Because, as we've seen, anybody at all can sing that freak of a score and become a star, right?
BrodyFosse123
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
#11Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 3:07pm
I was 15 at the time the original Broadway production of EVITA made its American debut so I remember all the fanfare going on at the time. Coming from Argentinean heritage, I knew about EVITA since its 1976 British concept album so I was already EVITA savvy by the time the London production came to be. For all the obvious reasons, I was excited for the American/Broadway production so I became aware of this Patti LuPone actress simply by her association to EVITA. Yeah she was around way before EVITA but unless you followed all aspects of NY theater, she was unknown to the world, especially me.
Once EVITA arrived on Broadway (after its mini-out-of-town tryout tour), the buzz was insane on the show, thus LuPone had a spotlight on her simply due to the fact she was headlining EVITA. Who is to say this same spotlight wouldn't have also been shone on any actress starring in this new show? For LuPone it was simply perfect timing: starring in a huge hit show that was being talked about everywhere so she was everywhere: talk shows, etc. I think its safe to compare the EVITA buzz at the same level of HAMILTON in that it was EVERYWHERE! Everyone knew the show and this LuPone actress.
All in all, had there not been EVITA for Patti LuPone, she most definitely would not have become the pop culture reference she became. Heck, to this day if you ask any older person who Patti LuPone is they automatically say EVITA on Broadway. She's so linked to that show by the general public that regardless of everything else she has done, unless you follow Broadway, you would be completely unaware she ever did anything else. 
Original 1980 TV Commercial for EVITA: https://youtu.be/2IQOTEdLg_o
#12Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 3:14pm
As I've noted elsewhere, my
husband worked for the
Prince office in the mid-1980s.
I promise you NOTHING
LuPone has said about
Prince or his staff com-
pares to what they had
to say about her.
#13Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 3:19pm
I think it's foolish to speculate
as to what career LuPone
might have had without
EVITA. Granted, it put her
on the map.
But she had already proven
herself in WORKING and
ROBBER BRIDEGROOM.
(My strongest memory of
the former isn't a song, but
one of LuPone's monologs.)
If it hadn't been EVITA, who
knows? Maybe she would
have hit it big in something
else.
#14Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 3:22pm
When you have problems with so many people, maybe it's not them, it's you.
#15Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 3:23pm
All in all, had there not been EVITA for Patti LuPone, she most definitely would not have become the pop culture reference she became. Heck, to this day if you ask any older person who Patti LuPone is they automatically say EVITA on Broadway. She's so linked to that show by the general public thatregardless of everything else she has done, unless you follow Broadway, you would be completely unaware she ever did anything else
Right....because Patti hasn't done anything else of note... Prince and ALW were lucky they had LuPone as Evita. Had she not performed the role the show may not have been as successful as it was. Subsequent productions haven't been as successful with the same staging AND music.
#16Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 3:26pm
Considering that 2-a-week Terri Klausner, as well as none of the replacements or covers or revival performers (or Madonna in the film) has received anything near the same stardom-boost from the role, I think it safe to say that LuPone brought something unique to the show.
#17Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 3:35pm
newintown said: "...I think it safe to say that LuPone brought something unique to the show."
Agreed. But I happened to
see LuPone in a late pre-
view and then saw Marti
Webb (the matinee
Eva) in London about
six weeks later.
I'm not sure Webb was
"better"; she was certain-
ly less convincing com-
pared to the real-life
woman. But the show
as a whole was better
with her portrayal.
Something about Webb's
larger-than-life
portrayal revealed the
piece as opera, in a way
LuPone's more natural-
listic acting did not.
Musicaldudepeter
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/18/10
#18Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 3:43pm
Is that so? First time I've ever heard Patti's acting referred to as 'naturalistic.' Listening and watching clips of her - especially her final few weeks - and everything I've read about her performance led me to believe that she played the role ferociously with a similar larger than life energy.
BrodyFosse123
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
#19Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 3:51pm
Right....because Patti hasn't done anything else of note... Prince and ALW were lucky they had LuPone as Evita. Had she not performed the role the show may not have been as successful as it was. Subsequent productions haven't been as successful with the same staging AND music.
Yo, genius. WE know Patti's career but 95% of the world population around during 1980 and aware of EVITA have NO idea what the p*uck she's done since. I'm not saying she's never done any work of any importance but WE know this.
As for EVITA, the show itself was huge (like HAMILTON). NOT the staging, etc. The world was aware of EVITA - the show. Patti LuPone was starring in it, therefore SHE was spotlighted. Same way Lin-Manuel Miranda was when HAMILTON first surfaced. The average person has NO idea he even wrote HAMILTON - they just know him associate him with HAMILTON. The average person doesn't even know of IN THE HEIGHTS existence.
#20Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 3:55pm
^^^ But couldn't that have
been said of ANYONE who
got to Broadway as Eva first?
----
As for my use of "naturalistic",
I qualified it with the word
"more". I realize that no
musical performance is ever
truly naturalistic.
#21Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 4:00pm
"95% of the world population around during 1980 and aware of EVITA have NO idea what the p*uck she's done since."
Starring in a TV series for four seasons (Life Goes On), major roles in major motion pictures (Driving Miss Daisy, Summer of Sam, The Comedian), major TV airings of musicals (Passion, Mahoganny, Sweeney Todd), recurring roles on hit TV shows (Oz, 30 Rock, American Horror Story, Penny Dreadful)?
I think America is familiar with her. And some of the rest of the world.
carolinaguy
Broadway Star Joined: 10/13/06
#22Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 4:01pm
Unrelated question brought up by the vintage photos of the Broadway--when did it get its current facade and the adjacent tower that's there now? I remember them being there during the first run of Miss Saigon, but I'm not sure how long before that it was updated.
Just remembering you've had an "and"
When you're back to "or"
Makes the "or" mean more than it did before
#23Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 4:41pm
The old marquee and sign is so much nicer than what is up there today.
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
#24Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 4:42pm
newintown said: ""95% of the worldpopulation around during 1980 and aware of EVITA have NO idea what the p*uck she's done since."
Starring in a TV series for four seasons (Life Goes On), major roles in major motion pictures (Driving Miss Daisy,Summer of Sam,The Comedian), major TV airings of musicals (Passion, Mahoganny,Sweeney Todd), recurring roles on hit TV shows (Oz,30 Rock,American Horror Story,Penny Dreadful)?
I think America is familiar with her. And some of therest of theworld."
^^This
BrodyFosse123
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/27/06
#25Feud: Patti and Hal
Posted: 1/3/18 at 4:44pm
"95% of the world population around during 1980 and aware of EVITA have NO idea what the p*uck she's done since."
Starring in a TV series for four seasons (Life Goes On), major roles in major motion pictures (Driving Miss Daisy, Summer of Sam, The Comedian), major TV airings of musicals (Passion, Mahoganny, Sweeney Todd), recurring roles on hit TV shows (Oz, 30 Rock, American Horror Story, Penny Dreadful)?
I think America is familiar with her. And some of the rest of the world.
Ask an average person old enough to have been around in 1980 who is Patti LuPone and you'll get your answer.
You posted facts about Patti. Just because she has appeared in high caliber projects and won awards doesn't mean people are aware of any of this. Ask these same people who Stockard Channing is and they'll quickly tell you she played Rizzo in the film GREASE. They are unaware of the fabulous career she's had post-GREASE.
I know a p*uck load of people who had NO idea who Elaine Stritch was until she appeared on 30 ROCK and these people had seen the countless of films she appeared in. It wasn't until AFTER they knew her from 30 ROCK did she register into their brains and THEN they recognized her in these older films.
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