Help me love Patti Lupone!- Page 2

[Elphaba]

Posted: 6/27/06 at 8:23pm

exactly, I don't have to justify to anyone why I like specific performers

[SeptemberKel]

Posted: 6/27/06 at 8:24pm

In my opinion, of course the director gets credit! However, ultimately, SHE is the one on the stage delivering. A director can only push a performer so far. At some point (in my opinion - when the curtain rises), the director becomes a spectator just like the rest of the audience (for lack of a better phrase).

This is not the first time the director/performer dichotomy has been argued in a discussion of Patti LuPone's ability (curiously, it seems to be largely unique to the discussion of this particular performer; though, if logic were to follow a linear path, it should be a line of thought applicable to every performer... everywhere), so let me pose this: Just how much credit would one want to give to a director for Patti's performace? At what point is she allowed to take credit for what she does?

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 6/27/06 at 8:31pm

Does the director get no credit for the good parts of Lupone's performances or is it strictly due to her cajones?

Couldn't this argument be used against every actor who's ever turned in a good performane, ever? Of course the directors get credit, but it seems that you're illogically trying to refute her talent as a performer.

Edit: SeptemberKel seems to have included what I meant to say, so apologies for the repetitiveness. Updated On: 6/27/06 at 08:31 PM

[Luvinbroadway]

Posted: 6/27/06 at 8:35pm

Why I love Patti:
Performance wise:
I love that she is always "on"..as others have said...it is hard NOT to watch her on a stage no matter what else is happening. I love that she takes chances with a character to make it her own (i.e. Anything Goes, Sweeney, Can-Can, Master Class). I love that she can play drama, comedy, and musicals just as well ( a REAL triple threat).
Voice:
Can give you shivers, great to cry over, and just as good to clean the house while listening.
Public service:
Contrary to some above posts...I remember Patti being one of the FIRST to support GMHC (from their original Circus fundraisers to donating all proceeds from her Carnegie Hall concert) and more recently her BC/EFA Lincoln Center concert.

Plus...the ramblings on her website are a riot
Updated On: 6/27/06 at 08:35 PM

Posted: 6/27/06 at 9:46pm

LuvinBroadway brought this up:

"I love that she takes chances with a character to make it her own (i.e. Anything Goes, Sweeney, Can-Can, Master Class)."

As you all know I hate the overuse of the word amazing. But Lupone was amazing in Can-Can at Encores! which means I was astonished. Aside from her mugging after the "I Love Paris" number, she did quite well in the show, singing in time with the orchestra and having excellent diction. I didn't think she made the role her own, anymore than she has made the others roles mentioned above her onw. But I was impressed that afternoon at the City Center. However, a month later at the Candide concert she was up to her old tricks...mugging, singing off-key with poor diction and generally making a mess of the role she was playing. I give Lonny Price a LOT of credit for that

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 6/27/06 at 9:59pm

For me the reason I adore Patti is epitomized by her actions during Harry Connick Jr's opening to the Tony awards two weeks ago. She was the only person on that dais (if you want to call it that) that seemed to be enjoyed herself and the music.

Posted: 6/27/06 at 10:00pm

aka "mugging"

[SeptemberKel]

Posted: 6/27/06 at 10:02pm

"Mugging" (to borrow your term) implies that she was carrying on "for the camera," and from what I remember, she wasn't even aware the camera had panned to her (at least not as far as this viewer could tell). She was conversing with whoever was beside her while she boogied down, never once glancing at the camera.

Updated On: 6/27/06 at 10:02 PM

[kgee30]

Posted: 6/27/06 at 10:22pm

Sometimes you gotta love a girl just for surviving ("On blissfully sunny days in the woods, we toast Andrew Lloyd Webber by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Memorial Pool," she told The New York Times in 1996.). And really, how many actresses manage to get themselves rediscovered in their fifties?

Eh. She's my diva—although the word has lost all meaning when everyone from Sutton Foster to Idina Menzel is considered a diva—but you either like her or you don't. I don't think she'd give a good goddamn either way, which is why she's my diva. She is one ballsy, brassy broad.

[evilNpunk]

Posted: 6/27/06 at 10:31pm

Updated On: 12/2/14 at 10:31 PM

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 6/27/06 at 10:32pm

I "adore" maybe two or three performers who have ever lived, so I don't adore Patti; but, I like her a hell of a lot. That's because I saw her in EVITA, and was completely blown away by her. Without a time machine to transport us, I'm not sure how I can convince you. Besides, why do you have to love her? What possible difference would it make?

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 6/27/06 at 11:58pm

SeptemberKel, it sounds like you think that mugging only has to do with what an actor might do when a camera is there. It does, of course, if the phrase "mugging for the camera" is used, but that phrase wasn't used by Tom14850. He just said that she was mugging, which an actor can do whether a camera's rolling or not.

Btw, Tom, Lonny Price also directed her in Can Can. So if he was at least partly responsible for her bad performance in Candide, he was perhaps partly responsible for her good performance in Can Can.

Personally, I didn't think she was all that great in either, though she was certainly better in Can Can. But what was up with the whole cast using French accents? Now that was a decision for which Lonny Price should be blamed.

[Dare2DefyGravity]

Posted: 6/28/06 at 12:18am

I suggest you listen to her amazing version of Cole Porter's "Anything Goes"... a song I hated... but Patti LuPone put it at the number one spot on my most played list on Itunes...

[COOOOLkid]

Posted: 6/28/06 at 3:19am

After watching Anything Goes' title song Broadway: The Lost Treasures II, I got hooked!

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/28/06 at 10:53am

For me, it is the heart, enthusiasm and power she puts into her songs. You can hear the characterization and emotion. But what really put me over the top was actually seeing her perform. The woman can step out onto a stage without a word and command your attention. She has PRESENCE. In Master Class, she barely sings a couple of lines, yet she never really needed to. Her acting was flawless.