I'm disappointed in Twin Cities Audiences!!

Posted: 10/7/04 at 2:03pm

Theater review: LuPone a big talent in too big a hall
Graydon Royce, Star Tribune
October 7, 2004 LUPONE1007


The three most important features in real estate are location, location, location. Sometimes it feels that way with performance, too. On Tuesday, Patti LuPone seemed miles away on the stage of the Historic Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis. She opened a nearly weeklong engagement of her cabaret act, "Matters of the Heart," and only rarely lit a fire in the cavernous hall.

Not that she didn't try with this collection of love songs -- about bliss, heartache, lust, a mother's love, all the "mysteries of the heart" as she put it. Brimming with charisma, grace and poise, LuPone was unafraid to plunge into her emotions or ham it up. It's just sad that the energy didn't seem to be flowing back toward her.

LuPone has put in the time and racked up the credits to be considered one of the living legends of Broadway. With a string quartet and piano, she still summoned a theatricality that comes beautifully to life with those stories -- rich in word and plot -- disguised as songs. She was terrific with "Shattered Illusions," a playfully naughty piece by British cabaret artists Adele Anderson and Dillie Keane. Her supple phrasing was gorgeous on Joni Mitchell's lyric-dense "The Last Time I Saw Richard." Of course, a little Sondheim is always nice, and she threw her power behind "Being Alive" from "Company." She was rarely, if ever, reckless with her voice, retaining a sense of control even when she was on the raw edge of heart.
Patti LuPone
Duane Braley

If there was a weak spot in her repertoire, it was with some of the popular love songs she sings. In several cases, LuPone rushed through them as though they were recitatives in high drama. For example, she overpowered Dan Fogelberg's "Same Old Lang Syne," a ballad to old lovers, sounding torchy rather than melancholic. However, she did transform the Hollies' "Air That I Breathe" into a crystal and resolute lullaby.

It was at moments such as those that LuPone almost got the crowd into her palm, and one could not help but imagine what the evening would have been like at the Guthrie, with audience on three sides, drawing juice and giving it back to her. That probably was not an option, and the surfeit of empty seats Tuesday could fill up by the weekend, but LuPone would benefit from the intimacy of a smaller venue.

This is an elegant and well-made production, with lush mood and lighting changes on a simple set. Chris Fenwick, a Twin Cities product, is LuPone's musical director, and some of the nicest moments were when his piano and Arthur Fiacco's cello alone caressed the voice. LuPone offered her musicians the spotlight several times with gracious generosity.

One can hope that a full house would wrap LuPone in the warmth this show needs. She deserves as much.

[Musetta1957]

Posted: 10/7/04 at 7:09pm

I wouldn't be disappointed in the audiences; it's not their fault that the venue was too big for her show.

[MJane]

Posted: 10/7/04 at 7:37pm

It is too large a theater for that kind of show. I am from Minneapolis and that was not the right theater for that performance.

Posted: 10/8/04 at 6:34pm

Check out this review from the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

'Heart' has matters in the wrong vein

BY DOMINIC P. PAPATOLA

Pioneer Press

THEATER REVIEW

It's difficult to imagine a one-woman show going more wrong than "Patti LuPone: Matters of the Heart."

LuPone is an estimable Broadway talent, having created the title role in "Evita" some 25 years ago. But she's out of her milieu here. A big (and sparsely filled, at least at Tuesday's opening night) house like the Orpheum Theatre is the wrong room for an intimate, cabaret-ish show like this.

And LuPone is the wrong kind of performer. Adept at working the big gesture and creating the diva's presence, she simply cannot create the kind of intimacy or vulnerability necessary to carry off such an undertaking.

When she addresses the audience on the subject of love — the ostensible thematic linchpin of the production — her sentiments sound canned. When singing, she too often seems more interested in experimenting with vocal rhythms and styles than in interpreting the lyrics. Rather than making us all feel welcome at her little party, LuPone spends most of the night focusing her gaze and energy either at the second row or the balcony.

And then there's the perplexing selection of tunes. It's all well and good for a stage performer to venture off the expected path of Broadway show tunes, but LuPone wanders into a briar patch of pop-music ephemera.

She offers a thoughtful, stripped-down version of the Hollies' "The Air That I Breathe," but some of her other choices are just plain weird. I'm not sure it's even possible to do a good version of Gilbert O'Sullivan's sap-filled "Alone Again, Naturally." And does the world really need another interpretation of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time," or, heaven forbid, Dan Fogelberg's "Another Auld Lang Syne"?

LuPone is at her best in this show reveling in bawdy, comic storytelling songs — familiar ones like Stephen Sondheim's "I Never Do Anything Twice" and less-well-known ones like Fascinating Aida's "Shattered Illusions." It's here that she uses her larger-than-life persona to its best advantage. These and a precious few other moments are those when LuPone is able to make a direct connection with the audience.

LuPone is not helped by her backing musicians. Her string quartet is able, but they're stuck sawing through Dick Gallagher's elevator-music arrangements that suck the life out of even a buoyant Rodgers and Hammerstein tune like "A Wonderful Guy." Meanwhile, Chris Fenwick, her Minneapolitan music director, seems to be enjoying a distracting, highly sensual experience at the piano. He's having way too good a time, but is, alas, the only one.