LuPone on Sondheim, ALW, Laurents, Prince and more- Page 4

[Kad]

Posted: 10/24/19 at 2:35pm

Yes, Patti LuPone thinks people in the chorus are dumb, that's clearly what she meant. She obviously has no respect for people working around her.

Y'all seem to love fit her statements into preconceived notions you've made against her. 

Updated On: 10/24/19 at 02:35 PM

[joevitus]

Posted: 10/24/19 at 5:06pm

Her words. Is there some method by which "dumb chorus girl" becomes a compliment? 

[imeldasturn]

Posted: 10/24/19 at 5:24pm

I mean, she always tells that weird story about Anything Goes falling apart because the chorus boys and girls didn't respect hierarchies or something... she seems to be a bit condescending to the members of the ensemble.

Updated On: 10/24/19 at 05:24 PM

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 10/24/19 at 5:56pm

Take this as you will, but I spoke to someone (I now can’t recall who it was) who knew someone who worked on War Paint. Yes, it’s one of those “I knew someone who knew someone who knew someone” stories. Anyway, this person said Patti treated the cast with respect, but she did get anxious anytime an understudy/standby went on. Again, no idea if any of that’s true, but, if so, as a bit of a control freak myself, I can relate to that. Still doesn’t excuse some of her behavior, but at the end of the day, most of her behavior seems aimed at people who have enough ego strength to handle it (including my Madonna who has also admitted to plenty bratty behavior in the past).

I passed on War Paint. I didn’t feel like I needed that to be my first time to see her plus I believe it wasn’t open when I was in NYC. But I’m here for Company. This seems like a no-brainer. One of the best ever Broadway performers in a newly imagined take on a show many consider a masterpiece by one of the best ever Broadway composers.

[BJR]

Posted: 10/24/19 at 7:47pm

Kad said: "Yes, Patti LuPone thinks people in the chorus are dumb, that's clearly what she meant. She obviously has no respect for people working around her.

Y'all seem to love fit her statements into preconceived notions you've made against her."

100%. And none of you know her.

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 10/25/19 at 1:06am

I have met people that worked with her and they said the most horrible things about her behavior...the fact that someone said they only heard positive things about her is laughable. I won't say who that person is because he is currently working on Broadway and he is trying to make a living, he is not a star or a performer but had to deal with her backstage and would go home crying every night.

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 10/25/19 at 8:35am

muscle23ftl said: "I have met people that worked with her and they said the most horrible things about her behavior...the fact that someone said they only heard positive things about her is laughable. I won't say who that person is because he is currently working on Broadway and he is trying to make a living, he is not a star or a performer but had to deal with her backstage and would go home crying every night."

LOL

I love Patti LuPone so much.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 10/25/19 at 10:19am

muscle23ftl said: "I have met people that worked with her and they said the most horrible things about her behavior...the fact that someone said they only heard positive things about her is laughable. I won't say who that person is because he is currently working on Broadway and he is trying to make a living, he is not a star or a performer but had to deal with her backstage and would go home crying every night."

We get it, you hate her.

[ljay889]

Posted: 10/25/19 at 2:17pm

It’s been said before in this thread, but LuPone is constantly working, in the theater and on television. If she was truly as bad as some say, there’s no way she would work this much. She’s consistently booked with work across all mediums: theater, television, animated series, film, and concerts.
Also, she was extremely close with the London cast of Company, many of the actors had so many lovely things to say about her.

Updated On: 10/25/19 at 02:17 PM

[benfox2]

Posted: 10/25/19 at 2:52pm

muscle23ftl said: "I have met people that worked with her and they said the most horrible things about her behavior...the fact that someone said they only heard positive things about her is laughable. I won't say who that person is because he is currently working on Broadway and he is trying to make a living, he is not a star or a performer but had to deal with her backstage and would go home crying every night."

This reads like fan fiction by someone who’s fetish is to be dominated by Patti LuPone 

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 10/25/19 at 10:29pm

Kad said: "
Well, it doesn't take a leap to assume Prince didn't care much for her, either. After all, in his memoir, he lavishes praise on Elaine Paige and Mandy Patinkin... while the only thing he says about her is that she played Eva on Broadway."

As I've said in other threads, my now-husband/then-partner went to work as Prince's assistant casting director, a year or two after LuPone left EVITA. The stories he encountered about her were universally negative. Now perhaps that attitude flowed down from the boss; I can't say. But she was considered difficult for all sorts of reasons, something that to my knowledge was never true of the later Evas.

None of this affects my appreciation for LuPone's voice and her work. I think she is a fine actress with a lovely singing voice. (The well was poisoned for my husband, however; he can barely abide her.)

BTW, through my husband, I stage managed a lot of auditions for the Prince office and witnessed many women audition for the lead role in EVITA. It was my impression that they WANTED somebody who would struggle a little with the high notes. (I had one close friend who easily belted the High Gs and As the role demands, with nary a break on the way up. She was invited to audition many times over the years, but was never hired; she later made a brilliant and thrilling Eva out of town.)

I didn't really understand why at the time, but in a class on the history of opera a few years later the professor was talking about the problem with Yma Sumac in AIDA, etc. He said you knew she could sing much higher than the role required, so much of the drama of "will she or won't she make the high note" was lost, to the detriment of the opera itself.

It was then I understood that they wanted the tension in Eva's high notes. It wasn't a matter of anybody hating women.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 10/25/19 at 10:35pm

carnzee said: "I don't see any bullying on LuPone's part. Saying negative things about celebrated people isn't bullying.

I think she is someone who nurses a grudge, and that's not healthy.

All these posters saying "it was a business decision, just get over it" seem to forget that her main beef with ALW is HOW he fired her. Had he handled her firing from Sunset differently, and less cowardly (and treated her better leading up to the firing) I think she would have a better attitude about the whole thing."

I don't think anyone called LuPone a "bully". I think those were references to Prince and ALW. Myself, I think the word has lost any useful meaning.

I don't doubt ALW could have handled the SUNSET situation better. But if you assume that would have made all the difference in LuPone's reaction, you haven't worked with many actors. Their hearts, minds, bodies and souls ARE their work product; it isn't my experience that many take rejection gracefully.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 10/25/19 at 10:43pm

ljay889 said: "It’s been said before in this thread, but LuPone is constantly working, in the theater and on television. If she was truly as bad as some say, there’s no way she would work this much. She’s consistently booked with work across all mediums: theater, television, animated series, film, and concerts.
Also, she was extremely close with the London cast of Company, many of the actors had so many lovely things to say about her."

I don't doubt there are many who had good experiences working with the lady, but on the whole I think your post is naive. When someone is THAT talented--and nobody in this thread has argued otherwise--a lot of sins will be forgiven. This is especially true in the theater where "talent" and "box office draw" are so difficult to quantify.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 10/25/19 at 10:43pm

Gaveston, I've just sent you a PM. Take a look.

[BJR]

Posted: 10/25/19 at 11:04pm

AGAIN, How do any of you know she doesn’t take full responsibility for everything that has happened, that she doesn’t beat herself up at night, all the time? You don’t.

It’s one thing to talk about behavior, if it’s directly affected you (I have been treated poorly in the rehearsal room by people in the Bway community, but that’s me personally in my direct experience and it may not be everyone’s), but it’s another speculate on what you think a person is based on how they tell their life story in interviews. 

The lack of self-awareness in this very thread is staggering. I’m not defending her, but where there is the compassion? It’s so hypocritical.

Updated On: 10/25/19 at 11:04 PM

[chernjam]

Posted: 10/26/19 at 12:14am

As a ALW-fan - who's commented on I don't know how many threads about PL (especially post- Sunset) I have to admit to feeling something I didn't expect - just really sad for her.  As others have pointed, for all her "frank talk" she's incredibly insecure 

She hates ALW - hates Evita - yet after her "awful experience" (and a career making step, and a Tony Award) she went and starred in it again in Australia and then a year ago sings the now hated song at the Grammy Awards after meeting and rehearsing with ALW (who was completely gracious and thankful for it)

She thinks all his work is schmaltz - and can't stand it - but as she watched her "War Paint" die on broadway with her name not being a draw at all - ALW had a record-setting 4 shows on broadway - including The Phantom over 3 decades.  

So I have compassion for her hurt and brokenness and understand the SB debacle was a brutal experience (that others correctly pointed out, was a business decision.  There's no way that show opens on Broadway with the largest advance ever for over 25 years of $37.5 million which was only recently surpassed by Hello Dolly with LuPone in the lead - and that's hard facts to be sure to have to face)

But had she truly reconciled after her Grammy experience, perhaps this tired routine would be at rest and she could enjoy another success in an ALW production.  Just that the two were working together again would indeed be a hot ticket.

ALW and Tim Rice talk about how the anthem song of Dont Cry for Mer Argentina gets turned around on Eva - a song of her reaching the pinnacle ultimately becomes her death anthem.  Reality sometimes imitates art in the most ironic of ways because reading this, I can't help but cry for Patti Lupone.

[binau]

Posted: 10/26/19 at 6:58am

Close absolutely was the better commercial decision for Sunset but having LuPone and Close back on stage in the same season just reinforces to me that of course there were artistic compromises to replacing her. LuPone knows she can sing circles around Close and being life to that score in a way Close never could. Surely it must hurt a little when you’re being replaced with an inferior vocalist. And tbh, I think War Paint is better than nearly anything ALW has written.

Maybe ALW got the ‘last laugh’ commercially (it’s hard to compare an actress and composer). But looking back at LuPone’a career she has nothing to be embarrassed about and has never been better than right now in Company. In particular, I like that she aligns with Sondheim’s work because it’s far more satisfying than ALW. Same with Bernadette, Donna Murphy, Marin Mazzie, Lansbury etc. - Sondheim is the top of the game and all these divas know it.

[binau]

Posted: 10/26/19 at 6:58am

Close absolutely was the better commercial decision for Sunset but having LuPone and Close back on stage in the same season just reinforces to me that of course there were artistic compromises to replacing her. LuPone knows she can sing circles around Close and being life to that score in a way Close never could. Surely it must hurt a little when you’re being replaced with an inferior vocalist. And tbh, I think War Paint is better than nearly anything ALW has written.

Maybe ALW got the ‘last laugh’ commercially (it’s hard to compare an actress and composer). But looking back at LuPone’a career she has nothing to be embarrassed about and has never been better than right now in Company. In particular, I like that she aligns with Sondheim’s work because it’s far more satisfying than ALW. Same with Bernadette, Donna Murphy, Marin Mazzie, Lansbury etc. - Sondheim is the top of the game and all these divas know it.

[SweetLips22]

Posted: 10/27/19 at 4:16am

How bloody stupid to say the audience waits for a singer to NOT get the note--oh she missed--Bravo; Oh she fell, Bravo; Oh he died, Bravo.

I do think people go to car races purely for the crashes though. A 90yo lady friend watches them to see the tyre changes.

You buy a ticket for whatever reason. If a voice soars, then float along with it.

It's like when you watch a concert pianist, the moment his hands touch the piano you can feel his command of the keyboard. If you hear a mistake it is accepted as part of the performance. If that is all you are waiting for, buy the CD--live performances are not for you.

[Loopin’theloop]

Posted: 10/27/19 at 4:11pm

SweetLips22 said: "How bloody stupid to say the audience waits for a singer to NOT get the note--oh she missed--Bravo; Oh she fell, Bravo; Oh he died, Bravo.

I do think people go to car races purely for the crashes though. A 90yo lady friend watches them to see the tyre changes.

You buy a ticket for whatever reason. If a voice soars, then float along with it.

It's like when you watch a concert pianist, the moment his hands touch the piano you can feel his command of the keyboard. If you hear a mistake it is accepted as part of the performance. If that is all you are waiting for, buy the CD--live performances are not for you."

Nobody said the audience are waiting for a singer to not hit a note. It was the exact opposite. And it isn’t a conscious thought it’s about the tension and the drama in the vocal. Soaring vocals work for music written with that intention but ‘Evita’ was written to be performed with hear, high emotion and intensity. 

[Lot666]

Posted: 10/28/19 at 1:01pm

qolbinau said: "I think War Paint is better than nearly anything ALW has written."

Wow.