LuPone stops Vegas show - Page 4

[fgreene1938]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 5:09pm

Re: the earlier post in this thread about Rosemary Clooney....

Right there is the difference between a professional performer with class and an out-of-control narcissist. Clooney had to deal with a loud drunk in a cabaret. She spoke to the maitre-de, paid the drunk's bill and had him succinctly removed without berating the rest of the paying customers. Lupone stops the performance, does all she can to humiliate the target of her diva-rage while everyone just sits there, then treats the rest of the paying customers to her ranting. People accept this because it's dear "Patti" but that doesn't make her behavior any less coarse or trashy.

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 5:13pm

I don't like performers interrupting their own show, unless it is for humorous effect. Texting should not bother a performer. It may bother the people on each side of the texter, but they can deal with that. I have been very turned off by performers scolding the audience. I was at a performance of Sweet Honey in the Rock and Bernice Reagon went off on the audience for not participating enough. Not just conjoling the audience to get into it, but scolding and yelling. Not away to endear the audience in my opinion.

Hecklers or people talking on the phone are another thing.

I can't imagine what she would have done with the woman across the aisle from me at a Josh Groban concert. I think she must have been a reporter, we were both on the aisle and she was one row ahead of me, and during every song she would turn on a book light over a notebook and write something.

[Jane2]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 5:15pm

What you have described is a common occurence in theater. The person taking notes could indeed be a critic, or a lighting designer, sound designer, or any number of a creative team, doing their job. None of what they do shows disrespect and the performer knows it.

[TalkinLoud]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 5:16pm

Sorry ErinDillyFan, but texting bothers way more than the person to either side of the texter. And they should not have to "deal with that."

Texting can bothers basically everyone behind the texter. Nothing frustrates me more than a person texting in a film or at the theater. Don't people realize that a bright white box, no matter how small, is incredibly distracting in a dark auditorium?

[Jane2]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 5:22pm

You know, this debate is silly. Some of the people on this thread actually sound like they might be excusing what is going on in the audience, or if not excusing it, making light of it.

IT SHOULDN'T BE HAPPENING. THANK GOODNESS PATTI'S NOT AFRAID TO SPEAK OUT. SHE'S PROBABLY WELL AWARE THAT HOUSE MANAGEMENT IS VIRTUALLY HELPLESS IN THESE CASES. SHE REALIZES THAT SHE HERSELF HAS MUCH MORE CLOUT. HERE'S TO HER!!!!!

ok, sorry for the caps, but it's the truth. goodbye troops.

[madbrian]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 5:27pm

If I were in the audience, and there wasn't a noticeable distraction, I'd be annoyed at the performer, particularly someone like LuPone. I'd make the assumption that she was doing just to live up to her rep. By no means am I condoning texting, or anything else other than giving 100% attention to the performer(s).

[winston89]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 5:42pm

madbrian I agree with you. And, I am not saying that I think that this is wrong because it is Patti doing it and I am not a fan of hers. I am a fan of Pink Floyd and of Roger Waters and Waters is known for expecting nothing more from his audience then them sitting quietly and applauding at the end of every song. And, keep in mind that a rock concert set in a major arena is a different atmosphere then a Vegas showroom setting that LuPone was performing in.

As I said in one of my posts in a LuPone thread during her run of Gipsy. If it were her who was acting out of line then there is not a problem with it. However, had it been chorus boy number 4 then there clearly is a problem and he will get fired whereas LuPone would have nothing happen to her at all. Face it, despite what some people on here think, she isn't that special nor is she any more so then any other performer on stage.

[alightinthedark23]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 5:43pm

I feel like this is becoming an everyday thing with Patti. People are going to start going to her show and expect her to start yelling at random people. Granted, people shouldn't be on their phones and taking photos at a show but it does start to look slightly unprofessional when it happens continuously.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 5:54pm

"she isn't that special nor is she any more so then any other performer on stage"

The people who hand out the Tony, Drama Desk, Olivier, and Outer Critics Circle awards might disagree with you.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 6:02pm

>>>"Can someone please tell Ms. LuPone that she cannot always live in Neverland for ever and at some point in her life she has to grow up and learn what it is like to be a grownup instead of a little girl."<<<

What a sad comment, considering that it was posted by winston89 and his postings continually indicate that he's got the mentality of a 12 year old. ("Mommy, mommy, mommy, can we see LITTLE MERMAID again? It's my favoritist show ever!")

Sad. Terribly sad.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 6:25pm

I just hope Shoshana Bean doesn't stop PEEPSHOW in Vegas. That would be a tragedy.

[fgreene1938]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 6:27pm

FYI: Patti Lupone interview quotes from THEATERWEEK, 10/9/95, regarding her experience in "Evita"....

"By the time I was finished they thought I was a bitch diva singer....they forgot I graduated from Julliard....I came out a bitch diva singer....I had no offers....many people thought I was too old, blonde or a bitchy dictator."

Hmmmm....where on earth did anyone get THAT idea about you, Patti?

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 6:35pm

Do you think she was angry that the texting was disruptive or just that he wasn't sitting in rapt attention of her?

The former. I also believe a lot of the responses to her "outburst" has a lot to do with individual tolerance for this sort of disruption. I am highly sensitive to any sort of light or sound disruption and it can have me climbing the walls. I'm not afraid to shush people and have been maligned here for a very aggressive outburst towards a couple of chattering teenage girls who would not be quiet after an hour of asking them repeatedly to be quiet. It was a 3000-seat hall with continental seating in which I was seated in the center. Getting up to find an usher or house manager would have disrupted tons of people and we were too far away from the stage for the performers to even be aware of what was happening. what I wouldn't have given to have Patti with me at that performance. I'm fed up with rude self-centered audiences as well as we all should be, but face it, most people do nothing about it but sit in silent resentment. And if your rudeness is so much that it can distract the performer on stage, then they have just as much right as an audience member to address it. The problem is, it is more difficult to accomplish this discreetly from the stage in the middle of a performance. At what point in a solo concert would it have been appropriate for Patti to do something? If she goes off stage, she still has to stop the show and at best only the offender would be spoken to and no one would be the wiser only to have to stop the show and do it all over again when the next offender does the same thing. And then again. This stuff keeps happening because it's not being openly addressed and the behavior is only getting worse. Patti stops the show, gets the point across not only to the offender, but the rest of the audience, and then continues. And I'm guessing it probably doesn't happen again during the rest of the performance.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 6:44pm

I work in theatre, and if everybody stopped a show when someone was on a phone or taking photos then a show would never run without a stop

Its a fact of life, you get that many people in one space the chances are that someone is gonna do something that others dont like, to make a big deal out of it is silly, she needs to grow up, shes a grown woman.

[FlyingMonkey1223]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 10:09pm

I must say that her behavior is silly. She needs to get over herself. I actually decided to go see her perform LIVE a few weeks ago and she has NO RIGHT to stop a show just because she is annoyed. At least until she works on her dictation (horrible!) and learns to sing so she doesn't sound like she is doing bad karaoke! Seriously!!!! She is barely talented anymore, I just don't understand what her attitude is for and why people praise her so much. The audience behavior is NOT okay, but her response to it is far worse. Definitely the most overrated performed I've ever seen. Almost something from an AMERICAN IDOL reject episode.
Updated On: 6/22/09 at 10:09 PM

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 10:17pm

Her dictation?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 10:19pm

At least until she works on her dictation (horrible!)

Dictation?

DICTATION?!?

She does dictation in her show now?

Ethel Merman once demonstrated her skills as a stenographer on the Merv Griffin show, but Patti LuPone does DICTATION?!?

She IS a diva!

Updated On: 6/22/09 at 10:19 PM

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 10:20pm

Yes, Reg, her dictation. She truly believes in having another career to fall back on, just in case this performing thing doesn't work out for her! But according to FlyingMonkey, she doesn't do that well either.

Updated On: 6/22/09 at 10:20 PM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 10:22pm

I think everyone should work on their "dictation".

(This is really becoming priceless!)

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 10:23pm

is she singing Trevor Graydon's part in The Speed Test in her concert now?

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 10:23pm

Pal Joey and Patti used to work as temps together in an office. Patti once asked PalJoey if she could use his dictaphone and he said, "no use your finger like everyone else in this office."

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 10:24pm

"Miss Benanti, take a letter . . . !"

[FlyingMonkey1223]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 10:27pm

Hmmm...not sure what the "dictation" thing is about with you guys...but her dictation/enunciation of her words is horrible. I could barely understand what she was singing half of the time!

[AndAllThatJazz22]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 10:28pm

Me want YouTube Clip. Me want YouTube clip now.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/22/09 at 10:28pm