Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES

So the West End production of Les Miserables celebrated its 30th anniversary last night, and I showed some photos to a friend who was shocked to find that Patti LuPone showed up (especially the fact that she posed for a photo with Cameron Mackintosh).

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Photo-Flash-The-Celebration-Continues-LES-MISERABLES-30th-Birthday-Event-With-Patti-LuPone-Colm-Wilkinson-Frances-Ruffelle-and-More-20151009

I remember having a conversation with my friend after loaning her my blu-ray copy for the 25th Anniversary Concert, and she couldn't help but notice that Patti was nowhere to be found (of course, she could've just been getting ready for Women on the Verge at the time).

Does anyone know anything about her history with Cameron Mackintosh? I know he offered her the chance to a part of Les Miz after having played Nancy in Oliver!, and that she didn't transfer with the show to Broadway because she felt doing it in London was the perfect experience. As well as the fact that she felt so bored waiting two hours for her next scene, that she pretty much went out to the bar every night.

Updated On: 10/9/15 at 12:50 PM

Jay Lerner-Z said: "She's part of that achievement. She wasn't so much doing Cameron a favor, as just celebrating her own contribution. Plus if she's still filming Penny Dreadful in Ireland, it's only a short hop jump and a skip over to London, so why not?"

Yeah, I really think it's a matter of 1) whether there is something of substance for her to do and 2) can she be in London when they're doing it. She was there for the 21st anniversary concert, so it's not like she's never revisited the success of Les Mis.

Updated On: 10/9/15 at 01:44 PM

The 25th anniversary concert took place on October 3rd of 2010. The first preview of Women on the Verge was October 8th of that year. It would have been impractical, if not impossible, for her to participate.

That tempo would have been the conductor's choice, since all of her lines are sung except for "Give me that letter back."

I was just talking about the Les Mis recording. But you're right; her final performances of Evita sound as though her cab is outside with the meter running.

Reginald Tresilian said: "I was just talking about the Les Mis recording. But you're right; her final performances of Evita sound as though her cab is outside with the meter running.

OK, this made me laugh!

"

adamgreer said: "I never knew she had a beef with Mackintosh, I thought it was just ALW."

Well someone who is far clever than I DID suggest "All-Beef Patti" as the title of her memoir.

Updated On: 10/9/15 at 04:43 PM

It's nice to see the BWW-London photographer isn't totally f*cking incompetent like the schmuck that normally photographs for the site. I remember the very beautiful Ann-Margret once looking like a zombie.

Anyway, great pics. Frances could easily pass for her daughter's sister. And how fortuitous that Patti is filming in Ireland and could attend the celebration.

And that is why, even though other actors are showing up all over, the actress playing Fantine does nothing after her death scene besides inexplicably appearing once in Act Two, in drag no less, before the finale.

I don't think that's accurate. I'll have to go back to her autobiography but I recall reading that LuPone complained about and named another actress in the original company who outed her so LuPone ended up having no choice but to be a background player like the other leads. So after Fantine dies, LuPone got dressed up as one of the bullet boys in DYHTPS after the students learn of Lamarque's death and for the rest of Act 1.

Randy Graff followed suit and to this day, I believe every woman in the Fantine track plays a bullet boy starting at the latter half of Act 1 until the dismissal of the fathers, mothers and children from the barricade in Act 2. Then Fantine reappears for Valjean's death.

youletyourforemansendmeaway at 200mph

I did, too, although I wasn't in a cafe.

I've always thought they made the actress playing Fantine play one of the boys at the barricade because of that incident where Lupone turned off her intercom in her dressing room and she entered late for the last scene as Fantine's ghost ...

Whoops. Somebody already answered what I was going to say.

Updated On: 10/10/15 at 06:44 PM