Patti LuPone on Theatre & Cabaret

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 10/5/04 at 9:30pm

No secret here. I'm a big PLP fan. Below is an article by Graydon Royce in the Star Tribune published 10/1/04. Patti's in Minneapolis doing an 8 show run on her way to NYC of her new cabaret show called "Matters of the Heart".

Patti fans, pounce.

Milla
Lights on for feisty Patti LuPone

[musicaltheatreman]

Posted: 10/5/04 at 10:36pm

what is the musical regina about?? i have never heard of it. is it new??? thanks

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/5/04 at 11:47pm

I posted this article last week, and I'm seeing the show on Sunday, the 10th. I'm very excited for it.

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 8:49am

My favorite quote - which I agree with wholeheartedly and have been saying for years:
"There is a lot of "old Broadway" in LuPone's fondness and respect for her craft. She's slightly cranky -- "not bitter," she said -- at some of the shifts she sees. First, there are the producers who sift demographics and trends, trying to stir a hit out of ingredients rather than instincts. The old visionaries, she said, understood audiences and understood theater. They knew what people wanted and didn't bother to dumb down the product, she said."

Ahh - if only the producers of shows like Brooklyn would feel the same way...

[joeyjoe]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 9:01am

now, let's not turn this into a Brooklyn-bashing thread...

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 9:08am

I'm not bashing anything - I'm saying that if they'd approached it the way Lupone suggested, then it might have been better conceptualized.

[joeyjoe]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 9:11am

actually, the comment wasn't meant for you but for any Brooklyn fans who would take offense that their show was specifically mentioned in your post... i'm an adult, and can read between the lines... I know you were speaking in generalities, but Brooklyn is the current example... others might not take the time to think like i do, though...

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 9:23am

gotcha

[kjklo]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 10:48am

"Regina" is Marc Blitzstein's 1940s opera based on Lillian Hellman's play "The Little Foxes." I'm having a hard time imagining Lupone being up to it vocally, but best to wait and see. It'll certainly be interesting and quite a challenge.

[Mary_Ethel]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 4:15pm

In the 1970s, I saw Patti LuPone in Philadelphia playing Mrs. Malaprop in a local production of the restorian comedy THE RIVALS.

Even then, she had such prescence and magnetism she practically blew the rest of the cast right off the stage!!!

Technically, Blitzstein's REGINA is an opera, not a musical. (It was in the repretory of the NYC Opera Company for years.)

I'm not convinced Ms. LuPone can handle such a "full blown" score--they might have to "tailor" for her voice (which of course is incredible by Broadway/Cabaret standards.)

Who saw her in the revival of PAL JOEY? Her rendering of "Bewitched" sent shivers up my spine!

[LoveDemBroadwayShows]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 4:49pm

Patti has been doing 'Matters of the Heart' for at least 6 years. I saw her do the show in Kansas City and bought the CD in 1998.

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 10/6/04 at 5:31pm

Oops. For some reason, from the article, thought it was revamped...as in "everything old is new again."

Milla