"And I hope Patti tells the story of her telling someone (me) about getting cast as Norma Desmond in a drag bar bathroom. She told me years later that I was the first person she 'announced' it to."
She does say that! And it's hilarious.
It's a fun book. While she leaves out plenty and obviously we're only getting her side of the story, I actually felt like I understood some of her "diva" behavior I've heard about more. Screaming and throwing things is a type of behavior I'll never really understand in a professional setting, but she's hardly alone in having a temperament like that. Lots of people, not just in show business, behave that way professionally. And at least LuPone has had pretty clear provocation. Particularly in the Sunset case.
One part of the Sunset story I had not heard before was that after Patti found out she was fired, ALW wrote her a letter asking her to replace Close in the LA company when Close went to Broadway!
But it was interesting. I sort of feel like I get what happened on Sunset now. ALW was used to his shows as global brands, and he was not going to let one actress make or break his show. So he was hedging his bets from the beginning. There were rumors of Streep taking it away from Patti before London, then came the Streisand recordings, then he announced that Close was going to open the American premiere in LA, prior to the Broadway opening. All this before LuPone had played a single performance.
In the end, Close got the better reviews and that was ostensibly why she went to NY. But why the LA production in the first place? He wanted options. Close was likely to be a bigger draw, act the hell out of it, and was a real live movie star, and the show is, after all, about the movies. But they didn't know if her singing would be good enough. LuPone was going to sing the hell out of it, and she came with a strong acting pedigree too, but she might not be a huge draw, and ALW had seen her fail to get raves from the critics in Evita twenty years earlier, and he was likely afraid of that happening again. So, he was hedging his bets and Close won. And while he knew he'd have to pay a hefty price if they went with Close, he probably thought he'd have another global franchise on his hand and Patti's settlement would just be a drop in the bucket. Though of course, in this case, it didn't really work out for him.
But it's hard to imagine the sense of insecurity and fear one would experience in LuPone's position during that whole saga.
Updated On: 9/15/10 at 03:12 PM
.jpg?format=auto&width=300)
