Patti LuPone

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Patti LuPone

Born April 21, 1949 (1949-04-21) (age 59)
Northport, New York

Patti LuPone (born April 21, 1949) is a Tony Award-winning American singer and actress.

Contents

[edit] Biography

LuPone was born in Northport, New York, the daughter of Angela Louise (née Patti), a college library administrator, and Orlando Joseph LuPone, a school administrator.[1] Her great-grand-aunt was the celebrated 19th-century opera singer Adelina Patti. Her brother Robert LuPone is an actor, dancer, and director. Her other brother William LuPone is a teacher. When they were young, they performed on Long Island as the LuPone Trio. She is of Italian/Sicilian descent[2] and a graduate of Northport High School, where she studied under the musical direction of voice coach Esther Scott. LuPone was part of the first graduating class of Juilliard's Drama Division.

[edit] Personal life

LuPone married Matthew Johnston in 1988 on the Vivian Beaumont Stage at Lincoln Center after filming the TV movie LBJ. They have one child, Joshua Luke Johnston (b. November 21, 1990). The family resides in Connecticut.

[edit] Career

Poster for the Broadway production of Evita with LuPone in the title role, portraying the legendary Argentinian political leader, First Lady and Spiritual Leader of the Nation Maria Eva Duarte de Peron
Poster for the Broadway production of Evita with LuPone in the title role, portraying the legendary Argentinian political leader, First Lady and Spiritual Leader of the Nation Maria Eva Duarte de Peron

[edit] Theater work

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Please improve this article if you can. (March 2008)

In 1972 John Houseman formed The Acting Company, making them America’s foremost nationally touring repertory theater company. LuPone's stint with the Acting Company lasted from 1972 to 1976, and she was featured in such works as The School for Scandal, Women Beware Women, The Beggar’s Opera (1973), The Time of Your Life, The Lower Depths, The Hostage, Next Time I’ll Sing to You, Measure for Measure, Scapin, Edward II, The Orchestra, Love’s Labours Lost, Arms and the Man, The Way of the World, and The Robber Bridegroom (1975), for which she received a Tony Award nomination. She made her Broadway debut in the play Three Sisters.

In 1976, producer David Merrick hired LuPone as a replacement to play Genevieve, the title role of the troubled pre-Broadway original production The Baker’s Wife. The infamous production toured at length, but Merrick deemed it unworthy of Broadway and closed it out-of-town.

Since 1977, LuPone has been a frequent collaborator with David Mamet, appearing in his plays The Woods (1977), All Men Are Whores (1977), The Blue Hour (1978) The Water Engine (1978), Edmond (1982), and The Old Neighborhood (Broadway, 1997).

In 1978, she appeared in the Broadway musical adaptation of Studs Terkel's Working. In 1979, LuPone achieved international acclaim and stardom for her phenomenal portrayal of Eva in the American Premiere of the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical Evita (1979), directed by Harold Prince. Her much-lauded, career-making performance earned LuPone a 1980 Tony Award for leading actress in a musical, among other honors. In 1983, founding alumni of The Acting Company reunited for an Off-Broadway revival of Marc Blitzstein's landmark labor musical The Cradle Will Rock, narrated by their teacher, John Houseman, with LuPone in the roles of Moll and Sister Mister. The successful production toured the United States, including an engagement at the Highland Park, Illinois' Ravinia Festival in 1984, and played London's West End, where LuPone received an 1985 Olivier Award.

In 1984, LuPone starred as Nancy in the short-lived Cameron Mackintosh revival of Lionel Bart's Oliver!. In 1984, she also created the role of "The Reporter" in Alexander H. Cohen's presentation of Dario Fo's absurdist play, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, with Jonathan Pryce and Bill Irwin.

In 1985, she created the part of Fantine in the Royal Shakespeare Company-Cameron Mackintosh production of the musical Les Misérables at the Barbican Theatre. In recognition of her Royal Shakespeare Company debut performance, LuPone was the first American (U.S.A.) actress to be presented with an Olivier Award. In 1987, LuPone returned to Broadway to star as Reno Sweeney in the hit Lincoln Center Theater revival of Anything Goes, and received a Drama Desk Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

In 1993, LuPone returned to the West End of London to create the role of Norma Desmond in the original production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical adaptation of Sunset Boulevard at the Adelphi Theatre. LuPone was contracted to star in the 1994 Broadway production of Sunset Boulevard, but Webber breached the contract when he recast the role. LuPone sued Webber for reneging on the contract. The case was settled out-of-court when Webber paid to LuPone the contractual penalty. LuPone has joked that the payment funded the "Andrew Lloyd Webber memorial pool" that she built at her Connecticut home at the time.

In 1995, LuPone returned to Broadway in a one-woman show, Patti LuPone on Broadway, at the Walter Kerr Theatre. For her work, LuPone received an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Solo Performance. In 1996, LuPone was selected by legendary producer Robert Whitehead to succeed his wife, the legendary Zoe Caldwell, in the Broadway production of Terrence McNally's play, Master Class. LuPone received rave reviews in New York, and took the play to the West End.

In November 2001, she starred in a Broadway revival of Noises Off, with Peter Gallagher and Faith Prince. Ms. LuPone has performed such New York concert productions of musicals as: the City Center Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert! Pal Joey (1995), with Peter Gallagher and Bebe Neuwirth; the Lincoln Center Theater benefit performance of Annie Get Your Gun (1998) with Peter Gallagher; the New York Philharmonic performances of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2000) with George Hearn and Audra McDonald, which yielded the highly successful debut recording on its own label; the Lincoln Center Theater benefit performance of Anything Goes with Howard McGillin; theEncores! Can-Can (2004) with Michael Nouri; the New York Philharmonic Candide (2004) with Kristin Chenoweth and Paul Groves, broadcast live on PBS Television Great Performances; and the Jazz at Lincoln Center "American Songbook" series Passion (2005), with Michael Cerveris and Audra McDonald, also broadcast live on Great Performances.

Since 2001, LuPone has been a regular presence at the Ravinia Festival. At Ravinia, she starred in a six-year-long series of concert presentations of Stephen Sondheim musicals begun in honor of his seventieth birthday. She was seen in Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2001), with George Hearn; A Little Night Music (2002), with George Hearn and Zoe Caldwell; Passion (2003), with Michael Cerveris and Audra McDonald; Sunday in the Park with George (2004), with Cerveris and McDonald; Anyone Can Whistle (2005), with Cerveris and McDonald; and Gypsy (2006), with Jessica Boevers.

In 2005, LuPone starred as Mrs. Lovett in John Doyle’s new Broadway staging of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2005). She was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance; and won the Golden Icon Award for Best Female Musical Theater Performance, presented by Travolta Family Entertainment.[3] In August 2006, Ms. LuPone took a three-week vacation from the Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd in order to play Rose in Gypsy at the Ravinia Festival.

LuPone’s success in the classical music world extend to Kennedy Center’s production of Regina; the world premiere of Jake Heggie's To Hell and Back, a performance she repeated at Ravinia in 2007; and the Los Angeles Opera's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny as Leokadia Begbick.

Following the Ravinia Gypsy, LuPone and author Arthur Laurents mended a decade-long rift, and she was cast in the City Center Encores! Summer Stars production he directed. The July 2007 Off-Broadway production was an expansion into full mountings of popular Broadway musicals by the successful, fourteen-year-old Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert! series. Laurents directed LuPone's version of Gypsy: A Musical Fable for a 22 performance run (July 9, 2007 - July 29, 2007) at City Center. This production of Gypsy has transferred to Broadway, which opened March 27, 2008 at the St. James Theatre. She won the Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama League Award, and Drama Desk Award for her performance in Gypsy. She is also nominated for the Tony Award, which will be presented June 15.

LuPone performs regularly across the country in her solo shows Matters of the Heart; Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda; and The Lady With the Torch, which sold out at Carnegie Hall.

[edit] Film & television work

Among LuPone’s film credits are Witness, Just Looking, The Victim, Summer of Sam, Driving Miss Daisy, King of Gypsies, 1941, 'Wise Guys, Nancy Savoca's 24 Hour Woman, Family Prayers, Bad Faith, and City By The Sea. She has also worked with playwright David Mamet on The Water Engine, the critically acclaimed State and Main, and Heist.

LuPone played Libby Thatcher on the television drama Life Goes On, which ran on ABC from 1989 to 1993. She has twice been nominated for an Emmy Award for the TV movie The Song Spinner, and her guest appearance on Frasier. LuPone’s further TV career includes a recurring spot on the last season of HBO’s hit series Oz. She had a cameo as herself on a 1998 episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Kelsey Grammer. She also played herself in an episode of Will and Grace entitled "BullyWoolley" (2005). She also appeared on the series Ugly Betty in 2007 as the mother of Mark St. James (played by Michael Urie). She played Lady Bird Johnson in the TV movie, LBJ.

[edit] Recordings

LuPone recorded a duet with Seth MacFarlane (in character as Glenn Quagmire) on the 2005 album Family Guy: Live In Vegas. LuPone released a new CD in 2006, of one of her shows The Lady with the Torch, on Sh-K-Boom Records. In December she released bonus tracks for that CD only available on iTunes and the Sh-K-Boom website.

Selected recordings include:

  • The Baker’s Wife (Original cast recording)
  • Evita (Original Broadway cast recording)
  • The Cradle Will Rock (The Acting Company recording)
  • Les Miserables (Royal Shakespeare Company recording)
  • Anything Goes (Lincoln Center Theater recording)
  • Heat Wave (John Mauceri conducting the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra)
  • Patti LuPone Live (Solo Album)
  • Sunset Boulevard (World premiere/original London cast recording)
  • Matters of the Heart (Solo Album)
  • Sweeney Todd (New York Philharmonic recording)
  • Sweeney Todd (2005 Broadway Cast recording)
  • The Lady with the Torch (Solo Album)
  • The Lady With the Torch...Still Burning (Solo Album)
  • To Hell and Back (Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra World Premier recording)
  • Gypsy (Recorded in May '08, Due out in August of '08)
Awards
Preceded by
Angela Lansbury
in Sweeney Todd		 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical
1979-1980
for Evita		 Succeeded by
Lena Horne
in Lena Horne, The Lady and Her Music
Preceded by
Angela Lansbury
in Sweeney Todd		 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical
1980
for Evita		 Succeeded by
Lauren Bacall
in Woman of the Year

[edit] References

  1. ^ Patti LuPone Biography (1949-)
  2. ^ Sex & Moxie: God, That's Good!
  3. ^ "Patti LuPone & D'Monroe Among Travolta Family Award Winners", Broadway World, 2007-12-20. Retrieved on 2007-12-21. 

[edit] External links