Patti LuPone: A Life in Notes

One could be forgiven for thinking this was a teenage crowd, such was the screaming welcome to Patti LuPone to the Festival Theatre stage. Whoops and cries of recognition did not let up throughout the next two hours in the company of one of the world’s most talented musical theatre performers.

LuPone is here to tell her stories, mostly through her huge songbook, but also with smatterings of anecdotes from her life – full of sass and humour that captivated the theatre audience. Despite her incredible journey through Broadway, the West End, and later, television, she is never arrogant, and even though she has worked with many talented performers, LuPone rarely name-drops (and honestly, if Jerome Robbins came to see you perform, you’d crow about it too).

LuPone might have made her Broadway debut in 1973, but you wouldn’t guess her age from the energy she gives through every song: from the Carpenters to Cole Porter via Cyndi Lauper, LuPone shows incredible range in style, pitch, emphasis, and volume – showing amazing versatility and sensitivity in presenting these songs as stories in their own right. And her enunciation is so crisp and clear, the audience can hear every word.

She takes us from her childhood in Northport, growing up with rock ‘n’ roll, then defining herself in the 1970s where she was performing in New York. For the next two decades, she was in the leading roles for the premieres of so many iconic musicals, but suddenly we’re in the second decade of the twenty-first century, where, as LuPone says ‘you realise there’s more years behind you than in front’. This musical, theatrical, comedic journey evokes more than seven decades of memories – and whether you’re like the more vocal part of the audience that seems to know the song from the first four notes, or you’re relatively new to this theatrical powerhouse, LuPone has got something for everyone.

The audience gorges on famous numbers from Evita (‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’), Les Misérables (‘I Dreamed A Dream’), and Company (an effervescent ‘The Ladies Who Lunch’). And the sassy humour isn’t lost in more poignant moments, where she connects each injury to the Broadway or West End show that gave it to her, or when singing and laughing through Peggy Lee’s ‘Ready To Begin Again’.

The accomplished Joseph Thalken provides the music on his piano (he also arranged and musically directed the show), ably supported by the talented multi-instrumentalist Brad Phillips. They allow LuPone’s voice to shine, but are brilliant musicians in their own right – the combination of piano and either a violin or one of many guitars are a perfect accompaniment.

LuPone has nothing to prove – her trophy cabinet already has three Tony Awards, two Olivier Awards, and two Grammys, awarded over four decades – yet she still gives it all to a hungry audience eager to experience the still powerful voice of Broadway royalty. In her introduction, LuPone suggested there might be a few ‘wrong notes’, but these were few, and her voice more than makes up for those in many other ways.

Encores and standing ovations are unfortunately ‘de rigueur’ these days, but this was one deserved not just for the evening of entertainment, but for the lifetime of music LuPone has given to the theatrical world.

Review by Mark Wickett

Photographer: Douglas Friedman