Ep200 - Patti LuPone: Broadway Royalty

04/05/22 • 68 min

1 Listener

Combined across the Emmys, Grammys, Olivier and Tony Awards, Patt LuPone has 14 nominations and six wins. Her resume includes 27 Broadway credits, including Eva Perón in the original Broadway production of Evita (1st Tony Award), Anything Goes, Sweeney Todd, Noises Off, Rose in the 2008 Broadway revival of Gypsy (2nd Tony Award), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, War Paint, Working, Oliver!, The Robber Bridegroom, and The Beggar’s Opera. In London she starred in the original casts of Les Misérables, The Cradle Will Rock, Sunset Boulevard, and the West End revival of Company. She also has a long and illustrious career across TV and film, with credits including Driving Miss Daisy, Frasier, Will and Grace, Ugly Betty, 30 Rock, Glee, American Horror Story, Girls, Penny Dreadful, and of course, Life Goes On. She's a voiceover artist, a cabaret performer, a mom, and performs regularly with the New York Philharmonic, all of which mean you can find her singing across 22 different albums. Patti LuPone was the first American to ever win an Olivier Award, has been inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame, and can now be seen on Broadway in the revival of Company.

LuPone recalls her first introduction to the musical Gypsy (playing Louise) in high school, speaking candidly about not understanding the play at the time, and shares how she was initially banned from participating in any of Arthur Laurents work before going on to win a Tony Award for playing Rose. She reflects on going to the “dark side” a lot when COVID shut the industry down, noting it wasn’t that she couldn’t perform but rather that she had nothing to fill that void with, and shares how close-knit and supportive the cast and crew of Company is as a result of the collective trauma and uncertainty they faced together once they resumed rehearsals. LuPone also speaks about the importance of doing her work completely in the rehearsal room, allowing her and the audience to both play and relax once she is onstage, and shares why she looks at the audience every single night.

In this episode, we talk about:

Being in one of the first-ever students in Juilliard’s school of drama in the 70’s
Her Marilyn Monroe impression at 3 years old
What it is about laughter from an audience that brings her joy
What she calls the “Italian blast”, and not having a filter
Her “Andrew Lloyd Webber memorial pool”
Resenting producers or anybody that underestimates the audience's intelligence

Connect with Patti:

Connect with The Theatre Podcast:

Support us on Patreon: Patreon.com/TheTheatrePodcast
Twitter & Instagram: @theatre_podcast
Facebook.com/OfficialTheatrePodcast
TheTheatrePodcast.com
Alan's personal Instagram: @alanseales
Email me at [email protected]. I want to know what you think.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we talk about:

Being in one of the first-ever students in Juilliard’s school of drama in the 70’s
Her Marilyn Monroe impression at 3 years old
What it is about laughter from an audience that brings her joy
What she calls the “Italian blast”, and not having a filter
Her “Andrew Lloyd Webber memorial pool”
Resenting producers or anybody that underestimates the audience's intelligence

Connect with Patti:

Connect with The Theatre Podcast:

Support us on Patreon: Patreon.com/TheTheatrePodcast
Twitter & Instagram: @theatre_podcast
Facebook.com/OfficialTheatrePodcast
TheTheatrePodcast.com
Alan's personal Instagram: @alanseales
Email me at [email protected]. I want to know what you think.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Previous Episode

Ep199 - Reeve Carney: He Originally Said 'No' To Hadestown

Reeve Carney is an actor, singer-songwriter, and musician, who may be best known for originating the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark on Broadway, and playing Orpheus in the original Broadway cast of the Tony Award-winning musical Hadestown. Other notable roles include his portrayal of Dorian Gray in the Showtime series Penny Dreadful, and Riff Raff in the Fox musical television film The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again. Reeve is also the lead singer and songwriter of the band Carney, also consisting of his brother Zane, Aiden Moore, and Jon Epcar, who together have toured with The Veronicas, and opened for Arcade Fire and U2. He recently appeared as Tom Ford in the Oscar nominated film House of Gucci, and can currently be seen performing his original music in his residency at The Green Room 42, or captivating audiences eight times a week as Orpheus in Hadestown on Broadway.

Reeve chronicles his almost 27 year guitar playing journey, which began at age 12 and led to playing in nightclubs in LA a few years later, where fellow musicians convinced him if he ever wanted to lead a band, he needed to learn how to sing. He recalls meeting Julie Taymor for the first time at one of his band’s shows, and how that meeting set the course for working with Bono and The Edge, and originating the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man on Broadway. Reeve also shares how he became involved with Hadestown, how the character of Orpheus changed significantly between their run at the National Theatre in London and the Broadway opening, and why he said “no” when asked to be a part of the first reading in 2012.

In this episode, we talk about:

Growing up in a family of artists
Being mistaken for Macaulay Culkin
Getting signed to Interscope Records when he was 22
His electronic effects pedal company called Quarantine Effects USA
How Orepheus’s purity of voice is reflected in his character

Connect with Reeve:

Check out his Effects Pedal company: https://quarantineeffectsusa.com/
IG: @reevecarney
Twitter: @reevecarney

Connect with The Theatre Podcast:

Support us on Patreon: Patreon.com/TheTheatrePodcast
Twitter & Instagram: @theatre_podcast
Facebook.com/OfficialTheatrePodcast
TheTheatrePodcast.com
Alan's personal Instagram: @alanseales
Email me at [email protected]. I want to know what you think.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Next Episode

Ep201 - Michael Maliakel: Making His Broadway Debut as Aladdin

Michael Maliakel recently made his Broadway debut, following Broadway’s reopening, starring in the title role of Aladdin at the New Amsterdam Theatre. Additional credits include the National Tour of The Phantom of the Opera (Raoul u/s), Anything Can Happen: The Songs of Maury Yeston, Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding (Berkeley Rep), and She Loves Me (PlayMakers Rep). You may have also seen Michael on TV in Bull, and FBI.

As a first generation Indian American, Michael reflects on what he calls his “unexpected journey” to a career in the performing arts, including how his love for music brought him to the Peabody Conservatory to earn a degree in opera. He speaks candidly about representation in the industry, noting that as a child he had no real role models or examples for what his performing arts career could be, but trusted his gut and the way music made him feel alive in order to create space for himself and others like him. Michael also opens up about making his Broadway debut as the title character in a hit Disney musical, including the whirlwind audition process which began in the midst of the COVID shutdown, and the “full goosebumps” moment of his first curtain call as Aladdin.

In this episode, we talk about: