Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 15, 1995 TAG: 9510130013
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL KUCHWARA ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Long
She starred in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical in London and was set to open in it on Broadway when she was very publicly bounced by the British composer in favor of Glenn Close.
What has brought her back home is ``Patti LuPone on Broadway,'' her one-woman show, first done in January 1993 in Los Angeles after she wrapped a four-year run in the television series ``Life Goes On.''
Not a bad title, come to think of it, for LuPone's positive handling of the turmoil that ensued when Lloyd Webber had second thoughts about her playing the role of silent-screen star Norma Desmond in New York.
The publicity was enormous and her firing an act LuPone now calls ``a betrayal, an experience that I am still not out of. My husband and Tina Marshall, my assistant, had to scrape me up off the floor and put me out on the stage and pull me in off the ledge.
``I'm coming to this new show with a lot of history,'' she says with a laugh. She talks about the past unpleasantness with surprising openness.
``I can talk about it. My silence was not purchased by Mr. Lloyd Webber. He would have had to spend a lot more money,'' the actress says, referring to the undisclosed financial settlement she received after being dropped.
``It has been difficult. The blessing out of this entire experience, which was the most devastating thing I have gone through in my life, was a year and a half at home with my husband and my son in Connecticut, in our home.''
Home is a log cabin in fashionable Litchfield County, surrounded by her husband, former television cameraman Matt Johnston - ``so supportive that he has sacrificed his career for mine,'' LuPone says; her son, Josh, who will be 5 years old in November; and a dozen or so chickens.
``If the experience I went through in London was to mean anything, I can only discern that I was meant to be with my family - a year at home with my son,'' she adds. ``I've been working since he was born.
``It was never an issue of my performance in `Sunset Boulevard.' It was beyond me and my control. My closing night in London was something. It was worth getting fired for to go through that performance. It was unbelievable.
``If it didn't strengthen me, it would have killed me. I had no choice. My career is about survival. It isn't about - even though I think there have been - brilliant moments. It's not about that. It's more about survival.
``When I think back on my career, and I'm not alone in this, I think that show business is a very brutal environment. It's Beirut from my dressing room to the stage - and I'm dodging bombs until I get on stage. That's where it becomes the joyful experience that I went into the business for.''
LuPone got into the business through the Juilliard School. She was a member of its first graduating class, a celebrated group that went on to become charter members of The Acting Company.
She toured the country with the troupe, perfecting her craft in everything from Chekhov to Shaw to musical comedy.
Stardom and a Tony Award came with ``Evita,'' which opened on Broadway in 1979. She later cemented her status as a musical theater star by originating the role of Fantine in the London production of ``Les Miserables'' and appearing in the Lincoln Center revival of Cole Porter's ``Anything Goes.''
A one-woman show isn't anything new for her.
``In `Evita,' I found that the audience was ambivalent about me, and I found it important to remind them who I was - so I started doing a club act,'' LuPone says.
For 30 weeks, after her Saturday night performance in ``Evita,'' she performed to sold-out houses at Les Mouches, a West Side nightclub.
``It taught me so much about acting and performance because there is no mask or character to hide behind,'' LuPone says. ``It is yourself looking directly into an audience.''
LuPone is an ebullient person, spontaneous in her opinions but still guarded when talking about her private life.
``I don't know how much I want someone to know me. I think I would rather them know me through my choice of lyrics and music. And with this particular show, Scott Wittman, who is the director, has put together a group of songs that are only now revealing themselves to me again - and I sang this act before in Los Angeles.''
LuPone says there are four new songs in the show and a little more of her history.
``The original was done to say goodbye in Los Angeles, and now I am returning to the Broadway stage. So in a way it's a hello.''
LuPone made a first step back to Broadway last April when she played the wealthy, older woman, Vera Simpson, in a concert version of Rodgers and Hart's ``Pal Joey'' for the Broadway Encore series.
``I had no idea that it would be taken as far as it was in the press - comparing the two roles of Norma and Vera. I thought, `Wow, why didn't I think of that?'
``I found myself numb with fear on opening night. The older I get, the more stage fright I have.''
Then Walter Bobbie, the concert's artistic director and an old friend, gave her some advice that put it all in perspective.
He told her, ``Give it away, Patti.'' And it worked. The audience response was tumultuous.
``I had forgotten that's what it's about,'' she says. ``I had forgotten what I was supposed to do on stage.
``I guess I have a tone in my voice that touches people. I like to sing. If I wasn't able to move an audience, what am I doing on the stage?'' she adds.
``I think audiences are starved for change and I don't mean that they want to see something different on the stage. They want to feel different when they leave the theater. They are starved for an emotional, passionate experience.
``I think that my appeal has to do with a cry, a sound that hits them in the heart. And I'm really grateful for that.''
by CNB