Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
#1Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/9/15 at 12:50pm
So the West End production of Les Miserables celebrated its 30th anniversary last night, and I showed some photos to a friend who was shocked to find that Patti LuPone showed up (especially the fact that she posed for a photo with Cameron Mackintosh).
I remember having a conversation with my friend after loaning her my blu-ray copy for the 25th Anniversary Concert, and she couldn't help but notice that Patti was nowhere to be found (of course, she could've just been getting ready for Women on the Verge at the time).
Does anyone know anything about her history with Cameron Mackintosh? I know he offered her the chance to a part of Les Miz after having played Nancy in Oliver!, and that she didn't transfer with the show to Broadway because she felt doing it in London was the perfect experience. As well as the fact that she felt so bored waiting two hours for her next scene, that she pretty much went out to the bar every night.
Updated On: 10/9/15 at 12:50 PM
#2Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/9/15 at 1:15pm
She's part of that achievement. She wasn't so much doing Cameron a favor, as just celebrating her own contribution. Plus if she's still filming Penny Dreadful in Ireland, it's only a short hop jump and a skip over to London, so why not?
Beyoncé is not an ally. Actions speak louder than words, Mrs. Carter. #Dubai #$$$
#3Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/9/15 at 1:44pm
Jay Lerner-Z said: "She's part of that achievement. She wasn't so much doing Cameron a favor, as just celebrating her own contribution. Plus if she's still filming Penny Dreadful in Ireland, it's only a short hop jump and a skip over to London, so why not?"
Yeah, I really think it's a matter of 1) whether there is something of substance for her to do and 2) can she be in London when they're doing it. She was there for the 21st anniversary concert, so it's not like she's never revisited the success of Les Mis.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
Updated On: 10/9/15 at 01:44 PM
#4Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/9/15 at 1:47pm
In Patti's memoir, she has very positive things to say about the Les Mis experience overall. I think any absence from previous celebrations/reunions were just based on her availability, not any ill will.
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.
#5Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/9/15 at 1:58pm
The 25th anniversary concert took place on October 3rd of 2010. The first preview of Women on the Verge was October 8th of that year. It would have been impractical, if not impossible, for her to participate.
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
#6Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/9/15 at 2:26pm
I always crack up at her manicly fast line readings on the LES MIZ OLC.
"Yesit'struethere'sachildandthatchildismydaughter"
Keeping BroadwayWorld Illustrated
#7Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/9/15 at 2:33pm
That tempo would have been the conductor's choice, since all of her lines are sung except for "Give me that letter back."
#8Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/9/15 at 2:42pm
Patti finds a way to clip those tempos along... I can't imagine it's the conductor to blame for the wildly fast and thrilling tempo in her Evita, especially in the final months of her run.
#9Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/9/15 at 2:46pm
I was just talking about the Les Mis recording. But you're right; her final performances of Evita sound as though her cab is outside with the meter running.
smidge
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/16/06
#10Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/9/15 at 2:47pm
Absolutely love her look in the onstage group photo. Funny and frightening at the same time.
#11Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/9/15 at 3:16pm
Reginald Tresilian said: "I was just talking about the Les Mis recording. But you're right; her final performances of Evita sound as though her cab is outside with the meter running.
OK, this made me laugh!
"
Hey Dottie!
Did your colleagues enjoy the cake even though your cat decided to sit on it? ~GuyfromGermany
#12Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/9/15 at 4:32pm
I never knew she had a beef with Mackintosh, I thought it was just ALW.
#13Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/9/15 at 4:43pm
adamgreer said: "I never knew she had a beef with Mackintosh, I thought it was just ALW."
Well someone who is far clever than I DID suggest "All-Beef Patti" as the title of her memoir.
When I see the phrase "the ____ estate", I imagine a vast mansion in the country full of monocled men and high-collared women receiving letters about productions across the country and doing spit-takes at whatever they contain.
-Kad
Updated On: 10/9/15 at 04:43 PM
#14Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/9/15 at 6:10pm
I'll always remember an anecdote of hers about Les Miz she told Seth Rudetsky on Sirius years and years ago. They required any leads to be background characters in the chorus for any scene in which their character did not appear. Patti was having none of this, obviously. She was appearing in a play while rehearsals for Les Miz began and "saving her voice/energy" was a perfect excuse to bail on that.
Once that play closed she had to resort to HIDING throughout the theatre. One day, while they were rehearsing an Act Two scene, Patti was lost in some back hallway, walked through a door and found herself in the rear orchestra. She heard McIntosh talking up front and, in an attempt to dive behind a row of seats, gave away her position. McIntosh swings around and exclaims, "OH, PATTI! PERFECT!" She tried to make a last second attempt to thwart the inevitable by asking to play a boy, but no one objected...
And that is why, even though other actors are showing up all over, the actress playing Fantine does nothing after her death scene besides inexplicably appearing once in Act Two, in drag no less, before the finale.
You're reminding me of people you hear at the movies asking questions every ten seconds, "Who is that? Why is that guy walking down the street? Who's that lady coming up to him? Uh-oh, why did that car go by? Why is it so dark in this theater?" - FindingNamo on strummergirl
"If artists were machines, then I'm just a different kind of machine...I'd probably be a toaster. Actually, I'd be a toaster oven because they're more versatile. And I like making grilled cheese" -Regina Spektor
"That's, like, twelve shows! ...Or seven." -Crazy SA Fangirl
"They say that just being relaxed is the most important thing [in acting]. I take that to another level, I think kinda like yawning and...like being partially asleep onstage is also good, but whatever." - Sherie Rene Scott
"If artists were machines, then I'm just a different kind of machine...I'd probably be a toaster. Actually, I'd be a toaster oven because they're more versatile. And I like making grilled cheese" -Regina Spektor
"That's, like, twelve shows! ...Or seven." -Crazy SA Fangirl
"They say that just being relaxed is the most important thing [in acting]. I take that to another level, I think kinda like yawning and...like being partially asleep onstage is also good, but whatever." - Sherie Rene Scott
#15Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/9/15 at 6:30pm
It's nice to see the BWW-London photographer isn't totally f*cking incompetent like the schmuck that normally photographs for the site. I remember the very beautiful Ann-Margret once looking like a zombie.
Anyway, great pics. Frances could easily pass for her daughter's sister. And how fortuitous that Patti is filming in Ireland and could attend the celebration.
"...ah, gays and their wit. Hell must be a laugh a minute!"
-Evie Harris
#16Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/9/15 at 6:50pm
I think at a certain point she complained because she wasn't invited to the 10th anniversary...
jsg03jd
Broadway Star Joined: 11/24/04
#17Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/9/15 at 7:24pm
And that is why, even though other actors are showing up all over, the actress playing Fantine does nothing after her death scene besides inexplicably appearing once in Act Two, in drag no less, before the finale.
I don't think that's accurate. I'll have to go back to her autobiography but I recall reading that LuPone complained about and named another actress in the original company who outed her so LuPone ended up having no choice but to be a background player like the other leads. So after Fantine dies, LuPone got dressed up as one of the bullet boys in DYHTPS after the students learn of Lamarque's death and for the rest of Act 1.
Randy Graff followed suit and to this day, I believe every woman in the Fantine track plays a bullet boy starting at the latter half of Act 1 until the dismissal of the fathers, mothers and children from the barricade in Act 2. Then Fantine reappears for Valjean's death.
Kkh252
Swing Joined: 4/28/15
#18Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/9/15 at 8:38pm
In the book Nothing Like a Dame by Eddie Shapiro, Patti mentions that she thought it was strange she was never invited to partake in a Les Mis reunion. It didn't seem like there was any bad blood though
Swing Joined: 12/31/69
#20Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/10/15 at 1:11am
givesmevoice said: "adamgreer said: "I never knew she had a beef with Mackintosh, I thought it was just ALW."
Well someone who is far clever than I DID suggest "All-Beef Patti" as the title of her memoir.
That made me laugh out very laugh loud in a cafe just now!
"
Well I didn't want to get into it, but he's a Satanist.
Every full moon he sacrifices 4 puppies to the Dark Lord and smears their blood on his paino.
This should help you understand the score for Wicked a little bit more.
Tazber's: Reply to
Is Stephen Schwartz a Practicing Christian
Updated On: 10/10/15 at 01:11 AM
Phyllis Rogers Stone
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/16/07
#21Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/10/15 at 1:20am
I did, too, although I wasn't in a cafe.
#22Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/10/15 at 1:48am
I'm so happy Patti was finally in a Les Miz celebration! I feel like the theater world sometimes forgets about her being in the original cast. Good thing her schedule finally lined up (or whatever BS she claims always happened before).
c0113g3b0y
Leading Actor Joined: 9/16/15
#23Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/10/15 at 8:03am
I've always thought they made the actress playing Fantine play one of the boys at the barricade because of that incident where Lupone turned off her intercom in her dressing room and she entered late for the last scene as Fantine's ghost ...
The thing is, besides being an utter toad of a human being, Riedel usually has the least knowledge of the topic in the room. He doesn't usually understand the content or approach of a show, and is always completely and unfailingly socially ignorant, which makes it really infuriating when Susan can't get a word in edgewise. A definitive mansplainer; it's always painful when he has female guests. I watch the show sporadically when I really want to see a guest, because it's the only theatre talkshow we have, but it would be so much better without this hateful clown in a dadcoat. (thanks ScaryWarhol)
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#24Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/10/15 at 6:37pm
Didn't Patti have some flap about the recording of Les Miserables? Didn't she sit out a few performances because they weren't abiding by the contract or something?
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#25Patti LuPone in LES MISERABLES
Posted: 10/10/15 at 6:44pm
Whoops. Somebody already answered what I was going to say.
Updated On: 10/10/15 at 06:44 PM