COSTA MESA, CA—One of the greatest performers in modern musical theater—Patti LuPone—joins Pacific Symphony and Principal Pops Conductor Richard Kaufman for the grand opening of its 2009-10 Pops season on Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 8-10, at 8 p.m. in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. The musical powerhouse brings her critically-acclaimed show "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda" to Orange County for an evening of Broadway hits. Since establishing herself with a Tony® Award-winning performance as Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita, LuPone has wowed audiences in Les Miserables, Sunset Boulevard, Sweeney Todd, and Gypsy (for which she won another Tony Award in 2008). The concert includes selections from such musical favorites as Bye Bye Birdie, Funny Girl, and West Side Story, in addition to the songs that made her famous, such as "Meadowlark" from The Baker's Wife (which LuPone starred in in 1976), and "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" from Evita.
"This season we have an incredible line-up of performers who will join Pacific Symphony in concert," says Maestro Kaufman. "And what better way to begin than with the multi-talented
Patti LuPone, a Tony Award-winning, Emmy-nominated performer who is equally at home on a Broadway stage, on the motion-picture or television screen, and in the concert hall? But our opening Pops weekend is just the 'tip of the musical iceberg!' Everyone at Pacific Symphony is dedicated to making each audience member's concert experience during the coming season a memorable one."
The first half of the concert features Kaufman and the orchestra paying tribute to the career of the iconic movie star,
Audrey Hepburn, with excerpts from the scores of
My Fair Lady,
Roman Holiday, and others, as well as a trio of songs from Hepburn's movies by
Henry Mancini, all accompanied by iconic images from her movies and rare backstage moments in larger-than-life projections above the stage. "
Audrey Hepburn was a superb actress who was blessed with beauty, talent and legendary elegance," says Kaufman, "and I thought it would be very exciting for our Pops audience and the orchestra to take a musical journey through some of her most memorable films, and so also experience the talents of some of Hollywood's finest composers. As the song goes, 'Who could ask for anything more?' "
Many might say that Broadway legend LuPone is now at the height of her interpretive and musical powers—even after a ground-breaking career spanning more than 30 years and partnerships with such luminaries as
Mandy Patinkin,
David Mamet,
Andrew Lloyd Webber and
Stephen Sondheim. The powerhouse performer recently won the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League's Best Actress in a Musical Award for her role as Mama Rose in the critically-acclaimed Broadway production of the
Jule Styne-
Stephen Sondheim-
Arthur Laurents musical
Gypsy.
The New York Times said of this performance: "
Patti LuPone has found her focus. And when Ms. LuPone is truly focused, she's a laser, she incinerates...There is no separation at all between song and character, which is what happens in those uncommon moments when musicals reach upward to achieve their ideal reasons to be."
The Los Angeles Times also cheered, "What distinguishes LuPone's accomplishment is the fiery fusion of music and drama that she pulls off with seemingly spontaneous expressiveness. Speech slides into song as naturally as water returns to air, and the ensuing rainbow of vocal color is like the proof of some rarely observed scientific law."
LuPone's other recent stage credits include her debut with the
Los Angeles Opera in
Kurt Weill's
Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny; the world premiere of
Jake Heggie's new opera
To Hell and Back with San Francisco's Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra; Mrs. Lovett in
John Doyle's award-winning Broadway production of
Stephen Sondheim's
Sweeney Todd (a role which garnered her Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for Best Actress in a Musical and a Drama League Award for Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theatre); a critically-acclaimed performance as Fosca in a concert version of
Stephen Sondheim's
Passion, which was also broadcast on PBS'
Live From Lincoln Center; and a multi-city tour of her theatrical concert "Matters of the Heart."
Pacific Symphony's Pops series is made possible by Pops media sponsor the Los Angeles Times; the Symphony's official airline, American Airlines; official hotel, The Westin South Coast Plaza; official Pops radio station, K-Earth 101; and official television station, KOCE-TV.
Tickets are $25-$150; for more information or to purchase tickets, call (714) 755-5799 or visit
www.pacificsymphony.org.
Photo by Rahav Seger/Photopass.com
