Patti LuPone As A Ghost in Long Lost Musical Set In A Laundromat (1984)

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

from Broadway.com. This 1984 musical stars Patti as a ghost who has been trapped in a dryer for 18 months. She is set free and is ready to exact revenge on the husband who spurned her for another woman. Wow! It's mind blowing. Martin Vidnovic plays the husband (who incidentally is Laura Benanti's father). Priscilla Lopez plays the other woman.






Love Cycle: A Soap Operetta

[artscallion]

The 80s were a special time.

[givesmevoice]

American Horror Story: Spin Cycle.

[PalJoey]

Also Ellen Foley, Walter Bobbie and Lonny Price,

This is the most incredible thing ever uncovered on the Internetz.

[newintown]

Finally, at the very end, you see it's written by a pair called Peggy Black and Bill Burnett. Other than Lupone's old chestnut "I Regret Everything," a casual search doesn't yield much on who they are (were) or other projects.

[givesmevoice]

^ "I Regret Everything" is actually one of my favorite songs Patti sings, and I had no idea that they wrote it!

I also googled Bill Burnett and Peggy Black, to see if I could find anything newintown might've overlooked, and I did find that a senior at Roger Williams University is directing Love Cycle as their senior project.


RWU Theatre Program

[best12bars]

This should be called "Lint: The Musical."

There aren't even enough synonyms for horrendous to describe this.

[newintown]

Which is sufficient explanation for the dearth of info on the writers...

[sbflyfan]

I love how people are acting like this was just discovered in some vault. It's been floating around other places for years. I'm surprised it wasn't put on Youtube a long time ago.

[best12bars]

Some things should just be left in the dryer forever.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Leaving aside the quality of the writing, it's wonderful to have non-bootleg video of one of our most remarkable performers.

[NYadgal]

^ This.

[CarlosAlberto]

^ Agree!

[Mr Roxy]

I can see this turned into a musical.

[darquegk]

The guy who created this, Bill Burnett, reinvented himself years later as an animation maven, launching shows like "Chalkzone" for various networks. I know him as a colleague, and the sort of surrealism and absurd nature of the material requires an almost psychedelic mindset to appreciate.

Sometimes weird stuff works. Sometimes it doesn't. But in these days, when something like "Fun Home" is considered too eclectic for Broadway success, there's really something to be said for the days in the Eighties when people had out-there ideas and pursued them. Better a fabulous failure than a boring and forgettable success... you'll forget First Date fast, but you'll never forget Patti LuPone as a laundry ghost.

[PalJoey]

Leaving aside the quality of the writing, it's wonderful to have non-bootleg video of one of our most remarkable performers.

Several remarkable performers, actually, and early in their careers.

The fact that it doesn't work is immaterial. PBS decided not to air it, so clearly it was seen as not good. What's remarkable is the young and talented cast that was assembled for this (obviously) misguided creative effort.

[darquegk]

Burnett wrote an animated TV musical in the late 1990s called "The Electric Piper," which featured performances by Wayne Brady, Christine Ebersole, Rodney Dangerfield and other notables. It's a sort of "Yellow Submarine" type throwback that mashes up the Pied Piper legend with the 1960s culture clash, and it's just as off the wall as this, if not more.

[twinbelters]

Holy Ellen Foley! It's an absurdist delight! I enjoyed it so much.

[Jubillee]

Me too. You guys are right that there's a lot wrong with this, but if you peer through the fake smoke at the melodies and lyrics there are some real gems. David Misch wrote some very funny and sometimes moving dialogue. And everybody delivered good performances. The choreography sucks but in an endearingly silly way. I enjoyed it, after all these years.

[Jubillee]

In response to who they are (were) Peggy is a writer living in NYC with her husband and Bill is a songwriter, composer and TV writer creating musicals and kids entertainment in Los Angeles. Burnett is the co-creator and Executive Producer of Nickelodeon's ChalkZone, won an Emmy for his work on Curious George, and has most recently been creating and producing musical theater for the Skirball Cultural Center. He is the primary composer and Artistic Director of the newly formed Jubilation Musical Society.

[Mattbrain]

"The guy who created this, Bill Burnett, reinvented himself years later as an animation maven, launching shows like "Chalkzone" for various networks."

Oooh, I liked ChalkZone :)

[Owen22]

What surprises me about this video (amongst a whole MESS of surprises) is what a horrendous actress Patti Lupone was. To the point I almost wonder if her line readings were directed or self chosen to be delivered in the most unorganic way possible.

[missthemountains]

Agreed Owen22. What were they thinking here? Why would Patti have ever agreed to do this? It's so brilliantly awful. Was this supposed to be a series of mini-musicals?

[Mattbrain]

I got that opening number, "Round and Round" stuck in my head now!

[Wee Thomas2]

"Holy Ellen Foley! It's an absurdist delight! I enjoyed it so much"

Same Ellen Foley from Paradise by the Dashboard Light?