Sondheim's note to Patti
Sondheim's note to Patti
#1Sondheim's note to Patti
Posted: 12/13/21 at 11:11am
In February of 2019, I went to see Patti chat with Seth Rudesky in Bevery Hills. Of course, one of the topics they covered was Patti's relationship with Stephen Sondheim. "I don't think he likes me." She stated. This was after she'd agreed to be in Company in London. I believe she went into rehearsals there soon after.
The NY Times shared the following note Sondheim wrote to her. The Times specified he wrote it "before the pandemic."
“Every now and then I’m brought up short by realizing what a wonderful singer you are. That’s apart from the acting and performing and the attention to detail. In any event, I just felt I had to put it in print. Thank you for enhanceing [sic] my shows — and everyone else’s for that matter, Love, Steve.”
I wonder if word got back to Sondheim that Patti was saying that in Seth's shows (I know they would repeat certain conversations from show to show,) and wrote this note to let her know that he liked her just fine.
I know that at his 80th, when Patti stands and says I'd like to propose a toast" there is a shot of Steve and you can read his lips. He says "This is perfect." So, I don't really understand why she felt that way.
#2Sondheim's note to Patti
Posted: 12/13/21 at 12:26pm
Elaine Stritch and Patti were always seeking his approval and validation. Something I’d say their peers Lansbury and Peters didn’t have to work as hard for.
Both ladies were outspoken about not being sure how he felt about them.
Sondheim was always hard on Patti, this can be seen on the filmed rehearsals for the Sweeney Philharmonic concert, and Patti’s story about Passion rehearsals. I do believe he always liked her, as she wouldn’t have been offered the original Witch and original Fosca, two roles she shouldn’t have turned down. I also seem to remember a story that If Sweeney ever got revived on Broadway, he promised her Lovett, which obviously happened in Doyle’s revival.
I’m glad she finally got her validation from him toward the end, and they actually built a friendship being that they lived near each other.
Nolan LuPone
Featured Actor Joined: 8/9/21
#3Sondheim's note to Patti
Posted: 12/13/21 at 12:31pm
I think she felt this way because of an incident that occurred in 2007. Patti went to a screening of the Sweeney Todd movie and didn't like it. She sent some criticism to Steve and he responded with a letter. He said things like "Very little is as obnoxious as unasked-for criticism" and "Actually, I hesitated to invite you, but I thought that if I didn't your feelings would be hurt. Instead of which, mine were". Of course, Mr. Sondheim has been known to not give/receive criticism unless it is asked for. Patti probably read that and felt bad about the situation.
#4Sondheim's note to Patti
Posted: 12/13/21 at 1:51pm
Nolan LuPone that is very fascinating! Thank you for sharing. I wonder what Patti said about Sweeney Todd. I know Sondheim quite liked the movie because it was really sort of unleashed from the stage version. I guess when you have two complex, outspoken people, things like that happen. I remember La LuPone not being shy about being critical of the Streep/Audra/Baranski Ladies Who Lunch last year. Haha.
#5Sondheim's note to Patti
Posted: 12/13/21 at 2:28pm
Wasn’t one of the “Sondheim Letters” seen the past couple weeks, from him saying how he didn’t like the film version?
#6Sondheim's note to Patti
Posted: 12/13/21 at 2:33pm
The letter said that he thought Sweeney Todd was the best of a bad bunch. Kind of a veiled compliment. I can imagine Patti being quite shocked and appalled at the vocal performances especially after just playing the role on Broadway (personally I love the concept and aesthetics of the movie, I think it could be cringey if someone did it and made it look hyper-realistic rather than stylised..which is what I also think might have worked for Sondheim. But those vocals are sooo thin).
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
#7Sondheim's note to Patti
Posted: 12/13/21 at 2:51pm
He was a big fan of the Sweeney movie at the time, and made statements that it’s one of the best movie musicals because it’s not the stage musical directly transferred to screen.
#8Sondheim's note to Patti
Posted: 12/13/21 at 2:57pm
He didn't have much luck at the movies, did he? I think he even disliked the original West Side Story. Whereas I think he liked the movie of Gypsy. Go figure.
I love that, after the release of South Park Bigger Longer Uncut, he wrote Trey Parker a note saying it was his favorite movie musical of the last 15 years. Parker's prized possession.
For Sondheim, I think South Park was an example of what a movie musical should be. Something made specifically for the screen having nothing to do with the stage.
#9Sondheim's note to Patti
Posted: 12/13/21 at 4:12pm
I can see both sides. I can't imagine Sondheim was happy with HBC's vocal performance in the Sweeney film, but I can also understand why he may have been miffed if LuPone did indeed criticize the vocals when such criticism was not asked for. Whatever the case it seems they made amends in the end.
#10Sondheim's note to Patti
Posted: 12/13/21 at 4:36pm
My hope is that (and I may have said this before) with Sondheim gone, his estate will take more care with future film projects to limit “risks” on casting and cuts and all those things that Sondheim himself was always doing. There’s a reason film versions of his movies, for the most part, are pretty awful and I hope the estate will make it so they have to honor the original vision. If that makes sense.
#11Sondheim's note to Patti
Posted: 12/13/21 at 4:41pm
One of the traits I like least about Patti LuPone is her cruelty. She’s incredibly talented and I love her work, but she is also rude at times. It’s unwarranted. From interviews over the years as well as her blog it strikes me that her insecurity gets the best of her at times and she lashes out. I really don’t like how people will say, “oh that’s just Patti. I love it.” I don’t mind a little tea or shade, but being hurtful just isn’t cool. If you’re going to act like that, then don’t wonder why people don’t like you.
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
#12Sondheim's note to Patti
Posted: 12/13/21 at 6:35pm
I must admit that Nytimes article was shockingly open and revealing about aspects of her personality - I mean it doesn’t sound like her behaviour can be jut hurtful but apparently has put her in physical danger! That’s pretty extreme. I worry that it might have cost her career a little in the past but clearly over the last 15 years she has managed to flourish because she is just so unusually talented especially at her age.
I will admit even though I’m sure it might be difficult to deal with on a personal basis I have to be guilty that I enjoy reading what she has to say as it always feels honest and is highly entertaining. It makes her Joanne all the more alluring because the gay diva fandom in me makes me like to believe I am seeing Patti play a caricature of herself on stage. Like Elaine Stritch, her personality has become as iconic as her performances.
What I find interesting/scary is I suspect that a lot of our favourite divas have personality quirks or insecurities that we just don’t know about because no one is as honest as Patti. On a podcast Richard Jay Alexander described Bernadette as a ‘complex person’ who cried at the thought of singing Some People at her Carnegie Hall concert afraid people would say she couldn’t play the role one day. This is almost the only human thing I’ve heard about Bernadette spoken publicly.
On another podcast people described screaming matches between Donna Murphy and the director of The King and I. I suspect there is a lot going on behind the scenes we don’t know about because people dont like to be as honest as Patti.
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
Updated On: 12/13/21 at 06:35 PM
#13Sondheim's note to Patti
Posted: 12/13/21 at 7:40pm
It is NO secret that I'm a LuPone fanatic. Getting to see her live on stage is one of the reasons I'm glad yo be alive. But, there have been times when I've cringed at things she's said. I'm not exactly sure she's cruel as much as thoughtless at times. She made a show of having made up with Glenn Close at the Kennedy Center Honors, and a few months later proceeded to continue to badmouth her. She made the magnanimous gesture of singing for ALW at the Grammys, yet called off the detente shortly after.
That woman she chided at Gypsy for taking pictures had permission to be there- no big deal, really Patti just forgot. She was told shortly after, and spoke to the woman personally. Then earlier this year, there was a video of her with the woman saying "I JUST found out I yelled at this lady who had permission to be there!" She'd forgotten.
I do wish she was less competitive with her "class" Bernadette, Betty, ect.
But the woman is brilliant on stage. At that same Beverly Hills concert with Seth I got the thrill of my lifetime. She sang the Junin part of Evita ("MONOTONY PAST, SUBURBIA DEPARTED!"
She sang it in the original key. She sounded at age 70 EXACTLY as she sounds on the record. I was so excited I could barely sit still! She thrills me like no other.
She's complex, and like any of us, has her faults.
#14Sondheim's note to Patti
Posted: 12/14/21 at 6:32am
Patti was on Seth Meyers tonight and spoke very honestly (maybe too honestly?) about her relationship with Sondheim. She talked about being intimidated by him and wanting his approval, so she never felt like she “knew” him outside of a working relationship. She talked about a note from him while she did Fosca where he basically said he couldn’t understand what she was singing that destroyed her. When Seth Meyers mentioned that Lorne Michaels’ notes at SNL could have a similar effect, Patti commented that perhaps people like them are very impressed by themselves. It was an interesting interview.
#15Sondheim's note to Patti
Posted: 12/14/21 at 6:32am
Patti was on Seth Meyers tonight and spoke very honestly (maybe too honestly?) about her relationship with Sondheim. She talked about being intimidated by him and wanting his approval, so she never felt like she “knew” him outside of a working relationship. She talked about a note from him while she did Fosca where he basically said he couldn’t understand what she was singing that destroyed her. When Seth Meyers mentioned that Lorne Michaels’ notes at SNL could have a similar effect, Patti commented that perhaps people like them are very impressed by themselves. It was an interesting interview.
#16Sondheim's note to Patti
Posted: 12/14/21 at 9:11am
DramaTeach said: "Patti was on Seth Meyers tonight and spoke very honestly (maybe too honestly?) about her relationship with Sondheim. She talked about being intimidated by him and wanting his approval, so she never felt like she “knew” him outside of a working relationship. She talked about a note from him while she did Fosca where he basically said he couldn’t understand what she was singing that destroyed her. When Seth Meyers mentioned that Lorne Michaels’ notes at SNL could have a similar effect, Patti commented that perhaps people like them are very impressed by themselves. It was an interesting interview."
See, that's what I'm talking about. She leaves the interview with the statement that maybe Sondheim was impressed with himself. Actually, he wasn't. He was communicating feedback. Patti noted in her memoir that she was dubbed "flannel mouth" during school because of her diction. It shouldn't surprise her that Sondheim noted that. His songs require exceptional diction. But no, she throws it back on him as being mean. She knew she has diction issues. It wouldn't have been a surprise. People who don't worship at her altar are in for a rude awakening. She's very sensitive.
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
¿Macavity?
Broadway Star Joined: 1/29/16
#17Sondheim's note to Patti
Posted: 12/15/21 at 12:41pm
I don't think she claimed he was impressed with himself. In fact, she tried to correct herself by saying that he got caught up in his phrasing or something like that. Idk, that's how it read to me. She can be thoughtless, but I don't think this was an example.
dan94
Understudy Joined: 5/17/15
#18Sondheim's note to Patti
Posted: 12/15/21 at 1:09pm
She never said the note he gave her before Passion was wrong. And she owned up to having a problem. The statement more came out of a conversation of her not understanding how he felt about her, and him being a complex person.
She's talked about the Passion issue before. She said the sound designer told her "you blubber and drop diction when you get emotional". That was a note she understood and could use. She thought Sondheim went on for so long that she started to lose the point he was trying to make.
He did go backstage after the performance and say she fixed the problem for the day of the performance/recording.
