Patti LuPone is, to overuse a Broadway-esque word, divine. From her portrayals of Eva Peron in Evita & Mama Rose in Gypsy to her appearances in television shows like Life Goes On & American Horror Story, LuPone has proven that no matter what role she inhabits, she does it so seamlessly that you almost can think you are watching Eva Peron herself reincarnated on stage. Speaking with LuPone was like talking to a neighbor; the Broadway sensation takes a back seat to the woman that weaves a love letter to the New York City of old when she talks about it, a woman who is outraged about the current state of our country (and the leadership who shoulders the lion’s share of the blame) and as she looks back at her storied career, she was able to tell me what she thinks truly defines her as a performer and as a person.
Michael Cook: You are coming to Philadelphia on one of the best weekends of the year and one that will be especially poignant for you; Gay Pride weekend! Don’t Monkey With Broadway is a fantastic album and is the perfect way to cap off their Pride weekend! The album is a great showcase of everything people could miss about “Old New York”. What do you think you truly miss about old New York”?
Patti LuPone: “I moved to New York City right after high school, at the very end of the sixties. I was there while New York was derelict, and talk about dangerous! It was creative though, it was phenomenally creative because it was “no holds barred”. It was creative, diverse, and every block had a different storefront in it. When I say “dangerous” it was, it was bankrupt. As a result, people used their ingenuity. There were blackouts, everything. New York is a unique place; I was working yesterday and I we were on location. I looked out of the storefront we were working on, on the East Side, and I said “you could stand on a street corner for twenty four hours a day and never see the same face” in Manhattan; you just wouldn’t. The one thing that is so great about New York City is that it is so diverse, it is sort of a microcosm of the world, in America. The rest of America should take heed; we are made up of immigrants who are just trying to survive. At that time, I was a student at Juilliard I am kind of seeing it in my kid now. who is twenty eight staying out until four am in the morning, I am thinking “do those places still exist? Well I guess they do. When I was a kid, it was the East Village, it was the Electric Light Circus, it was discotheques before discos where there would be live bands in bars. It was really the city that never slept. You could go out in the theater district and the restaurants would be open. There just aren’t any restaurants that are open after the shows any more in the theater district. The 21 Club was a speakeasy and about eleven years ago I called them and wanted to take John Doyle to a quintessentially New York “thing” and I called to make a reservation and they said their last order was at 9:30; I said “but you’re a speakeasy”!
Years ago when I was doing “Evita”, they would be serving after the show, it’s such a corporate environment now, as the city is. It’s bland and it just does not have the creative edge that it used to have. That is what I miss about New York. I miss the danger and I miss the creativity. I’ll tell you what, I used to dress as a bum as a kid so I wouldn’t get mugged, as opposed to going out looking decent. I used to dress like I was one of the street people so I wouldn’t get mugged and unfortunately that became a habit, I always look like a slob when I go out (laughs).
MC: What made you want to record the album back in Northport, Long Island right where it all started? That was such a cool, full circle moment.
PLP: “Because it was Northport, Long Island and it was the Northport High School choir. It was a choir and choir director through Junior High school that was my champion. She was my mentor, she was my protector, she was my supporter, she was the person that guided me. I was in all of her choruses; in Junior High it was basic chorus, but in high school there were madrigals, choral, and chorus, which was basically a required class. Back then we had music education in schools, so if you were a jock you still had to go to chorus. You didn’t have to pick up an instrument, but you still had to go; that was eight period chorus. Pretty much your whole class was in the choral. She was an inspiration to all of us, not just people that were inclined to be musical. She just recently passed away, last year, she lived a long time; Esther Scott. If ever I got into trouble at school, she would be the one laughing as opposed to punishing. That kind of support, as opposed to the punishment, makes you understand that this is your path. Not being a troublemaker, but she saw the risk taker and the comic in me. She appreciated it as opposed to trying to stamp it down.”
MC: There is so much fun banter on Don’t Monkey With Broadway, yet there is also so much incredible music. Was it hard to decide what to curate the musical selections to make them just right?
PLP: No, because these are the ones that came to mind immediately. I didn’t necessarily want to be in The King & I, knew that I would not be in The King & I but I always wanted to sing “Something Wonderful”. I have always wanted to sing that song. I have always wanted to sing “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” from South Pacific. That may change, but I think it may be a little too early in the show to get political (laughs). That song is very political, so I think that one should come in the second act!
MC: From a fans perspective, everything from Evita to War Paint to Gypsy is what defines your career to us. What defines Patti LuPone’s career to her?
PLP: That I am still working. Longevity I think. I think that I don’t define myself, that is one of the aspects of me and that is why I have continued to work, because I don’t define myself. By that I mean, I don’t say I am “this”, I don’t say I am “that”. I was trained at Juilliard I was became versatile at Juilliard because I was thrown so many different types of roles in so many different periods and styles. To me, the interesting thing is the variety of the roles available to me. I think that is what defines me-variety. And longevity. I think that is because I have made a career on the stage. I think women are basically ageless on the stage; well, we’ll see.
MC: Is there a kind of a role that has eluded your for your entire career that you would love to sink you teeth into or a box you have not check in terms of a dream role?
PLP: No, I think I have checked a whole lotta boxes (laughs)! I have four years on the page with John Houseman’s The Acting Company in a variety of roles. I think the thing that people don’t necessarily associate me with is comedy. I will squeeze a joke out of anything, if I can. I will squeeze a joke out because I am a comedian. Before I went into Evita, my first Tony nomination was a slapstick musical comedy, The Robber Bridegroom. When I left Evita, there was not a comedic role in sight, because I became this, I don’t know, “larger than life facist dictator” I don’t know. it took a long time to get that out of people’s mindset and get into comedy. First of all, I think comedy is more difficult than drama. How do you get a laugh, how do you maintain a laugh, why did you get the laugh? It is much more difficult than drama or tragedy. It’s easy to make people cry, it is not easy to make them laugh. I find that incredibly challenging and incredibly rewarding. To hear people laugh in a theater is so restorative and so rejuvenating; it is such a release. Tears as well, but tears elicit a different kind of passion, especially in today in the world we are living in; we need more laughter.
MC: Speaking of today’s world, you are beyond vocal and constantly speak out on our current leadership and are crystal clear on your perspective on what is going on. What makes you be so bravely outspoken?
PLP: I’m enraged. I am about to leave this country. I am so upset. We are going backwards, this country should be the most progressive and innovative country in the world because of the diversity. The immigrants that founded our country and maintained our country. the psychology that I do not understand is, we are creating terrorists by putting children in cages, by separating mothers from their kids, by the way we are treating the migration that we have created around the world. American and Western Civilization has created the chaos in the Middle East, and we have our hand in South America. We have created the migration in South America and yet we are taking no responsibility for this, no accountability for this. I just don’t understand why the opposite psychology isn’t in place. If I was an immigration officer, I would say “what do you do”? Then I would train them to do something and they would be grateful.
I don’t understand where we are, unless I have been told a a lie my entire life, and that’s another reason I am engaged; I may have been told a lie about this country my entire life. So now it’s time for me to get out before it takes more minutes off my life. As far as being vocal about it, I can’t help it; I’ve been vocal about everything my entire life. When I mentioned being a risk taker, a comic, and a troublemaker earlier, that’s who I am. I am an Italian, my emotions are on my sleeve, and it comes out of my mouth. I don’t have, I wish I did have a more measured temperament, and I wish I was more eloquent, but that is who I am. I grew up in a loud, raucous family. As far as speaking my mind, I think it’s because at a very young age I felt at a disadvantage, being a young girl and I saw injustice. I must have been precocious because I saw injustice at a very early age, and I didn’t understand it. I’m not taking just talking injustice, I’m taking about injustice in getting punished and not knowing why, never understanding the reasons why people do what they do. This has been my pattern my entire life; I need to know why and I need to understand. Right now, I am horrified and I am so upset and I am willing to give up my citizenship to protect my soul.
MC: There are many that say the current leader is doing exactly what they voted him in to do, damages to groups like women and the LGBT community notwithstanding.
PLP: What is he doing? They have to explain to me what he is doing. He is rolling back women’s rights, he is rolling back everything that Obama put into place to protect the environment and Mother Earth. He is squeezing the blue states with taxes that don’t do anything for the middle working class, he is lining the pockets of the corporations, what exactly is he doing? Except lying. I’m not an economist, but isn’t he riding on the coattails of what President Obama did the last eight years trying to right the Bush train? No one is saying that, no one is confronting this guy. He’s such a bully, but he just needs somebody to bully him back and he would back down so damn fast. It’s also very different when a guy speaks his mind than when a woman speaks her mind; that’s what I don’t understand either. I don’t understand why there should be any sort of gender difference in why a woman cannot say what a man can; why not? I think that’s been a question that I have had my entire life; why can’t I say it? I am a human being, this is how I feel ,and I bet I feel the same way that the guy feels, but I am called names and told to shut up. I am always gonna get in trouble; I guess I am just a really emotional and passionate Italian and my mouth just goes! (laughs)
MC: The fact that you are forthcoming is one of the many reasons that the LGBT community reveres you. If there was a Broadway Mount Rushmore, it would be…Elaine Stritch, Chita Rivera, Liza Minnelli, and Patti LuPone.
PLP: (laughs) well I am in excellent company, and I hope I can live up to them. Chita Rivera, I have to say..I haven’t seen Liza in a long time, but I had done Company in London and Chita had a show. She has more energy and more life and more life force that anyone that I have ever experienced in my whole life. She came backstage and she threw her pocketbook in my dressing room and then she made an entrance! She has this light and this spirit around her and energy force; whoever was in my dressing room, we sat there dumbfounded and our mouths were agape, just at her power and energy. She is the best, she is the last of the great Broadway dames that came up through the gypsies. May she reign for a long time.
MC: Why do you think the LGBT community has so much reverence for you? What does it feel like from your perspective?
PLP: I can’t answer that question, because I really don’t know. I just gave a concert at the New York Philharmonic and it was a gala. I did not hear any of the responses, but apparently there were a lot of men in the audience, but the first seven rows were New York Philharmonic Gala Supporters, so all I could see was there faces. I’m just grateful that if my work is understood, if I can make an audience understand what I am saying, If I can move an audience to tears or to laughter, than I have done my job. Curtain calls are wonderful things, and you know you have done your job by the response you get, and you get that in the curtain call. I can’t tell you why; I think probably I have a basic set of needs like everybody else. I just come from my gut and my heart. I just know that I was born to do what I do. As Walter Bobbie once said to me, “you’ve got the gift, give it away”. That was key; I understood that I needed to give it away.
MC: What’s next for Patti LuPone?
PLP: I am shooing Pose right now, and I am very excited because I think that show is incredible. All of the trans actors on it are incredible and more beautiful than I am (laughs). I don’t know what happens next; I have to get my other hip done, so I am doing that this summer. I was told I would have to have it done, and now I am recognizing the symptoms. I am not looking forward to that though, it’s not easy for me. The post op was not easy for me. After I finish Pose and the operation, I don’t know whats next!
MC: What gives you the most pride?
PLP: My son. I am so proud of my kid, my husband and I both. He is compassionate, he’s sensitive, he is very open minded, he is polite, he is funny, he is smart and I will never forget-I could cry thinking about this-I was taking him to school when he was about five years old and he asked me what gay was. I told him it’s when two people of the same sex love each other. He said “well then I must be gay because I love Joe”. And I knew this kid was gonna be okay. He is straight, but he understood. These kids grew up with gender fluid and gender bending, homosexuality, heterosexuality, questioning, they have grown up with this. They will create a better world. They gotta fight for it, I didn’t think they would have to fight this hard, but we are in a situation where they are gonna have to fight.
Patti LuPone’s next Don’t Monkey With Broadway performance is in Philadelphia at the Kimmel Center Verizon Hall on June 9th.
Tickets are available here.
http://www.pattilupone.net/
