Born in 1949 in Northport Long Island Patti LuPone knew that she had a love for the stage from the age of four. this was after performing in a school dance recital, she quotes in her book ‘They’re all smiling at me. I cant get in trouble up here. I can do whatever I want, and they’ll still smile at me’ (Patti LuPone 2011). From that point forward LuPone knew that the stage was where she belonged. From 1968 to 1972 LuPone trained at Julliard school in New York as a part of the original group in the Drama Division, at which she was able to graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1972. After graduating LuPone along with her fellow classmates joined John Houseman and became the original members of The Acting Company. From 1972 to 1976 she toured with the company performing in many of their productions such as Women Beware Women, The Hostage, Measure for Measure, and The Beggars Opera. She then made her Broadway Debut in 1973 in Anton Chekov’s The Three Sisters. LuPone received her first of seven Tony Award nominations in 1975 for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for The Robber Bridegroom.

In 1978 LuPone auditioned alongside huge names such as Barbera Streisand, Meryl Streep, and Faye Dunaway for the role of Eva Peron in the original Broadway cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Evita. Although LuPone landed the role her initial reaction to being cast was not very positive as she did not like the music as in her words Andrew Lloyd Webber ‘Hated Women’ as the notes that Peron had to sing all throughout the show where incredibly high and placed right in the Passaggio. These are the weakest notes to produce as it is where break from chest voice to head voice is. She took the role however has said many times that it was horrible calling it ‘Trial by Fire’. When she first began rehearsals everyone would come up to her and talk about Elaine Paige, who was the original West End Evita, telling her what she would do at certain points throughout the show. LuPone did not enjoy this and after only a couple of days responded telling the girls ‘Shut up […] If you tell me what she did, then I don’t have a chance to discover it for myself. I’m an actor. I’ll figure it out’ (Patti LuPone 2011), this altercation is what gave her the reputation of being a diva that she still has to this day. from the start LuPone worried about her vocal stamina and if she was strong enough to sustain the role. As she got closer to opening in Los Angeles she was still terrified of the singing as her passaggio was not powerful enough to sing the score as Evita’s top notes of D5, E5, F5, and G5 could not be done lyrically if she wanted to play the role accurately. Due to this she lost her voice about a week before the opening night, meaning that she could not do any of the technical rehearsals leading up to opening night as she had been told by her doctor not to speak. She managed to open, however blew out her voice in the one show, causing her to be off on the following night. After some time she spoke to one of the chorus, David Vosburgh, asking him about technique, this then led to them working together to help strengthen her voice. LuPone says that this taught her a very powerful lesson in how if you put in the work and have trust and patience that nothing is impossible. Just before the end of the run Andrew Lloyd Webber came and told them that they would be recording a cast album, he told LuPone that she would be recording at ten in the morning to which she told him no, she would be recording in the afternoon in chunks throughout the week as recording and then going on to do a show was too much for her when she could barely sing the score to begin with. After finishing in Los Angeles the cast moved on to San Francisco where she found the seven week run there just as difficult as her run in LA.

Evita opened on Broadway on September 25th 1979 to indifferent reviews, LuPone’s version of ‘Don’t Cry for Me Argentina’ being called ‘colourless’. However the show managed to win seven Tony Awards, which included Patti LuPone winning Best Actress in a Musical. At this point in her career LuPone was now being talked about as a star, but with this came press and stories of all the battles she had to fight backstage. LuPone ended her contract and left Evita in 1981 however three months later she got asked to reprise the role in Sydney as Jennifer Murphy who was playing the role had severely damaged her voice. She agreed to do it and found that for the first time she was secure in the singing in this role.

She reunited with the old members of The Acting Company for the revival of Mark Blitzstein’s The Cradle will rock which toured around the United States and eventually went on to the West End in London. Her next big notable role was Fantine in Cameron Mackintosh’s production of Les Misérables in London, in which she originated the role. For these two shows she won an Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical. In 1987 LuPone returned to Broadway as the lead role Reno Sweeney in a revival of Cole Porters Anything Goes. She opened on October 18th 1987 after the longest preview period she’s ever had. The show got a phenomenal review in the times and went on to be a huge hit. LuPone greatly enjoyed this show as it was so different from her other big hits ‘Anything Goes went a long way toward finally freeing me from the tap-dancing blonde fascist that Evita had made me’ (Patti LuPone 2011). In 1988 she received a Tony Nomination for Best Actress in a Musical for Anything Goes however lost out to Johanna Gleason for the Bakers Wife in Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods.

In 1992 LuPone got a call from Andrew Lloyd Webbers musical supervisor asking if she would like to workshop Webbers new musical Sunset Boulevard in London, which would be performed on Andrews estate in September that year. It was then announced in December of 1992 that she would be playing the role of Norma Desmond in the London production of Sunset Boulevard. The press for this show was huge the first day of advance sales for the show came to £500,000 and by the time it was ready to open it was at £4 million. Before the show even opened Barbera Streisand released an album with Norma’s two biggest ballads on it, this however wasn’t the first time that Andrew Lloyd Webber had let Streisand sing songs by a character that LuPone was about to open as. Back before she opened as Evita Webber let Streisand sing ‘Don’t Cry for Me Argentina’ which LuPone had also recorded however her version never got released but Streisand’s did. Despite this she says that she wasn’t angry at Barbera Streisand but at Andrew Lloyd Webber for allowing her to do this, as she had been strictly forbidden from singing anything from Sunset Boulevard after performing in the concert in September 1992. The show opened two weeks late on July 12th 1993 due to technical problems. LuPone’s contract for stated that she would be playing Norma Desmond on both the West End and Broadway, however on February 16th 1994 she found out that the role of Norma was going to be played by Glenn Close on Broadway instead of her. At the time Close was playing Norma in Los Angeles which was something that LuPone was already angry about as she had been told that she was going to originate the role in both England and America, on top of this Webber had lowered the keys of the songs for Close meaning that she did not have to sing as high as LuPone making it easier for her to play. This was a real blow for LuPone as Webber had previously refused to do for her in both Sunset Boulevard and Evita. She ended up suing Andrew Lloyd Webber for a breach in contract which was settled winning her $1 million.

Patti LuPone has had a hugely successful career winning her three Tony Awards along with four more nominations. She has a reputation as one of the most celebrated performers and has worked with many incredible people. She is an inspiration for a lot of people wanting to get into the industry and continues to show people that you don’t just have to do one thing and that you can do it all if you put in the dedicated work.

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