Patti LuPone has loosened up for her latest concert show, “A Life in Notes,” coming to The Bushnell in Hartford on Sunday. And that’s saying a lot for the Broadway legend who is a famously fiery, outspoken and risk-taking performer.
A longtime Connecticut residen, LuPone’s half-century-long Broadway resume includes the original Broadway productions of “Evita,” “War Paint” and “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” and major revivals of “Company,” “Gypsy” and “Sweeney Todd.” And those are just the musicals. She’s acted in works by David Mamet, William Shakespeare, Dario Fo and Anton Chekhov.
Her next Broadway gig has her playing opposite her “Connecticut friend” Mia Farrow in the non-musical comedy/drama “The Roommate” by Jen Silverman, who local theatergoers may remember from her dark Gothic comedy “The Moors” at Yale Rep in 2016.
LuPone tours her solo concert shows in between her Broadway engagements. She’s also back on TV this fall in Kathryn Hahn’s Marvel Studios series “Agatha All Along.”
The Courant spoke to LuPone about her rock and roll childhood, her time in Connecticut and how hard it is to get to work on Broadway these days.
‘My Life in Notes’ seems to have more of a storyline than some of your other concert shows.
There’s a story to all my shows. The last show I did, “Don’t Monkey with Broadway,” was basically about how I ended up on the Broadway stage. It was chronological. Some of the shows are about themes like faraway places. “Matters of the Heart” was about love. “Gypsy in My Soul” was torch songs.
This one ultimately is about being sick and tired of singing Broadway show tunes (She laughs). I don’t mean it that way. We get into a musical, those of us who are in musical theater, and this is what we sing. These are the songs that are part of the score. And then you develop a character and you sing the song. But that’s not the music that I initially responded to, obviously, because I was a kid. I’m a product of the burgeoning of rock and roll. I’m a child of the ‘50s and ‘60s. I call them touchstones, stuff I remember to this day. The most obvious one is Joni Mitchell’s “Blue Album,” “A Case of You.” But then as a kid growing up, there were songs we heard over and over and over on the radio. Those are the formative years, and the music reflected certain aspects of that period of time. So that’s what I sing about, the songs that affected me in my youth — actually, the ‘50s, the ‘60s, the ‘70s, the ‘80s and the present.
I went through the AIDS crisis while I was onstage doing “Anything Goes.” I lost friends. The music reflects things that are going on in the world. There are some Broadway tunes in it because they are touchstones to me. When I sing the show tunes, that’s one particular story.
How are your Broadway fans responding?
The reaction I have gotten from audiences is that they try to figure me out. (She laughs.) I don’t what else to say! Because it’s something you don’t expect of me. But you also hook into your own experience. I’ve had people say to me “That was my life” or “I took the journey with you.” That’s what this show is about.
My mother listened to opera and Broadway musicals, my father listened to jazz, but I had a transistor radio. Of course, we’re gonna rebel. We’re kids. What’re we gonna rebel to? Rock and roll. That was my music. Jazz was too sophisticated. Opera was incomprehensible, and Broadway show tunes — I knew where I was going to end up. Broadway wasn’t my dream come true. It was nature’s force. It was destiny. Thespis, the muses said, “You’re going to go in this direction.” The point is I knew I would end up on the Broadway stage but I was singing “Tears on My Pillow.” I was singing rock and roll. It wasn’t Broadway show tunes. That was too sophisticated.
You sing Joni Mitchell and Laurie Nyro songs, but are there ones you grew up on that you’re not able to sing?
I’m a total closet rocker or a closet groupie, I don’t know which one. I tried to sing rock and roll. I was in a band. But every time I opened my mouth I sounded like Ethel Merman, so that was that. I don’t have a rock voice. I didn’t understand my voice anyway.
How is it reliving your youth with this concert?
It’s very emotional. I was actually on Beta blockers because all I was doing was crying, and I just did a performance in Kalamazoo and I realized during one of the songs, “Oh my god! I’m not on a Beta blocker! I forgot to take them!” It’s very emotional. I find myself weeping through pretty much every song. Just recalling my life.
We learn about your youth in your show, but what are you doing now? Did you watch Eurovision over the weekend? Have you been following Trump’s trial?
Eurovision — it always freaked me out. Is that the campiest thing in the world? What happened? Why did that guy get eliminated?
With Trump, I just wish there was less attention paid to it, but it’s fascinating. It’s a soap opera. I wish there was less attention paid because I am sick and tired of hearing about this criminal every single day. I’m depressed because it’s not just Trump, it’s the state of our country. The politics are (expletive) ugly. You look at these guys who are supporting him that should be running the country and then you look at what’s going on in the country, the division and the idiocy. I’ve said this forever: Whoever has decided to dumb down America has done a brilliant job. I think we’re unbelievably stupid now, ignorant and gleefully so. I am terrified about the election now, terrified, and I don’t envision staying in this country if he wins.
What? Don’t leave Connecticut! You’re the best celebrity we’ve got!
(Laughs.) Well, I’ll never give up my house. I’m insanely busy, which is good. I’m not complaining, believe me. When I’m home I just want to be home. It’s beautiful where we live. Connecticut is a beautiful state. The reason I got there is a classmate at Juilliard and the promise I made to his mother. When we were kids and had no money she asked us to protect the property. Several years later, my friend came to me and said “My father is selling off a parcel of land” and I remembered the promise I’d made to his mother and I bought it. I didn’t do anything to it because I couldn’t get to it until I met my husband and he said “Let’s build instead of paying rent in New York.” When we were both unemployed, we built a house. I’ve been going up to that area since 1968. We built it in 1987.
I commute to Broadway and back because I want to wake up in green. Times Square now is such a disaster. I preferred when it was dangerous to what it is now, which is just chaos. You can’t get to work. You can not get to the theaters anymore. I’m about to go back into the thick of it, what was once my favorite street, 45th Street, when I’m playing the Booth Theatre in September. We’re trying to figure out how to get me on the street. It’s tough. People taking pictures of themselves … it’s incredibly difficult for cars just to get to work or anybody to get to the theater. You’re assaulted with grungy Mickey Mouses and Elmos. It’s a nightmare.
How do you feel about being on Broadway for so long?
“I’m lucky. I’m lucky that I’m still working, and I think that has to do with spending so much time on the stage. Women my age are anathema in Hollywood. There are no roles, so I’m thrilled to death. My career is allowing me to sing and act.
Patti LuPone will perform “A Life in Notes” on Sunday at 3 p.m. at The Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford. $34-$167. bushnell.org.
