GREG IN HOLLYWOOD

celebs! hugging! greg!

LATEST

GREG YOUR WAY

Take the feed! Subscribe

Get GIH news via Twitter

Follow Greg: Twitter Facebook

Greg on Flickr:

2010 Greggys: Book of the Year is Patti LuPone’s juicy memoir about her dramatic life in the theater

There was nothing sugar-coated about Broadway legend Patti LuPone’s memoir which came out in the fall just as she returned to the New York stage in the new musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

I read the book from cover to cover in about two days. With her trademark humor and outspokenness, she really did lay it all bare through the dizzying highs (Evita, Les Miserables, Sweeney Todd, Gypsy) and darkest lows (Sunset Boulevard, The Baker’s Wife).

I loved reading about the early years when LuPone was one of only 36 young actors chosen for the inaugural class of The Juilliard School’s Drama Division. Then she shares the heady days of her early twenties-crisscrossing the country as a founding member of the classical repertory theatre ensemble, The Acting Company, and her long romance with fellow ensemble member Kevin Kline.

Then we get to Evita and from then on, we are raring to do with all the details of the big shows LuPone headlined – the hits and the flops – her many clashes with producers, directors and co-stars. She is not someone who is afraid to stand up for herself and doesn’t suffer fools but she seems to be right a lot of the time!

Her biggest battles were with Andrew Lloyd Webber who might have made her a star with Evita but who was quite cruel during the debacle of Sunset Boulevard, a show LuPone was to take to Broadway after originating the role of Norma Desmind in London. Webber replaced her with Glenn Close on Broadway.

Here is an excerpt from her book about what happened when she found out that Close would headline on Broadway instead of her. LuPone starts off by saying, “I didn’t take it well.”

From the outside, I’m sure it sounded like all hell had broken loose in my dressing room, which in fact it had. I was hysterical … I took to batting practice in my dressing room with a floor lamp. I swung at everything in sight in sight — mirrors, wig stands, makeup, wardrobe, furniture, everything. Then I heaved a lamp out the second-floor window.

http://www.pattilupone.net/images/sunset_blvd.jpgI said, “I’m not going on tonight, I don’t know when I’ll return.’ I was sobbing. I do remember cast members hearing the screams and sobs and coming in and trying to console me, hugging me and feeling helpless.
Patti stayed away for 2-3 days but had a contract and honored it by appearing for another month on the London stage and being nominated for an Olivier Award.

Lloyd Webber never spoke with LuPone face-to-face but did write her a pair of letters and in the second one suggested she replace Glenn Close in the Los Angeles production when she went to Broadway.

Writes Patti: “If there could have been a bigger slap in the face, I’m not sure what it would have been.”

LuPone takes a few jabs at Close who she notes was concerned about not being seen as some kind of backstabbing Eve Harrington for All About Eve.
“Well, if you don’t want to be seen that way, pick up the phone and tell me how terrible you feel about all of this. Which she never did. Never. Do I think Glenn Close was complicit in what happened to me? Hard to say. But I do know is that from the time she was announced, I never heard from her. No, “Good luck from one Norma to another,” no “Congratulations on your opening.” no “I’m sorry for what happened to you, but I had nothing to do with it.” Nothing. You might think it would have been a common courtesy, if nothing else.”

LuPone was prepared to drag Lloyd Webber through the New York courts system in a breach of contract suit and ended up with a hefty settlement.

Thanks to Patti for such a GREAT book! It is a must read!

FILE UNDER: Awards, Books, Uncategorized

Comments

(All comments are reviewed before being published, and I review submissions several times per day.)

One Remark

  1. Thanks for the heads-up on this book, Greggy. You didn’t say how much it costs (via that certain online retailer I am sure I’m not allowed to mention) — but I am going to that website RIGHT NOW and ordering it. Juicy. That’s what it’s all all about! (As opposed to Julie Andrews’ memoir, “Home – A Memoir of My Early Years” which was interesting but not juicy.)

Leave a Reply