Happy 60th Birthday to Patti LuPone!

The great Broadway legend, a Tony winner for Evita in 1980 and for Gypsy nearly 30 years later, is one of the best there ever was.

This amazing talent remains at the top of her game as she begins her seventh decade and what a body of work she has to look back on: Sweeney Todd, Anything Goes and Master Class – among many other plays and musicals on Broadway. She’s also triumphed time and again on the London stage winning Olivier Awards for The Cradle Will Rock and Les Miserables.

It was in London that Miss LuPone originated the role of Norma Desmond in the original production of Sunset Boulevard. She was contracted to take the show from London to Broadway but Andrew Lloyd Webber decided to replace LuPone in New York with Glenn Close who had triumphed in a Los Angeles production of the show.

LuPone was furious and reportedly trashed her London dressing room, throwing things into the street. Then she got even and sued Webber for breach of contract. She got at least $1 million in a settlement then returned to the stage in an acclaimed one-woman show Patti LuPone on Broadway.

I saw this legendary performer in Master Class during a 1996 trip to New York then again a few years later when she toured with Patti LuPone on Broadway.

Boy, can she belt out a number.

Here is video of Patti’s spectacular performance on the 2008 Tony Awards: