Patti LuPone talks about her legendary career: “I don’t want to fail in front of a paying audience.”

Patti LuPone is such a Broadway legend and beloved by her fans that it’s hard to believe that after each of her triumphs from Gypsy to Evita to Sweeney Todd to Anything Goes and the list goes on and on, she feels a little insecure.

“I’m always wondering if I’ll ever get hired again,” Patti tells Echo Magazine. “So I go out there and my training and my talent have seen me through.

I’ll say.

“Only after I retire will I consider that I’ve arrived. It’s a constant struggle,” she added. “I’m grateful that I’m given the challenges so deep in my career. To be able to meet that and succeed is incredibly encouraging. I never turn down a challenge, and if I fail, that too is a lesson. I don’t want to fail in front of a paying audience.”

Patti, a two-time Tony winner, finds herself inspired by “anyone who’s good and committed. If I go to the theater and I see someone who reaches across the footlights because they want to tell me the story – I’m moved. That’s why we go to the theater. If I’m hooked, I’m inspired.”

She is also grateful for her fans. “I love to see fans. It’s really heartening to see how many young people are coming to the theater. When they talk about the death of Broadway, I don’t think it’s true.”

Patti talked to Echo in advance of the he Phoenix production of Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda, one of her one woman shows. This one features songs from musicals in which she did not appear – but wishes she had!

Another interesting tidbit: LuPone is writing her memiors. That shoul;d be a page-turner, especially the part about being dumped as the lead in the Broadway production of Sunset Boulevard after triumphing in the part in London. Glenn Close had done a highly-successful Los Angeles production so Andrew Lloyd Webber when with her instead. (Trust me, if you can get a copy of the CD with LuPone in the role, snag it! She is superb as Norma Desmond).

“It’s an interesting process to relive my career – not always happily,” she said. “There’s a lot of trials and tribulations in my career and I don’t know if it’s going to be interesting to anyone else but me,” she said, laughing.