On opening night, The Sharon became The Patti.
Patti LuPone stood center stage under a glaring spotlight midway through her two-hour show at Thursday’s gala opening of The Sharon L. Morse Entertainment Center. LuPone was accompanied only by pianist Joseph Thalken. She seemed like a larger-than life religious icon beckoning an audience to share her spirit. She extended her arms out to the people, with her palms up.
LuPone wore a knee-length black dress, adorned with red roses extending from shoulder to shoulder. Her energy, passion and voice radiated throughout the 1,000 seat theater.
Don’t cry for me Argentina
The truth is I never left you
All through my wild days
My mad existence
I kept my promise
Don’t keep your distance
That was Patti the “Evita” icon.
Then came Patti the boozer.
She sat on a stool near the middle of the stage, holding a champagne glass in her right hand and a microphone in her left. LuPone was now wearing an all-black ensemble. She looked tipsy, her eyes bulged and she seemed to slip and slide on and off the stool. She sort of wobbled around the stage, as she sang “Ladies Who Lunch” with these lyrics:
And here’s to the girls who just watch–
Aren’t they the best?
When they get depressed,
It’s a bottle of Scotch,
Plus a little jest.
Just as the song ended, LuPone defiantly lifted the glass near her shoulder and flung the contents into the first few rows near center stage. “Don’t worry,” she told the surprised wet spectators, “it’s only water.”
No, it’s only Patti being Patti.
Then, near the end of “Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda…played that Part,” came Patti the survivor.
This is a woman who beat breast cancer but the experience came with a dose of mortality. LuPone, 66, was no longer the diva queen when she sang “September Song.” Her face showed tense lines, and those glowing eyes suddenly darkened. She morosely moved on stage, singing in a muted, melancholy voice:
Oh, it’s a long, long time from May to December
But the days grow short when you reach September
When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
One hasn’t got time for the waiting game
Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few
This is what great performers do. They transport the audience and themselves to another place and another reality. Each song tells a story and LuPone makes the story real. It happens with her graceful stage movements, her remarkable vocal range and her ever-changing facial expressions.
Maybe it’s magic, maybe it’s genius but whatever it is, LuPone possesses that mystical quality in abundance.
It has been that way since she first appeared in front of audience at the age of 4 in Northport, Long Island. “Coulda…” is a two-hour personal history of her life in theater. She covered her early years singing such numbers as “Never Never Land” from “Peter Pan;” “An English Teacher” from “Bye-Bye-Birdie” and “I’m In Love With a Wonderful Guy” from “South Pacific.”
One of the turning points in LuPone’s theatrical life came when she auditioned for the Juilliard School of Drama. She sang “You Musn’t Be Discouraged” from a little-known Broadway play starring Carol Burnett. LuPone sang the number in a squeaky, childlike voice somewhere between Betty Boop and Carol Channing.
The grand moments came when LuPone cut loose and belted out the songs. The list included, “Don’t Rain on My Parade” “I’m In Love With a Wonderful Guy” and a completely rambunctious and delightful “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from her Tony-Award winning role in “Gypsy.”
LuPone showed some Broadway-style rap on “Ya Got Trouble” from “The Music Man.” She fired off the lyrics at a machine-gun rate.
A highlight came when LuPone invited nearly 15 members of the Central Florida Lyric Opera Company on stage for a few numbers. “My experience is classical training,” LuPone said, as the singers accompanied her.
The local singers sang a song called “Sleepy Man.” Then they brought down the house with “Seasons of Love” from “Rent.” It featured solos by Sheila Steis and Michael Swickard. LuPone got a kick out of watching the young performers. She clapped her hands as they sang, and kept smiling. Afterwards, she hugged many of them.
“It was amazing to be on stage with Patti LuPone,” Steis said afterwards. “To sing with her is a dream come true.”
Swickard agreed.
“I learned so much just by being around Patti LuPone,” he said. “I was nervous up there, but she said everything would be all right, and it was.”
LuPone took time to “thank the Morse family for bringing me here to open this wonderful theater. I’m honored. I hope to be back someday. My advice to you with this theater is: use it, use it, use it.”
Then, LuPone dusted off the old George M. Cohan classic, “Give My Regards To Broadway.” This was LuPone at her best. She started the song in a slow, hypnotic fashion but you could feel the intensity building.
Soon LuPone was at center stage, pumping her arms, looking up at the balcony and tearing into those lyrics:
Give my regards to Broadway
Remember me to Herald Square
Tell all the gang at 42nd Street
That I will soon be there
It’s a song identified with old show people, the real troopers who always give everything they have on stage. On Thursday night at The Sharon, Patti LuPone gave all.
