Long before Evita, Mama Rose and “Life Goes On,” Patti LuPone was just a kid growing up in the town of Huntington, Long Island. So was Greg Senholzi.
“Even when she was a kid you just knew Patti LuPone was going to be a star. When she stepped on stage there was always something special about her,” said Senholzi, who now lives in The Village of Bonita with his wife, Rochelle.
LuPone, who won Tony Awards for her roles in “Evita” and as Mama Rose in “Gypsy,” will soon play a starring role in The Villages entertainment history. She is the main attraction for the April 30 grand-opening gala of the Sharon L. Morse Entertainment Center in Spanish Springs Town Square. The show is soldout.
Senholzi lived in the southern part of Huntington, located in Suffolk County, New York. LuPone was on the north side of town in Northport. He remembers seeing LuPone perform with the Township Community Theater Company and at Northport High School. He also said he appeared in one community theater production with LuPone, during the mid-1960s.
“I’m sure she doesn’t remember me, but I can’t forget her,” Senholzi said. “I could tell that one day she would be a famous actress and singer. Not only that, but she was a nice person. She liked rock music and also used to sing with her twin brothers (William and Robert). I think they called themselves the Lupones.”
Senholzi has seen LuPone, 65, perform on Broadway and remains impressed by her talent.
“People in The Villages will absolutely love her rich tones, golden voice, and sense of humor. She is a very caring person she and gives 110 percent of herself in every show. She seems to live for the applause.”
It was always that way for LuPone. She first appeared on stage at the age of 4 in a dance recital and immediately found her destiny.
“I knew from then on I would spend my life on the stage, because, in fact, what I really fell in love with was the audience,” she wrote in “Patti LuPone: A Memoir.”
LuPone didn’t look like a star. In high school, she was voted “Class clown” and was hardly a beauty.
“This is a hard face to cast,” LuPone told CBS-TV. “There’s a big nose. There are big lips….This is not Brooke Shields.”
But LuPone had drive, talent and that stunning voice. In 1972, she was in the first graduating class of Juilliard’s Drama Division. She went into theater and by 1975 earned her first Tony nomination.
The big break came in 1979 with “Evita.” Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice wrote the musical about Eva Peron, wife of Juan Peron, dictator of Argentina. LuPone has said she hated the role and those in charge of “Evita.”
“I went into it as an actress,” Lupone told CBS. “I left as a blonde, fascist tap dancer.”
Despite her anguish, LuPone won a Tony for “Evita,” became a star and turned the song, “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” into a standard. To see a video of her singing it go to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14DIoEWB7VE
“God, I love the way she sings that song,” said Sue Schuler, one of the most popular singers and stage performers in The Villages.
Schuler recently played the role of Fantine in “Les Miserables,” which was originated in London by LuPone in 1985.
“Patti LuPone just has a way of capturing a character,” Schuler said. “She’s one of those performers who opens her mouth on stage and has the audience in the palm of her hand.”
Schuler had to sing “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” in a show last year. “I closed my eyes and kept thinking to myself: ‘Patti Lupone. Pattie LuPone. Patti LuPone.’ I just wanted to be like Pattie LuPone for one song.”
Jill Marrese, another Villages stage favorite, also praises LuPone.
“Patti LuPone is the ultimate Broadway entertainer,” Marrese said. “On stage, she’s larger than life and will knock your socks off. She has played every role imaginable and every time gives a powerful performance.”
Billie Thatcher of The Villages, has played numerous stage roles but her favorite is Mama Rose in “Gypsy.” LuPone won a Tony for that role in a 2008 revival on Broadway.
“I saw her in that role and I truly believed she was Rose,” Thatcher said. “She always stays true to the characters she plays. Patti brings such honesty to her performances and her life. She’s a Long Island girl and she’s still close to her roots.”
Thatcher has also seen LuPone perform in the show that will appear in The Villages called, “Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda — Played That Part.” It includes songs from such shows as, “Hair,” “Bye, Bye Birdie,” “Funny Girl,” “West Side Story” as well as “Evita” and “Gypsy.”
“It was a great performance, and she gave those songs a whole, new meaning,” Thatcher said.
William Davis, another popular local singer/actor, said “Lupone is a latter day Ethel Merman: big voice, immense talent, big stage presence. She is one of the true Broadway stars of her generation. No one can touch her Eva Peron; she defined the character for everyone else to follow.”
In addition to her stage work, LuPone has also appeared in movies and the hit television show, “Life Goes On.” In that early ‘90s series, Lupone played the mother in a family that included a teenage son with Down’s syndrome.
LuPone’s stage career hasn’t been one big joyride. She was unceremoniously fired by Andrew Lloyd Webber from the starring role in “Sunset Boulevard” in the mid-‘90s.
LuPone said it was “devastating.” She went through a bout of depression and took a year off before appearing on stage again. But LuPone, a breast cancer survivor, came back strong and today is one of the reigning stars in American entertainment. In 2006, she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
Lupone believes she has fulfilled her destiny that started way back in 1953, during her first dance recital. The little Long Island girl is now a full-fledged theatrical icon.
“I was chosen,” LuPone told CBS. “I have respect for the talent I have been given by God. I’m doing something I’m supposed to do and I love the audience. What else needs to be said?”
