Windy City Times: Hi, Patti. What an honor to speak with a Broadway legend such as yourself.
Patti LuPone: [Laughs] Oh my pleasure. WCT: Tell our readers about what you are singing in your show with Mandy Patinkin. PL: There is a lot of Sondheim, Hammerstein and there are two scenes that bookend the show. The first one is from South Pacific and the last one is Carousel. Mandy and I tell a story between the two scenes. I love being on stage with him. I looove it!
WCT: You have been doing a show with him on and off for about four years, correct? PL: Yes. Somebody was very smart, a booker in Texas called my agent and said, “I have Mandy. How about Patti?” They put it together. It has been a long time.
WCT: You have a great chemistry together. PL: Exactly.
WCT: You originally played in Evita with him playing Che back in the day.
PL: Yes, a very long relationship—30 years, oh my God.
WCT: I have heard you actually have done more plays than musicals.
PL: Yes, that is true.
WCT: My gay neighbor has playbills of you all over his house!
PL: Oh, God bless him.
WCT: Did you always want to be an actress and singer?
PL: I was “born to the boards,” as they put it.
WCT: Is there a part you have always wanted to play but haven’t?
PL: There’s a ton of them. I wanted to play Adele in Guys and Dolls, Ado Annie in Oklahoma, Desiree in a Little Night Music, which I did play in Chicago. It was at the Ravinia Festival but that was only two performances. I wanted to play it longer. What else? Ruth in a Wonderful Town, there are a lot of roles that kind of went their way but what can you do?
WCT: You have done an incredible amount. You have even done opera now.
PL: Yes, what about that? How shocking is that? It was a big challenge. It was with the Baroque Philharmonia Orchestra of San Francisco.