-Our first guest tonight is a Tony- and Grammy Award-winning
actor and Broadway legend you know from shows
such as "Gypsy" and "Evita."
She's starring in the Broadway revival of "Company,"
which is now playing at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre.
Please welcome to the show Patti LuPone, everyone!
♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
-Hi!
-Patti, I am so happy you're here!
-I'm so happy to be here. I'm such a big fan of yours.
And can I just say that you and "A Closer Look"
got me through the pandemic.
The computer became my best friend.
I would find you, and you would pinpoint the insanity of
this country with such great humor that you leveled me.
You kept me calm.
You made me laugh, and for that, I am indebted to you.
-Oh, my goodness, thank you! [ Cheers and applause ]
What more could you ask for from the beginning of an interview?
-It's true. -That means the world to me
because I've always been such a huge fan of yours.
And this is so thrilling that you are on stage
in this revival of "Company."
This is a very famous show, a very famous role.
And do you hesitate at all when you get offered
something like this or do you just jump in with both feet?
-Well, I actually had given up musicals when I did "War Paint"
a couple of years ago because I actually started performing on
a bone-on-bone hip.
I needed a hip replacement, and we had just opened,
so I couldn't exactly leave the show.
And I -- Musicals are difficult physically,
and I have two new hips and a new shoulder.
-Oh, wow. -Yeah.
[ Cheers and applause ]
And so I actually gave up musicals,
and then Marianne called me -- Marianne Elliott --
who's the director of "Company,"
was the director of "War Horse," the director of
"Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time."
And I had put it out in the universe that I wanted to
work with this woman when I saw both of those shows.
I gave up musicals, she called.
[ Laughter ] I said, "No, no, no, no, no."
And then I thought, "If I don't work with her,
if I don't say yes, she'll never ask me again."
So I said yes, and I went to London
to do the production in London, this production in London.
And then of course I was gonna do it
in my native state, my hometown.
-And then it was supposed to open right --
like March, I think, 20th of 2020.
-On Steve's birthday.
-Yeah, on Stephen Sondheim's birthday, it was gonna open.
And then, obviously, the pandemic hit,
and then we very sadly lost Stephen last month.
You knew him very well.
-I-I-I knew him. [ Laughs ]
I don't think anybody -- -It's so interesting.
So you don't know if anybody really knew him.
-Well, I think his intimates knew him.
I think Jeff knew him very well,
and I know Mia knows him very well.
That would be Mia Farrow.
And he has a coterie of friends.
And I have a working relationship with him,
and I did have a social relationship with him
because we both live in the same county as you do.
And there would be high teas,
there would be New Year's Eve parties, there would be dinners,
but I was never comfortable, I have to say.
He's an intimidating presence.
He's so smart and scary, so I never felt comfortable.
-How was he -- Obviously, you were in a situation
where he could give you notes,
he could give you praise, he could give you criticism.
How was he when he would present that feedback to a performer?
-Well, in my particular case, it would depend on the show
and it would depend on --
For instance, I have this incredible note that sits on
my dressing room mirror about this show.
And when we did "A Little Night Music" at Ravinia,
he came backstage with really succinct notes and praise.
But then when I did Fosca at Lincoln Center Live,
I, um, was, um, uh, destroyed by a note.
[ Laughter ]
-He gave you a note that destroyed you?
-Totally. I didn't understand it,
and all I heard was monotonous mush.
And I also thought, if there was anybody
with less experience than me, they would have turned in
their Equity cards 'cause it was a dressing-down
that was so shocking that - I mean, I stopped listening
because I was sort of freaked out.
And then we figured out what the note was.
I asked a bunch of people backstage what we thought
the note would have been, and then, the next day,
he came to my dressing room that night when it was live
at Lincoln Center, and he said, "Night and day."
And so I knew that I had gotten his approval
and I had accomplished the note.
And basically, he couldn't understand me
when I was emotional.
So that's a note that's easy to give,
as opposed to what I heard.
-Right. [ Laughter ]
Well, I've worked with people who are like that.
You know, Lorne Michaels is someone who is also a genius,
and his notes are very cryptic to the point that he tells them
to you, you're destroyed,
and then you also don't quite know what he said.
-Yeah, right, exactly.
Yes, I think they get caught up in themselves or...
-Yeah, I think, maybe.
[ Laughter ]
I think maybe you're right.
[ Laughter ]
-I don't know whether I'm allowed to say that,
but it's true.
They have a point to make,
and they're passionate about the point,
but they're not necessarily diplomatic.
-Yeah. -But I think it's true of
any of us that are in the lower echelon.
The actors are the low man on the theatrical totem pole,
so we get beat up all the time.
-Yeah. -It's just the way it goes.
It's not nice, but we have to expect it from our director,
from the musical director if you're in a musical,
from the composer, from the lyricist.
You're going to get notes that are -- mm, change your life.
[ Laughter ]
-Being away from a live audience,
what is it like having it back?
Is it everything you remembered or is it even more valuable
having taken time away?
-How did you feel? How did you feel?
-You know, it's great. -It is.
-It is really great. I also think --
[ Cheers and applause ] Yeah.
I think I forgot how easy it was
to pander like that and get applause.
[ Laughter ]
-Uh... [ Laughter ]
But I think that it was a scary time
because we didn't know when it would end.
-Yeah.
-That was the thing that was freaking me out.
I went to the dark side so many times.
I thought, "Is this my life now?
And if this is my life, do I want this life?"
-Yeah. -You know what I mean?
"Is this retirement?"
But I think, also, the audiences that we are playing to are happy
and grateful that there is that live interaction again.
We all missed it.
I mean, just how many Netflix shows can we binge-watch?
-Right. -Do you know what I mean?
Without some sort of connection?
And I find that in "Company" now, I feel the same response
I'm sure that you do with this audience.
-It's really lovely. -It's really --
I could cry right now because we need that interaction.
We need that connection with each other.
-You did something else during the pandemic that I want to
thank you for, because it was interesting, right?
We didn't have audiences, but yet we also --
I don't know if you felt this.
I felt this connection with my audience
that I hadn't had before, because I was doing a show alone
into an iPad, hyperaware that most people
watch it alone into an iPad. -Right.
-And so even though there was nobody
and I couldn't hear anything, I felt like they were right there
and there was an authenticity to that.
-I was! I was!
-Yeah, and I'm so happy to hear that.
I felt you.
But you started shooting videos
in your basement that were the same thing.
Like, it was an authentic version of you
that I feel like maybe people like me,
who are a huge fan of you,
maybe we didn't know your personality as well,
and then you shot these videos
and we got to know you through that.
Even though we were a million miles away.
What gave you the idea to start shooting those?
-Rosie O'Donnell. We -- You know, a lot of us,
I think, had became more famous on Zoom
than I'd ever been in my professional life.
Rosie O'Donnell did a benefit for the Actors Fund,
and she asked me to sing.
I was going to do it a cappella,
but I had to get the note from the piano,
and the piano is downstairs,
and the piano is right opposite the pinball machine.
And people saw the pinball machine
and they wanted to see the rest of the basement.
And I said to my husband,
"Well, let's show them the rest of the basement.
What the hell? What have we got to lose?"
And so we started to show them the basement.
That's what it was, the basement tape.
-The basement was one of the stars of the pandemic.
And for anybody who missed it,
here's a quick look at Patti's basement.
-I already made a video, and it won't download,
so now I'm just wildly dancing.
[ Clacking ] That's the pinball machine!
Want to see it? Oh, my God, here we go!
It's my ball. -No, it's not.
-Hey, oh [bleep]
[Bleep] [bleep]
The video I just sent was pretty great,
and I can't download it because it's too long.
What's with Twitter? What the [bleep] with Twitter?
Never mind. Okay.
I'm gonna show you this and then we'll end it
because I have no time.
So, this is -- this is something --
I'm very proud of this.
This is the Second Stage All-Star 1987.
Second Stage, second prize for most time spent in the gutter.
Who won first? Okay.
Okay, I got to stop. Bye!
[ Laughter ]
-It's quite a basement. [ Cheers and applause ]
Quite a basement.
-My husband has a huge collection.
-Yeah, he's put together -- It's wonderful.
Hey, thank you so much for being here.
-Thank you for having me. -Just a delight.
You guys, that's Patti LuPone! [ Cheers and applause ]
"Company" is on Broadway now at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre.
For tickets and more information,
please visit www.companymusical.com.