The New Yorker Radio Hour - A Legend on Broadway, Patti LuPone Makes Her Début in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Episode Date: September 10, 2024

Patti LuPone has been a mainstay on Broadway for half a century. She’s appeared in some 30 Broadway productions and has won three Tony Awards for her roles in “Evita,” “Gypsy,” and “Company.” And somehow, LuPone’s career seems to be picking up steam in its sixth decade. Now LuPone is returning to Broadway in “The Roommate,” a play she’s starring in alongside Mia Farrow.  At the same time, she is débuting in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, playing a witch in the miniseries “Agatha All Along.”  The staff writer Michael Schulman first wrote about LuPone (in one strange, forgotten dead end of her career) in 2019, and recently spoke with LuPone at her home.  Is it true, he wanted to know, that LuPone recently had Aubrey Plaza—her castmate on “Agatha”—for a short-term roommate?  Plaza had been offered her first role in a play, as LuPone relates it, and “she'd never been onstage. I know from years of experience how it can shock you, what is required of you to be a stage actor.” LuPone, the veteran, “was concerned for her. I said, Why don't you just stay with me and let me walk you through this as you come home like a deer caught in the headlights. … I did do her laundry, and I did make her soup.”  New Yorker Radio Hour listeners, we want to hear from you.  We have a few questions about the show and how you listen to it. The survey takes about twenty minutes, and your feedback will help us make our podcast better.  Take the survey here.

This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. The phrase, Broadway legend, is no hyperbole when it comes to Patty Lupin. She's been a force on the stage for more than half a century. Yet her career seems somehow to be picking up steam even now. Listing Lupine's accomplishments is an almost absurd and daunting task, so I'm going to pass that off to my colleague, staff, Michael Shulman, who covers entertainment for the New Yorker. Patty Lavone has been everywhere recently. I grew up watching her on Life Goes On as The Mom,

but of course there's much more to discover with her. She's a great Broadway singer and actor. And I have since seen her, gosh, at least a dozen times on stage and things like Gypsy, her Tony Award-winning performance, Sweeney Todd, where she played Mrs. Lovett and accompanied herself on the tuba. What you rush, what you hurry, you gave me such a fright. I thought she was a ghost of a minute.

Can't you sit you down sit? All I meant is that I haven't seen a customer for weeks. Did you come here for a price? Do forgive me if me has a little vague. What is that? But you think we had the plague? And this month, she is back in two different things. She's starring opposite Mia Farrow in the Broadway play The Rommate.

and also she has unexpectedly, I think, joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She's going to be on the new show, Agatha All Along, a kind of spin-off of Wanda Vision, which premieres this month. And I was very eager to talk to her about all of these things when I went over to her apartment in New York City recently. Patty, I have heard you saying over the past year or two, I'm done with Broadway. Broadway's become a theme park. It's Las Vegas. I'm never going back. I want to do a little play on East 4th Street. And yet here you are. What happened? I don't know. They haven't called me on East 4th Street, but they've called me on Broadway. No, I mean, I've died to work downtown. I would rather work downtown. But I've always said, I want to work downtown with a Broadway salary. We think quite different the salaries. But, yeah, Broadway is actually what's really disappointing is what they've done to Times Square. I mean, it's so crowded now.

I mean, I said this years ago when they were going to make the Broadway area of pedestrian, I said, how am I supposed to get to work? What are you going to fly me in and lay me on a rooftop? How am I, I find it incredibly difficult to get to work. But when you were like in Evita in 1979, I imagined that Times Square as also sort of treacherous in a totally different way. That was the era of the, you know, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, movie theaters and Muggers and, you know, the Midnight Cowboy kind of. Taxi driver era. You could just drive down Broadway.

You could just drive down Broadway. Back then, it was treacherous, but I would dress like a slob. So it didn't look like I had money. Uh-huh. So what was it about this play, The Routmate, that got you to overcome your aversion to go into the theater district and meaning the play? Yeah, really. I still have that aversion. Mia, who's been a friend in Connecticut for over 30 years.

I know you both have places in Connecticut. So do you just hang out there? I mean, and I don't remember when we met, but we met through Steve Sondheim. And it was just a series of social events. I had a New Year's Eve party. Mia had full moon parties. Mia's and my kids, my kid, Mia's kids and my kid went to the same school. It was country life, a small community in country living.

So what is the roommate about this play? It's about two women. that have been, they're redundant, basically, isolated alone in their own worlds, which are worlds apart from each other. And I come to Iowa and we discover each other and ourselves. When was the last time you were on a date? When I got married. And we all saw how well that turned out.

Okay, okay. We have to remedy this. No, we don't. Nope. You have to stop thinking about yourself as basically dead. you are actually younger than most U.S. presidents. You're young enough that if you were a president, you would be a young president, okay? So just stop mummifying yourself.

What's your history with roommates? Have you... Kevin Klein was a roommate. He was my lover, but I guess you could call him a roommate. Yeah, pretty much I've lived alone in New York, I'm thinking. Well, isn't this the apartment we're in where Aubrey... I mean, I couldn't believe this story. Last year, Aubrey Plaza, who is your castmate on Agatha all along, was making her stage debut downtown. How did she wind up here? Well, we were, we were shooting Agatha, and we were sitting around as actors do. And she said, I've been offered a play in New York. And I went, oh, that's great. Oops. Because she'd never been on stage. And I know from years of experience how it can shock you, what is required of you.

to be a stage actor. And so I was concerned for her. I said, why don't you just stay with me? And let me walk you through this as you come home like a deer caught in headlights. And in fact, she would come home. She wouldn't understand certain things. The way Aubrey Plaza told this story,

she was like, Patty told me you got to toughen up. It was like you were her drill sergeant or something. Well, yeah, because she didn't know what to expect. I mean, she'd come home and I, but you've got to toughen up. You got to, I did. Is it like drop and give you 20? Well, I was sort of like it was sort of theater boot camp. Oh my goodness.

And I did do her laundry and I did make her soup, absolutely. Because she wasn't eating necessarily. I would put food down and go eat it. You know, just because the mind does other things. You know, you're thinking of a million and you're scared to death. I mean, I'm, you know, I've been, what, this time in my 51st year on Broadway and you still, I still get, stage fight. I'm still nervous. I'm still, and so for somebody that's never done it and isn't used to that emotional, that, you know, strain, it's frightening. Yeah, and the physical stamina.

Physical stamina, absolutely. That's the thing that nobody that hasn't done it understands. You know, it's eight shows a week. Yeah. So, so you and Aubrey had shot Agatha all along. I had never expected Patty Lepone to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I'm so curious about what that entails, like being part of this huge machine, this entertainment franchise that's gigantic. I mean, is it different than, you know, just being in a big movie? Mm-mm. I mean, I don't know because I'm not in that world, really. So it felt like a regular film.

I met a couple of people from Marvel. My character, and I can't even tell you that much about it because I got yelled up by a security guy when we were shooting because I opened up my mouth. I didn't know. My character, Kristen Lopez, showed me a picture of my character. She's hot. She's really hot. And she is a witch in the Marvel world. I had no idea.

Oh, like you saw the comic book version. Yeah. She's gorgeous with a banging body. What was your costume like? Well, this is when this character was young. My character is, am I allowed to say this? I don't know, my character is a traditional Sicilian peasant uniform. Oh, that's like your ancestry.

Yes. I always hear you say I'm from Sicilian peasant stuff. You know, Michael, it sort of followed a pattern because when you go into the Ryan Murphy world, you have no idea what you're doing because your character keeps changing. So I started out as this bathhouse singer and ended up reading 10. tarot cards. Then I got the call, and I was all of a sudden a witch, and that wasn't new, because in the Michael, in the John Logan world, I was a witch and penny dreadful. Now put your hand over the cards, like so. Just your fingers. Now let them move. Believe. It followed a pattern from the Ryan Murphy world into the marble world of something that I do,

something, I can't tell you anything. And I went, well, this is destined. So, you know, You know, all of it sort of is following a pattern. I don't know whether we'll continue. I don't know whether this, but the witches of Agatha all along world will continue. I don't, you know, Jack does not write sequels. She didn't write a sequel to Wanda Vision. She actually came into my trailer to tell me that I was going to die. I went, I wanted a second season.

And she said, I don't write second seasons. But it would be cool to be part of the Marvel universe. I don't know how I would do. I mean, how that would happen. But I'm putting it out there, Kevin Feige and all you other executives in the Disney Marvel world. Yeah, I would like to see you go, you know, mono-a-mano with, like, Thor or someone. Who's still around? Well, Dr. Doom is coming.

Well, he's coming to Broadway. Maybe I should talk to Dr. Doom on Broadway. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Oh, my God, they're all coming up. Why are they all coming to Broadway? Don't they know what they're getting into? I remember sending Bruce Springsteen flowers for his opening.

I went, welcome to Broadway. You'll be sorry. I never heard from him. I never heard from him. He needs to go through the boot camp as well. You could put Robert Danny Jr. through the boot camp, too. I could put the ball through the boot camp. George Clooney.

For a guy. That's a drag. It used to be supportive of actors. It's not anymore. It really isn't. I don't know what it is. It's so disappointing. I've always said that there, I've said for years that there needs to be term limits on members of Congress, federal and Supreme Court judges, and Broadway musicals.

Absolutely. Open up the theaters. That's what I think. Here's to the ladies who lunch. Everybody laugh. Lounging in their caftowning a brunch on their own behalf. Off to the gym Then to a fitting

claiming they're fat The actor and singer Patty Lupone Speaking with Michael Shulman We'll continue in a moment This is the New Yorker Radio Hour This is the New Yorker Radio Hour I'm Michael Shulman

A staff writer here at The New Yorker And I have been talking with Patty Lepone She's best known for her roles In many, many stage musicals from Le Miserables to Anything Goes to Gypsy, and she has this incredible voice that absolutely stunned Broadway in 1979 when she played the title role in Andrew Ludweber's Evita. There is only one man who can lead any workers' regime.

But Patty Lepone has been everywhere recently. Dramatic plays and movies on television. She's been a longtime collaborator of David Mamet and more recently Ryan Murphy. And now, Wailentor her 70s, she is debuting in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We'll continue our conversation now. People, of course, associate you with these huge Broadway musicals that you've done over the decades. But I know that much of your stomping grounds was really David Mamet plays.

Yeah. You know, I was in the first class of the drama division of the Juilliard School, and it was classical training. And at that point, I knew I would end up on the Broadway musical stage because I knew my voice, but I fell out of love with musicals and in love with classical theater. And in our fourth year, as the acting company, John Houseman, excuse me, I have to smoke in the play and it's already affecting my voice, commissioned David, who was not David Mamet yet, to write a play for the company. And that began my association in 1976, 77, my association with David. And David, I've said this, and it's true that my two greatest teachers

have been David Mamet and Stephen Sondheim. And I'm lucky that I had them. David, in understanding acting, and Stephen understanding singing, singing a score, not singing, that's Joan Lader, who saved my voice in my career. Joan Lerner's a vocal coach.

Vocal coach, vocal teacher. So I would do anything for David, anything. Anything. And I hope that he continues to write plays. And I hope he continues to use me. There's so much to learn. Yeah.

You know, I feel like in the past, I'm just thinking about the breadth of your career and everything you've done. I mean, I feel like in the past 10 years, I have, you've been everywhere. Like, you know, you're popping up in like girls and BoJack Horseman, American Horror Story, you know, the MCU.

I feel like you've got this cool fact. in the past decade or so. Does it feel that way? Thanks for saying that. Oh, and of course, a 24 movie, Bo is afraid. Yeah. And, you know, the thing about my career, Michael, that has taken such a long time to take hold

is the varied parts of my career, training as an actor, being on the road, meeting, you know, artistic directors from regional theaters who then, when they came to Broadway, thought of me as an actor first. and then having the musical ability and, you know, the Hal Princess and the Cameron McIntosh is putting me in musicals. And then also the other thing that I think that I spearheaded was going from musical to play to film to musical to film to play. And that started in 85 or it started before 85.

But definitely in 85 when I finished Les Mis in London. I was in London when I got a telephone call from the producer for LBJ, who said, we'd like you to come out and test for Lady Bird Johnson. We'll have to dye your hair. I said, why? She said, well, we need a brunette. I said, I am a brunette. No, you're a blonde.

No, I'm not a blonde. She's thinking of a vita. Oh, of course. And after LBJ, I went straight into anything goes and straight in. And then it was, it was witness driving Ms. Daisy, anything goes, LBG, all of that was working. So I would go back and forth. And then life goes on, right?

Life goes on. I would go back and forth and back and forth between film and stage and film and stage. But you never became an L.A. person, I'm assuming, right? Or did you when you did Live Goes On? Well, I was living in L.A. during Life Goes On. But I didn't appreciate it until the pandemic. It's like I don't see any city that I work in, which is such a drag. I don't know London and I've worked there since the 70s.

My husband knows London. My kid knows London. but I go from the house to the theater to maybe out to dinner to a restaurant to the house. It's the same of every city that I'm working in because I don't want to, I can't explore. I'm working until pandemic. When my son and I, because he lives in L.A., I said I'm coming out to, what am I doing? I'm doing nothing. So I'll come out to L.A. with you.

And we isolated in L.A. And then Josh and I would schedule COVID tests all over Los Angeles just to explore. You got the COVID test tour of LA. Yeah, we'd go all over L.A. just to explore the area. We had a blast, and I realized how beautiful L.A. is. It's really beautiful. And the first time I went out there was with the acting company. And I remember we were in, three of us were in a convertible cruising down Sunset Boulevard in 1970s going, wow.

But we were trained to stay in New York, you see. We were trained to stage actors. we didn't think about going west. Right, because it was like selling out. Or we weren't film actors. We were legitimate actor, legitimate stage actors. And I sort of regret now not going out to California sooner. I mean, I'm always fascinated when people like you have had long, sustained careers that last many decades and have very, like, different phases, sort of how you experience that.

I mean, you know, as I said, like, I feel like in the past 10, 15 years, like, I don't know, maybe since you did Gypsy, that it's just, like, you have been popping up in really unexpected fun places and you must be getting, like, really interesting offers that maybe, I don't know if you were getting, like, 20 years ago. But then, of course, to go back to the 70s and, you know, you were in Evita and the toast of the town. I mean, how do you experience that of the sort of like the ups and downs and the different phases and how people view. you differently over the course of... You know, I never get the roles that I want. And so there's, and this is true probably of every actor. You know, our profession is 99% rejection. How do you absorb that rejection and continue?

How does it not affect you personally for the rest of your life? Just rejection, rejection, rejection. At some point, you stop crying and stop pitying yourself. And in my particular case, when I'm not going to go after any roles anymore, I'm going to trust that what comes into my life, what floats into my universe is what I'm supposed to play. And what has happened has been so interesting. I mean, Stephen's universe. People are fans of mine because of Stephen's universe, the cartoon. I thought you meant Steven Sondheim's universe.

That's my MCU. Right. No, Stephen's universe. It's a cartoon that is a, it's a, it's a. cult cartoon and I play Yellow Diamond and she approached me because she's a musical theater fan. She wanted to know if I would do it. I went, yeah.

You think you can get away, Rose? You stood your ground on that little speck called Earth. But you're on our world now. And I don't say no to stuff like that. I mean, I just don't. I think it's also the way I was trained at Juilliard. They tried to throw me out of school, so they threw every possible

role in my direction in order for me to fail as an actor and what they did is they trained one person in versatility. And the rest of them fit into enjeune, Subrette, leading lady, character woman, and I would bounce back and forth.

And so it trained my mind. Right, right. To go, it's all interesting. I am not one commodity. And therefore, the weirder, the happier I am. One aspect of your longevity that is very particular to you and to musical theater performers,

of course, is your voice. And, you know, so many people have observed that your incredible belt, your incredible vocal skills have, you know, outlasted a lot of your contemporaries. But what goes into that? You know, I mean, I just was listening to your double album from this summer, Life and Notes, and you're still, you know, you're still belting. Don't cry for me, Argentina. I couldn't tell you what it is. I don't know what it is unless I made a pact with the devil, and I wasn't aware of it.

I don't know. I was just born with cords of steel. I don't, how do I say this? I don't take care of my voice away. A lot of people take care of their voice. their voices. I don't vocalize every day. I shout and scream. I'm an Italian. I had a vocal cord operation

because I was bursting a blood vessel in one of my chords and then I rehabilitated with Joan Later who gave me a technique which I did not have. I'm singing lighter than I've ever sung before.

I'm using more head voice in vocalese to make sure that the note is there and then somehow I power up to it. But to why my voice is still there, I have no idea.

You know, I noticed that listening to this double album you released in July Life and Notes that some of the you're seeing is sort of breathier than people might associate with you. It's not all, you know, belting and

some of the song, and that does affect sort of your interpretations of certain things. I mean, people who've heard you sing you know, like don't cry for me Argentina a million times, you know, this version is like it starts out a little softer with an acoustic guitar. Do you find that sort of the way that your voice changes affects your sort of artistic interpretation of songs like that? No, it's the autistic that changes the voice. It doesn't need to be belted. Trust that I still have a pianissimo. Trust that I still have lyric. And it's they.

There. One of the ones that I really love that you do on this double album is a Janice Ian song called Stars. It's just gorgeous. Thank you. I'm curious how you discovered that song, what drew to it? What drew to it? Why did you decide to sing it? I knew that song from when she first came out with it.

I knew, like I said, I knew I would end up on the Broadway musical stage, but I'm closet rocker or a closet groupie. You know, we all have that music that we grew up with that we remember, you know, even five years old, you remember songs that just speak to a moment in your life. And that's what I wanted to do. Patty, I could talk to you about your groupie days and 70s. to New York City for another three hours, but I think we got to let you go. Well, we ended on a nice note, right? The 70s, New York. It was wild. It was great. You know, it was creative. It was phenomenally creative. It was bankrupt, but it wasn't morally bankrupt. It wasn't a corporate environment.

It was artistically, incredibly creative. As one is when one has no money, you figure it out. and the city figured it out. That's Patty Lupone speaking with the New Yorker's Michael Shulman. Lupone stars alongside Mia Farrow in The Roommate, a play by Jen Silverman. This is The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Randwick. Thanks for joining us. See you next time. The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

Our theme music was composed and performed by Merrill Garbus of Tune Yards, with additional music by Louis Mitchell. This episode was produced by Max Balton, Adam Howard, David Krasnow, Jeffrey Masters, Louis Mitchell, Jared Paul, and Ursula Summer. With guidance from Emily Boutin and assistance from Michael May, David Gable, and Alejandra Deccett. The New Yorker Radio Hour is supported in part by the Cherina Endowment Fund.