Theatre legend Patti LuPone has once again stopped a show cold. The incident took place June 21, while the actress was performing her brand-new show, Gypsy In My Soul, at the Orleans Showroom in Las Vegas. While introducing the iconic "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina" LuPone noticed an audience member texting on his cell phone. Steve Friess of VegasHappensHere.com was at the show, and Tweeted (@thestrippodcast) immediately after the event.
Friess reports that LuPone kept her cool and even told the audience member, "I'm not going to yell at you, I don't think." Then she proceeded to kindly berate him -- she was sweet but terse -- and say she was on "a campaign" because such behavior is distracting and insulting to performers.
"The thing is, the people who text, they don't seem to understand that we can see you," LuPone stated.
As described by the Las Vegas Sun's Joe Brown, the Tony Award winner "stalked the stage and went on a bit further about the rudeness to herself and to the rest of the audience, threatening the offender that she'd have him or her tossed out if it happened again. The crowd applauded with loud approval, and the bond between performer and audience seemed even stronger as LuPone picked up the "Evita" number again from the beginning, working through a bravura suite of songs from "Anything Goes," "Oliver!" and her recent revival of "Gypsy."
Brown adds, "When she returned for her encore, LuPone winked at the event and her reputation as the Terminator of poorly-behaved audience members. While she sang "The Way You Look Tonight," she was snapping photos -- with a flash! -- using a disposable camera. The crowd waved and cheered and posed."
Tony Award winner Patt LuPone's new one-woman show, The Gypsy In My Soul, has announced several additional performances dates nationwide. The show debuted June 20 and 21 at The Orleans Showroom in Las Vegas.
In The Gypsy In My Soul, under the musical direction of Joe Thalken, LuPone will perform songs that have long been associated with her four-decade Broadway career, as well as some of her personal pop favorites. "I Get A Kick Out Of You" from Anything Goes, "As Long As He Needs Me" from Oliver! and "Some People" from Gypsy are some of the well-known show stoppers the two time Tony Award-winner will perform. In between musical numbers, LuPone will engage the audience as she shares backstage stories and personal reflections from her illustrious career.
New dates for The Gypsy in My Soul include:
* Aug. 15 at the Music Box, The Borgata Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey
* Sept. 26 at the University of North Carolina's Aycock Auditorium in Greensboro, North Carolina
* Feb. 17, 2010 at the Tennessee Williams Theatre in Key West, Florida
* April 24, 2010 at the Music Center at Strathmore in N. Bethesda, Maryland
For more information visit www.pattilupone.net.
Patti LuPone swept the 2008 theatre awards winning the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Actress in a Musical and the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance for her performance as Rose in the critically-acclaimed new Broadway production of the classic Jule Styne-Stephen Sondheim-Arthur Laurents musical Gypsy, directed by the show's author, Mr. Laurents, currently at the ST. James Theatre.
Miss LuPone's recent stage credits include her debut with the Los Angeles Opera in Weill-Brecht's Mahagonny, the world premiere of Jake Heggie's new opera To Hell and Back with San Francisco's Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Mrs. Lovett in John Doyle's award winning Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Award nominations - Best Actress in a Musical; Drama League Award for Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theatre), the title role in Marc Blitzstein's Regina, a musical version of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes at Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center, a critically acclaimed performance as Fosca in a concert version of Stephen Sondheim's Passion, which was also broadcast on PBS' Live From Lincoln Center, and a multi-city tour of her theatrical concert Matters of the Heart. She has also performed Matters of the Heart internationally, including runs at Australia's Sydney Festival and London's Donmar Warehouse Theatre. Her CD recording, based on this concert, was named one of 1999's best recordings by both The Times of London and Time Out/New York.
