Yes. In her one woman Bdwy show she spoke of Les Mis in London being the perfect play, with the perfect company, in the perfect city, etc., of it being a completely satisfying experience that she had no desire to replicate.
Either that or she was tired of, in the words of Gerard Alessandrini, "singing one song and dying" and "acting so constipated."
I think it would have been a step down for her. On Broadway, she had already done Evita. To do one song and sit out the next 2 hours would have been a step backwards.
In London she could do it because it gave her a new role to create, it was with the prestigious RSC and it gave her West End legitimacy. It was a resume enhancer in London, on Broadway, not so much.
Did Patti do ensemble work in the second act? I read Randy Graff say she dressed as a boy in the battle scene. I can't really imagine Patti doing that.
Patti sang early on and was magnificent ..as is the song From then on the show became a spectacle..but never regained the humanity she so wonderfully conveyed....With her reputation growing in NYC as our next diva sublime, this cameo role would have been out of the question.at that time.
I know that she covered this in her book, but am I the only one that thinks it could've just MAYBE been about money? It wouldn't put it past me that she asked for too much money and Cameron said no, so she uses the "experience" line as the reason why she didn't do it.
Call me jaded, but I don't buy her reason...at all.
Given her success in that role, the question arises: Why isn't she in the New York production, which opened to rave notices on Broadway last March? Ms. LuPone says that, well before 'Anything Goes' became a possibility, she turned down Mackintosh's offer to repeat her role of Fantine, an unwed mother turned prostitute who delivers the early-show solo 'I Dreamed a Dream,' then dies of tuberculosis.
'I'm very possessive about my theatrical memories,' she explains. 'Two weeks after I opened at the Barbican in London, I knew I couldn't do it in New York. I was having a theatrical dream come true. I was with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the only American who has ever played a principal part, a fantastic part.'
Artistically, Ms. LuPone says, she was happy in the Government-subsidized theater world of London. 'There wasn't the pressure of succeeding or failing. You just did. You know what I mean? You just did your job. It's a community of actors. Here, you're either up or you're down.'
Her refusal of the New York offer, she says, 'could be interpreted as a weakness, but that wasn't the issue. The issue was: I am a part of the English company.'
Eventually, she mentions a second reason for passing up Fantine in New York: the part has bad emotional associations for her. 'A personal thing happened to me that left me in great pain in London. Someone back in the States broke up with me, and it informed the role. There was too much personal experience around 'Les Mis' to re-create it in New York.'
But it's all covered in her memoir. And every interview she does where the interviewer asks about Les Mis. She's the Top
Yet she was/is/whatever VERY gung-ho about wanting to take Gypsy to the West End. What if that experience was tainted? She also was upset (granted, for many reasons personal and professional) she couldn't take Sunset to broadway.
"Yet she was/is/whatever VERY gung-ho about wanting to take Gypsy to the West End. What if that experience was tainted? She also was upset (granted, for many reasons personal and professional) she couldn't take Sunset to broadway."
I won't speak for Gypsy, but with Sunset part of the reason she took that role was with the assumption that she would be opening it in both London and Broadway. It was also a very different situation than the creation of Les Mis, seeing as how it was a commercial production versus a production at the RSC. And, as I recall, she came in fairly late to Les Mis (I remember hearing somewhere that the rest of the company had already started rehearsals by the time she was brought on board), which can also change the way view the experience. There is a big difference between joining a company/production like that and having a production built around you (i.e. Sunset and Gypsy).
She joined rehearsals late because of Cradle Will Rock, but she was offered while it was still in development. Cameron (I believe, but it may have been someone else) played her a tiny bit of "I Dreamed a Dream" in French and she agreed to do the small part with that beautiful song. I'm not sure in terms of when she was cast, but it definitely wasn't after rehearsals started.
I do think the "experience" line is true, but I also think there's another issue. It may be money, it may be other offers, who knows? But Patti tends to say things like "why ruin an experience by transferring?" and then transfer with Master Class (and want to with other shows). I understand it was in her contract for Sunset, but it still seems a tad hypocritical, only a tad though. It's like how she bemoans and goes on and on about how the changing of the keys in the film Evita ruins it, it's not the same thing, sanctity of what is written, etc etc but her songs in Sweeney Todd were lowered (not for range reasons, for a more conversational tone) and she's sang songs in other keys than originally written.
Did Patti do ensemble work in the second act? I read Randy Graff say she dressed as a boy in the battle scene. I can't really imagine Patti doing that.
She has said something about that too. She was obligated to do it, but just never did and they didn't really push her to do it.
It's like how she bemoans and goes on and on about how the changing of the keys in the film Evita ruins it, it's not the same thing, sanctity of what is written, etc etc but her songs in Sweeney Todd were lowered (not for range reasons, for a more conversational tone) and she's sang songs in other keys than originally written.
I think that's a different story. As you said, the reasons for the Sweeney changes were because of the entire mood of the production it was completely different from what had been done before so it required tweaking. Madonna's key change was purely because she was not up to task for doing what the role of Eva demanded. They didn't alter Evita, as a show, in any large way like they did Sweeney. Hell, they just made Sweeney a hell of a lot harder on the actors.
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joined:5/12/03
Posted: 11/28/12 at 03:12am