Everybody Rise: Taking a Look at Patti LuPone's History with Stephen Sondheim's COMPANY

Tony and Olivier-award winner Patti LuPone will be starring in a new production of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's Tony award-winning musical, Company on London's West End next season.

In the innovative new production, for the first time ever, the lead role of Bobby will be re-imagined as a woman. Actress Rosalie Craig will play Bobbi, a 35 year-old single woman whose married friends are wondering why she isn't married; why she can't find the right man and why she hasn't settled down to have a family.

LuPone will play the role of Joanne in the production, the oldest, most cynical, and most divorced member of Bobbi's circle. The character is best known for delivering the boozy tribute to wealthy woman of a certain age, "The Ladies Who Lunch".

Though this is the first time Patti will be interacting with a female Bobby, it isn't the first time the legendary actor has performed the piece. As one of the "ladies of Sondheim", Patti is no stranger to Steve's songs and has even been known to raise the occasional toast to those eponymous 'ladies'.

In 2011, LuPone played the role of Joanne in a four-night limited engagement concert production of the musical, performed with the New York Philharmonic, The production starred Neil Patrick Harris as Bobby, and also featured Stephen Colbert, Christina Hendricks, Anika Noni Rose, and Jennifer Laura Thompson.

Also in 2011, LuPone returned to Broadway with Mandy Patinkin for an unforgettable night of song with the two legends titled An Evening with Patti and Mandy. With a show that included familiar hits from many Sondheim shows, the song list also included the tunes, "Not Getting Married Today" and "Another Hundred People."

In addition to her productions of the show, La LuPone has also regularly worked the show's climactic ballad "Being Alive" into her intimate concert series and also performed "The Ladies Who Lunch" in epic fashion (and in the presence of the original Joanne, Elaine Stritch, at Sondheim's 80th birthday concert in 2010.

So before Patti heads overseas to lift those vodka stingers, let's take a look at some of her best performances of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's game-changing musical.