Patti LuPone Talks SHOWS FOR DAYS, Favorite Performers & More

Patti LuPone is back on Broadway!

Two-time Tony Award-winning Broadway legend Patti LuPone is set to headline Douglas Carter Beane's autobiographical new play SHOWS FOR DAYS along with stage and screen star Michael Urie, directed by Jerry Zaks, at Lincoln Center Theater's Mitzi Newhouse Theater, with previews beginning this week and LuPone shares her thoughts on the show and much more as part of a new interview.

Discussing SHOWS FOR DAYS, LuPone says, "It's Doug's homage to the Genesius Theatre in Reading, Pennsylvania, the theater that started him on his road to playwriting. I play the director/costume designer/scenic designer/leading lady/artistic director. She will do anything to keep her theater alive. She's ruthless, but it comes out of a passionate love for theater. [I]t's directed by that comic genius Jerry Zaks. But it's also extremely touching. Yesterday, I actually started to cry onstage. Because it's my life. Doug says it in the play: He's spent his life in rehearsal rooms. And he also talks about how he feels about theater now. [Tears up.] I feel strongly about that, because I share his sentiments. Not enough attention is paid to how many people it takes to get you onstage or the ones that train you, the ones that keep you on the right path. A lot of people in my career have taught me very valuable lessons-good and bad."

Commenting on her favorite current performers, LuPone relates, "Lena Hall! God! First of all, she's got that monster instrument. She's got this huge Latin voice. I thought she was incredible [in Hedwig and the Angry Inch]. And Annaleigh Ashford is just fabulous. I've seen her in a couple things, and I love her take. I love her zaniness, I love her energy. She is just wild. The first time I saw Jessie Mueller was in Beautiful, and I went, "No wonder she won the Tony." There is a genuine specialness about her. There is a sincerity, and she comes across the footlights. I thought Cristin Milioti was robbed of a Tony [for Once]. She either should've shared it with Audra [McDonald], or she should've won it. She's unbelievable. She drove that musical, and she had a characterization within it. And Kristin Chenoweth has got incredible talent. There's really nobody like her, and [Lily Garland in On the Twentieth Century] is the part she was born to play. You applaud that, and you reward that. I guess what I respond to are the ones-female or male-that dare on stage."

Additionally, LuPone shares of the theatre today, "I don't know what's going on. I don't know if the people putting on theater are putting it on for the right reasons. Is it only money-driven? I don't think I ever want to work on Broadway again. Because Times Square is such a disaster. I left An American in Paris the other night, and I walked out into a f*cking zoo. It's nuts. And it's so inelegant. It's so crass. It caters to the bottom-feeder. I don't know what the f*ck it is."

Check out the original article on the matter here.

The official description of SHOWS FOR DAYS is as follows: "SHOWS FOR DAYS is playwright Douglas Carter Beane's fond remembrance of his immersion into a life in the theater. The comedy is set in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1973, when 14-year old Car, the play's narrator and the author's alter-ego, is introduced to the world of theater through his local community theatre, the Prometheus Theatre, and its devoted cast and crew which is led by Irene, an indomitable force of nature whose life is dedicated to putting on productions she directs, designs and stars in."

More information on SHOWS FOR DAYS is available at the official site here.

Photo Credits: Walter McBride & James McMullan/Lincoln Center Theater