Patti LuPone in Plays- A History

For years, Patti LuPone has been widely regraded as one of Broadway's greatest treasures, having won three Tony Awards and creating some of the most beloved musical theatre characters of all time. Did you know, however, that Patti has starred in as many plays as she has musicals? On Broadway alone, Patti has appeared in 28 shows- 14 of them are plays.

This season, she's appearing opposite the great Mia Farrow in Jen Silverman's The Roommate, which is now running on Broadway at the Booth Theatre. Let's look back on some of her other great dramatic performances...

Patti is a founding member of both the Drama Division of The Juilliard School and John Houseman’s The Acting Company, and many of her early appearances on Broadway were as a part of that ensemble. She did three seasons with The Acting Company (most of which is described in detail in her best-selling memoir, Patti LuPone: A Memoir), in 1973-75, during which she performed in The Three Sisters, The Time of Your Life, Edward II, Next Time I’ll Sing to You, Scapin, Measure for Measure, The Beggar’s Opera, The Lower Depths, The Hostage, Women Beware Women, and The School for Scandal.

After making a huge splash (and receiving her first Tony Award) for playing Eva Peron in Evita in 1979, she would take on another iconic musical with the 1984 revival of Oliver! in which she played Nancy. Not until later that year did she star in another straight play- The Accidental Death of an Anarchist, by Dario Fo.

In 1996 she would go on to replace Zoe Caldwell as opera legend Maria Callas in Terrence McNally's Master Class.

Soon after she would work again with playwright David Mamet (a lifelong collaborator) on The Old Neighborhood. The performance earned her a Daram Desk nomination in 1998.

In 2001 she returned to the stage in a star-studded revival of Noises Off. She played Dotty Otley opposite Richard Easton, Peter Gallagher, Edward Hibbert, Faith Prince, Katie Finneran, T. R. Knight and others.

After appearing in a series of musicals in the 2000s (Sweeeny Todd, Gypsy, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin), she starred in another David Mamet play in 2012- The Anarchist. 

In 2015, LuPone appeared in the Douglas Carter Beane play Shows for Days at Lincoln Center Theater. It was during this run that she famously called out an audience member for using their cell phone during a performance- a response that has been long praised by the theatre community.

Now, over a deacde later, she is back onstage in The Roommate, which you can check out until the limited run concludes on December 15, 2024.