'Don't Monkey' with Patti LuPone's New Show at Symphony Space Tonight

Patti LuPone is bringing her no-nonsense Broadway swagger to the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre tonight in a new show titled, DON'T MONKEY WITH BROADWAY, as part of Symphony Space's "Project B-Way/95" series.

Per press notes: "In DON'T MONKEY WITH BROADWAY, two-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone explores, through indelible interpretations of classic Broadway show tunes by the likes of Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Jule Styne, Stephen Schwartz, Charles Strouse, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin, how her life-long love affair with Broadway began, and her concern for what the Great White Way is becoming today."

DON'T MONKEY WITH BROADWAY is conceived and directed by Scott Whittman with musical direction by Joseph Thalken and musical arrangements by Dick Gallager.

Project B-Way/95 will spend two weeks of reveling in The Great White Way as only Symphony Space can. See, hear, and meet leading singers, composers, writers, and directors with concerts, panel discussions, film screenings, workshops, literary events, and more. Project B-Way/95 is curated by Joel Fram and Annette Jolles.

Patti LuPone's DON'T MONKEY WITH BROADWAY is set for tonight, April 19, 2016 at 8:00pm. For tickets and more information, click here.

Author of the New York Times bestseller, Patti LuPone: A Memoir, Miss LuPone recently starred in the Los Angeles Opera's new production of John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles, as well as Shows For Days at Lincoln Center. She also appears this spring on the Showtime series Penny Dreadful. Her most recent Broadway credits include David Mamet's The Anarchist and Lincoln Center Theater's production of the new musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, for which she was nominated for Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards.

Other recent NY stage appearances include her debut with the New York City Ballet as Anna in their new production of The Seven Deadly Sins and her performance as Joanne in The New York Philharmonic's production of Company. Winner of the Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Actress in a Musical; and the Drama League Award for Outstanding Performance of the Season for her performance as Madame Rose in the most recent Broadway production of Gypsy, her other stage credits include her debut with the Los Angeles Opera in Weill-Brecht's Mahagonny, the world premiere of Jake Heggie's opera To Hell and Back with San Francisco's Baroque Philharmonia Orchestra, Mrs. Lovett in John Doyle's production of Sweeney Todd (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations; 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 the Kennedy Center, Fosca in a concert version ofPassion, which was also broadcast on PBS's Live From Lincoln Center, a multi-city tour of her theatrical concert Matters of the Heart, the City Center Encores! production of Can-Can, the New York Philharmonic's productions of Candide and Sweeney Todd, and performances on Broadway in Michael Frayn's Noises Off, David Mamet's The Old Neighborhood, Terrence McNally's Master Class, and in her own concert, Patti LuPone On Broadway.

Since 2000, she has appeared regularly at the Ravinia Festival. First in its Sondheim series, when she starred as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, Desiree in A Little Night Music, Fosca in Passion, Cora Hooper inAnyone Can Whistle, Madame Rose in Gypsy, and in two different roles in Sunday in the Park with George. Her subsequent appearances there include a reprise of her performance in Heggie's To Hell and Back, a concert performance of Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins, and starring in the title role in a concert production of Annie Get Your Gun.

A graduate of the first class of the Drama Division of New York's Juilliard School and a founding member of John Houseman's The Acting Company, in which she toured the country for four years, her subsequent New York credits include Dario Fo's Accidental Death of An Anarchist, David Mamet's The Water Engine, Edmond and The Woods and Israel Horovitz's Stage Directions; and performances in the musicals Pal Joey for City Center Encores!, Anything Goes (Tony Award nomination, Drama Desk Award), The Cradle Will Rock, Oliver!, Evita (Tony and Drama Desk Awards), Working, and The Robber Bridegroom. In London, she won the Olivier Award for her performances as Fantine in the original production of Les Miserables and in the Acting Company production of The Cradle Will Rock. She also created the role of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard and recreated her Broadway performance of Maria Callas in Master Class.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride