Review: Tony Winner Patti LuPone Returns to the OC with COULDA, WOULDA, SHOULDA

It should hardly be a surprise to anyone with eyes and ears why two-time Tony Award-winning Broadway Legend Patti LuPone elicits the kind of euphoric adoration she undoubtedly always gets from audiences, both new and longtime. The second she sings---heck, even when she walks out before she belts a single note---you know you're in the presence of someone that deserves the mountains of accolades she has continuously enjoyed through a very long, illustrious career on the stage.

That very storied career became the abundantly cheeky narrative jumping-off point for her latest one-woman concert entitled COULDA, WOULDA, SHOULDA... PLAYED THAT PART, which played to a packed house at Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa this past Friday, September 9. For her one-night-only return to the OC (part of the Center's 30th Anniversary offerings), Ms. LuPone was armed with a songbook of both showtunes she wishes she would have sung on Broadway and showtunes she herself made famous (I think her fans would have been a tad disappointed if she didn't do even one or two of her signature songs... thankfully she obliged).

In between songs in her enjoyable cabaret-on-steroids act conceived and directed by Tony Award winner Scott Wittman, Ms. LuPone regaled the rapt audience with humorous tales of early backyard (or, rather, "patio") musicals, dreamy youthful aspirations for certain roles in the musical theater canon, hilarious "cattle call" auditions for roles she failed to book, and her at times awkward thespian training at Juilliard under the hard-to-impress John Houseman. Each personal anecdote---which she crafted with co-writer Jeffrey Richman---had the audience in stitches.

But even better, Ms. LuPone was backed up by a large symphony orchestra under the baton of musical director (and occasional pianist) Joseph Thalken. The orchestra's lush grandiose sounds were certainly a thrilling combination with her effortless, jaw-dropping vocalizations. Suffice it to say, the evening was old school musical theater heaven, filling the hall with Ms. LuPone's commanding, one-of-a-kind musical talents accompanied by the kind of full, strings-laden, brass-punctuated Broadway sounds you just don't hear much from theater pits nowadays.

Dressed in a bright white ensemble, Ms. LuPone walked out on-stage to thunderous applause and sang a rousing "Broadway" from GYPSY, the musical that earned her a second career Tony Award (for the 2008 revival).

"I'm going to sing whatever I want!" she declared, as she explained the theme of the evening's all-musical theater concert.

Throughout the night, she expressed an intense, sometimes decades-held desire in a variety of roles that she never got to play, from BYE BYE BIRDIE's Rosie ("An English Teacher") and SOUTH PACIFIC's Nellie Forbush (a playful "Wonderful Guy"), to the tumbling, pint-sized title role in PETER PAN (a sweet "Never Never Land") and the Liza Minnelli-originated title role in FLORA THE RED MENACE ("A Quiet Thing").

For a few other specific roles, she certainly made a strong case for herself at the concert why she should have played the roles at some point. She claimed, through a lovely rendition of "Easy To Be Hard," that she would have been okay with the required nudity in HAIR, while her fierce rendition of "Don't Rain On My Parade" from FUNNY GIRL was a collective jaw-dropping wow moment that had many like me imagining what a LuPone-headlined production of the classic would have been like.

Her gender perhaps prevented her from being cast to sing "Oh What A Beautiful Morning" (from OKLAHOMA) and "Ya Got Trouble" (from THE MUSIC MAN), so, naturally, she showed the audience how well she can sing them both. For the latter number, she gamely took on the rapid-fire lyrics of the song with great aplomb and was even joined on stage by Los Alamitos High School's adorably poised show choir for background vocals to hammer it home (the ensemble would also provide a cappella backup later for "Sleepy Man" from THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM).

Her genuine affection for these young, talented singers certainly showed as she beamed like a proud stage Mama and showered the teens with great praise. Later, she even urged the audience (very lightly) to give them a standing ovation after the group's own solo a cappella number, David Bowie's "Space Oddity."

Besides Ms. LuPone's list of "woulda, coulda, shoulda" roles, she, of course, allowed the audience to bask in the glory of many of her roles that gave rise to many of her signature songs. She even added, quite humorously, that some of the roles she actually did take on maybe shoulda been turned down by her, "according to the New York Times." Ha!

In one of her funniest bits---immediately following a gorgeous rendition of "Meadowlark" from the cult Stephen Schwartz musical THE BAKER'S WIFE---Ms. LuPone recalled that at one point during the poorly-received, short-lived Kennedy Center run (which never made it to Broadway), there were only 25 people out of almost 2,500 seats in attendance at one particular matinee.

"I don't know why these people didn't just have the good sense to move [up closer] into one row." The audience erupted.

That kind of self-effacing humor was the perfect complement to Ms. LuPone's musical theater master class. To the audience's benefit, she revisited "As Long As He Needs Me" from OLIVER beautifully, while admitting beforehand that she loved "stealing" costume pieces from all the roles she has played. Her wall-toppling rendition of "Everything's Coming Up Roses" from GYPSY---a role that, she amusingly boasted, took her 42 years from her days with her "Patio Players" troupe to finally play on Broadway---is a thrilling moment to experience live.

And, of course, there's her most iconic, signature song of all: "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina" from EVITA which she nails... Every. Single. Time. Her goosebump-inducing performance of this song still, decades later, evokes awe. Understandably, the crowd went wild and many stood up and applauded for quite a long time.

And yet the Broadway living legend still had more to belt out in her intermission-less concert. Perhaps my favorite suite of songs in her entire concert repertoire is her medley of Stephen Sondheim songs: a winning, well-acted, ferociously belted "Ladies Who Lunch" (from COMPANY), followed by the gorgeously melancholy title song from ANYONE CAN WHISTLE, and capped off by a commanding slay-age of "Being Alive" (again from COMPANY).

With all that good ol' belting all night, Ms. LuPone decided to end things on a quieter, more humble note---to magnificent results. In fact, she ditched the microphones and stepped out with just the power of her voice and a quiet massive hall that got eerily quiet that you could probably hear a pin drop. Again with the Los Alamitos High School show choir, she ends with "Some Other Time" from ON THE TOWN followed by another mic-less encore that I won't spoil for those still waiting to see the concert in their own turf.

Overall, COULDA, WOULDA, SHOULDA... is another brilliant showcase for the Broadway legend. Judging from her concert's overwhelming reception, Orange County audiences certainly agreed.

Photos by Rahav, courtesy of SCFTA.
Follow this reviewer on Twitter: @cre8iveMLQ

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For more tour dates for Patti LuPone, visit her official web site at pattilupone.net. For more information on other Segerstrom Center shows or to purchase tickets or subscriptions, visit www.SCFTA.org.

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