lemonwade

Joe Dziemianowicz of the NY Daily News has interviewed Patti LuPone as she begins her Broadway-concert gig with Mandy Patinkin. (Recently, I chided the pair for asking audiences to pay top dollar to see them perform only with a pianist, the incomparable Paul Ford. It turns out they also have a bassist. Pardonnez-moi.) Anyway, Joe writes, ‘In April after the Lincoln Center concert version “Company” that LuPone appeared in, [Sondheim] scolded her at the closing night party. ‘“It was 1 o’clock in the morning and I went to say goodbye to him and he gave me a note.”

‘About? “I slur,” she shrugs. “I have a lazy tongue. He had complaints about my diction, and he’s not alone. I went, ‘I’m never going to do this again.’ But it was a valuable note and I pulled myself out of it. He’s just protecting his music.”’

Sondheim had earlier intervened on his songs’ behalf when LuPone starred in “Passion.”

His beef? “I swooped,” says LuPone. “He actually said, ‘You’re not singing your nightclub act.

“I didn’t know what he was talking about,” she continues. “I wouldn’t hit a note directly, I would slide into it. He taught me not to swoop.”

by Brendan Lemon | 11/16/11 | Leave a comment |