Diva Lupone @ The Grammys

[jjkrkwood]

Diva and Legend Patti Lupone reprised her award winning Evita performance...

 

It was a bit "shrill" at times but Bitch still got it !

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxpXjly91fA

[edjames]

It was a moment to remember. More importantly is the backstory of this performance and how she and Sir. Andrew have reached what Patti calls "detente"!

 

Don't know if this will lead to anything but its always nice to move on. Patti is headed to London for a revival of Company in Marianne Elliot's gender-bending revival.

Patti LuPone and Andrew Lloyd Webber finally bury the hatchet

One of Broadway’s juiciest, longest-running feuds may have just ended.

 

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Patti LuPone haven’t spoken to each other since the composer fired the diva from “Sunset Boulevard” in 1994.

 

But on Thursday, at the old Hit Factory on West 54th Street, they met to rehearse “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” which LuPone will sing Sunday night at the Grammy Awards.

 

Lloyd Webber arrived first. LuPone swept in a few minutes later. Witnesses held their breaths as she picked up a microphone.

 

“Hello, Andrew,” she said and then, turning to the others in the room, added, “This is détente, ladies and gentlemen.”

 

There were big laughs, Lloyd Webber and LuPone embraced — and went to work.

 

The Grammy telecast is giving a nod to Broadway with a salute to Lloyd Webber and Leonard Bernstein, who would have been 100 this year. Ben Platt, who won a Tony for “Dear Evan Hansen,” will perform a medley of Bernstein songs.

 

LuPone, Broadway’s original “Evita,” readily agreed to sing the show’s biggest song, which, because of the show’s time constraints, needed to be cut by one minute.

 

Sources say LuPone insisted that Lloyd Webber do the trimming. Then she brought down the rehearsal studio by singing the song in its original key.

 

“She’s in spectacular voice,” a source says. “Andrew was blown away.”

 

LuPone congratulated Lloyd Webber on Wednesday’s 30th anniversary of “The Phantom of the Opera,” and they chatted privately for a few minutes. Sources say Lloyd Webber made her laugh when he suggested it was time for an “Evita” revival. (Ricky Martin starred in one in 2012.)

 

And so détente it appears to be.

 

The “Sunset Boulevard” saga is legendary. (It certainly made for a juicy chapter in LuPone’s memoir a few years ago.) Lloyd Webber cast LuPone as Norma Desmond in the London production in 1993. She had it in her contract that she would open the show on Broadway the next year. But Glenn Close opened the show in Los Angeles, got rave reviews and wound up with the Broadway production.

Wounded, LuPone sued and won what was reportedly a $1 million settlement from Lloyd Webber. As she writes in her memoir, she used the money to put in a pool on her property in Connecticut.

 

She called it “The Andrew Lloyd Webber Memorial Pool.”

 

The feud flared up again last year when LuPone knocked the composer during an interview with New York 1’s “On Stage.”

 

Knowing LuPone and Lloyd Webber would meet again had everyone at Wednesday night’s “Phantom” party recalling that feud.

 

“It’s time to move on,” a Lloyd Webber associate told me. “Andrew has.”

 

Broadway fans will be on the edge of their couches Sunday night, waiting for the “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” moment. It comes in the 10 o’clock hour.

[rogerG]

My opinion on Broadway singers is overly critical.

 

I have always thought Patti Lapone's voice overrated. She's been doing strange placement things with it since she's been getting older, which I hear is common for aging Broadway belters. Not only did she look as thick as a tree trunk at the Grammy's, she sounded very shrill and full of herself. I saw her in Evita several times, and I've seen her in concert twice. But ever since I saw her in the last revival of Gypsy, I've been more and more disappointed. I don't think she will ever have the instrument she once had. She sounds like a very loud and shrill warbler to my ears. She always had a tendency to warble.

 

Even worse was Ben Platt, another overrated singer. I've never heard a worse rendition of Somewhere, even worse than Diana Ross' back in the 70's. Platt has the most irritating vibrato. Much worse than Josh Groban's, another very popular singer I can't listen to. Some people in the theater treat Platt as if he is the new Streisand. What a joke. My ears are in agony when he sings. I doubt he would get past the first round on The Voice or the former American Idol.

 

I once considered myself a theater queen. I sang show tunes as a teenager. As I get older, my taste in great singers has changed a lot, often to my surprise. Sorry if I disappointed the Lupone/Platt fans with my overly critical opinion.

Edited January 29, 2018 by rogerG

[TruthBTold]

Andrew Lloyd Webber? Sorry, what a joke. One semi-decent song a work. I guess that is what passes for a Grammy winner these days. Sorry guys. To each his own.

[+ nycman]

Diva and Legend Patti Lupone reprised her award winning Evita performance...

 

It was a bit "shrill" at times but Bitch still got it !

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxpXjly91fA

Better than I thought she'd be....

 

Yes, he voice is a little shrill....but she manages to pull it out over and over.

 

What bothered me more is that her timing and phrasing is just odd.

 

Then again...I never really thought she was great.

[jjkrkwood]

Better than I thought she'd be....

 

Yes, he voice is a little shrill....but she manages to pull it out over and over.

 

What bothered me more is that her timing and phrasing is just odd.

 

Then again...I never really thought she was great.

 

She was going for DRAMA, but it just seemed to drag down the performance. Still, she's Patti Lupone !

[+ GregM]

Bitch is pushing 80 isnt she? Imma give her a pass. She paid her dues and she sang LIVE, NO fucking auto tune bull shit. How many of these whipper snappers have the balls to go out there and actually sing? To the Ms. Ross and Ms. Lupones out there who are up there in age and paid their dues, YAAAAAAASSSSSS HUNTY!!!! WERK!!!!!!

 

Hugs,

Greg

[rogerG]

@GregM

Bitch is 68. No Bitch appreciates anyone adding a decade to her life.

 

I suppose Lupone has paid dues, although she has been known to treat fellow cast members like shit from a very early stage in her career. I have friends who worked with her in Evita. They did not like her attitude.

 

NO fucking auto tune bull shit.

I have to agree with you there. The B'way divas either do it live or they don't it at all. Props to the Bitch.

 

Sat through the entire Grammy's and felt I received a lobotomy. No wonder the show had the lowest ratings in history, which is pitiful given it was the 60th Anniversary show. There isn't one song or one performance that I'd like to see or hear again. So much for the state of the music industry in 2018. Album of the Year winner Bruno Mars released his album well over a year ago. And the Grammy president is out there saying "not enough creative women out there to win awards." I suspect he'll be offering an apology or resigning soon. The Grammy act... What a dud.

Edited January 30, 2018 by rogerG

[jjkrkwood]

@GregM

Bitch is 68. No Bitch appreciates anyone adding a decade to her life.

 

I suppose Lupone has paid dues, although she has been known to treat fellow cast members like shit from a very early stage in her career. I have friends who worked with her in Evita. They did not like her attitude.

 

 

I have to agree with you there. The B'way divas either do it live or they don't it at all. Props to the Bitch.

 

Sat through the entire Grammy's and felt I received a lobotomy. No wonder the show had the lowest ratings in history. There isn't one song or one performance that I'd like to see or hear again. So much for the state of the music industry in 2018. Album of the Year winner Bruno Mars released his album well over a year ago. And the Grammy president is out there saying "not enough creative women out there to win awards." I suspect he'll be offering an apology or resigning soon. The Grammy act... What a dud.

 

I thought The Despacito number was upbeat, and I enjoyed Rihanna with DJ Kaled. Reminded me of West Side Story... The Kesha Clapback number was overworked and she sounded awful. I support the female empowerment movement, but her surrounding herself with all those other stars was unnecessary. Bottom line: 3.5 hrs was way too long, but it was The 60th Anniversary of Grammy so I suppose it needed to be

BIGGER ?