Stritch and other women than on men, perhaps because of his dreadful relationship with his mother. Sondheim thought that he was harder on Ms. I keep saying, ‘Who will make me better now that Steve is gone?’” It’s a challenge to interpret the lyrics as he intended them with depth,” she said with understatement. John Houseman called me a flannel mouth when I was in school.”Ī Sondheim score “is not easy to sing accurately. “I said in my head, ‘If it was anyone with less experience than me, they would have turned in their equity card,’” she said. Sondheim berated her about her enunciation, saying all he heard was “monotonous mush.” She got a bad note when she was playing Fosca in “Passion” at Lincoln Center Mr. His notes can be devastating, which I’ve had several of.” Steve does give compliments, but they’re hard-earned. “I just was so flummoxed by it,” she said, still referring to the composer in the present tense. Thank you for enhanceing my shows - and everyone else’s for that matter, Love, Steve.”
In any event, I just felt I had to put it in print.
That’s apart from the acting and performing and the attention to detail. Sondheim, who was clearly growing more sentimental: “Every now and then I’m brought up short by realizing what a wonderful singer you are. LuPone keeps a typewritten note sent to her before the pandemic hit by Mr. I asked her if there was anyone she’d like to make into a meat pie, and she shot back, “Do you have to eat it?” Lovett in “Sweeney Todd,” co-written by Mr. LuPone that happened to be on the wall of our ersatz bar, a shot of her as Mrs. The small hotel is decorated as a homage to Broadway, with costumes and pictures from shows, so naturally we found a photo of Ms. So we ended up setting up our own bar - complete with votive candles and vintage coupes - in a room at the Civilian on 48th Street. LuPone said, reeling off the names of bars that have closed. “McHale’s, Charlie’s, Sam’s, Barrymore’s,” Ms. LuPone’s performance “perfectly etched,” in an otherwise mixed review.) Jacobs Theater, and Jesse Green, a Times theater critic, called Ms. Remembering SondheimĪfter a preview performance the other night, we met up and looked for a Times Square bar, but it’s hard now to find one that stays open after shows, or one at all, really. But real bubbly is required to toast the lights returning to Broadway. LuPone drinks water in her martini glass. Eggs are getting old.’ Boys don’t get asked that question, especially when they’re 35, boinking beautiful women.”
LuPone said, “because we get asked that question, ‘When are you going to get married? The clock is ticking. “I think it’s more poignant to have a woman,” Ms. In this production, Bobby morphs into Bobbie, a woman whose friends want her to settle down, even though they concede marriage is a mixed bag.Īs one of Bobbie’s pals sings in the high-velocity “Getting Married Today”: “What’s a wedding? It’s a prehistoric ritual/ Where everybody promises fidelity forever/ Which is maybe the most horrifying word I ever heard of.”īobbie is played by the lissome Katrina Lenk, who won a Tony in 2018 for her mesmerizing performance as Dina in “The Band’s Visit.” LuPone played the role in London before the pandemic, critics gushed and she won an Olivier. Now she’s back, picking up where she left off playing Joanne, the jaded, older friend of the singleton. LuPone retreated to her basement in Connecticut, where she posted videos that went viral showing off her pinball machine, her jukebox, her Ethel Merman cassettes, her husband’s bong and her dance moves to “ Hava Nagila.” Two years ago, when the pandemic shut down Broadway during previews for “Company,” Ms.