"Autobiographies of great nations are written in three manuscripts – a book of deeds, a book of words, and a book of art. Of the three, I would choose the latter as truest testimony." - Sir Kenneth Smith, Great Civilisations
"I must write each day without fail, not so much for the success of the work, as in order not to get out of my routine." - Leo Tolstoy
I have never believed that one should wait until one is inspired because I think the pleasures of not writing are so great that if you ever start indulging them you will never write again. - John Updike
"The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it." - J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
Poetry is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations." - Lawrence Ferlinghetti
[Note - If any article requires updating or correction please notate this in the comment section. Thank you. - res]
Upon seeing Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper", Milan 1904,
the unnamed poet wrote the following verses:
They are assembled, astonished and disturbed round him, who like a sage resolved his fate, and now leaves those to whom he most belonged, leaving and passing by them like a stranger. The loneliness of old comes over him which helped mature him for his deepest acts; now will he once again walk through the olive grove, and those who love him still will flee before his sight.
To this last supper he has summoned them, and (like a shot that scatters birds from trees) their hands draw back from reaching for the loaves upon his word: they fly across to him; they flutter, frightened, round the supper table searching for an escape. But he is present everywhere like an all-pervading twilight-hour.
Here they are gathered, wondering and deranged, Round Him, who wisely doth Himself inclose, And who now takes Himself away, estranged, From those who owned Him once, and past them flows. He feels the ancient loneliness to-day That taught Him all His deepest acts of love; Now in the olive groves He soon will rove, And these who love Him all will flee away.
To the last supper table He hath led. As birds are frightened from a garden-bed By shots, so He their hands forth from the bread Doth frighten by His word: to Him they flee; Then flutter round the table in their fright And seek a passage from the hall. But He Is everywhere, like dusk at fall of night.
- by Rainer Maria Rilke
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Analysis (ai)
This poem explores themes of abandonment and loneliness through the lens of Jesus's Last Supper. It captures the disciples' confusion and fear as Jesus prepares to depart, highlighting their sense of isolation and impending loss. The poem's imagery of a "shot" and "birds" conveys the sudden and disruptive nature of Jesus's words, while the twilight-like atmosphere suggests an all-encompassing sense of mystery and foreboding. In comparison to Rilke's other works, this poem exhibits a similar preoccupation with the human condition and the transformative power of art. It also reflects the modernist sensibility of the early 20th century, characterized by fragmentation, ambiguity, and a fascination with the inner workings of the mind.
Rilke’s haunting images focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety: themes that tend to position him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist poets. He wrote this poem after seeing Leonardi Da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ in Milan in 1904, and this translation of the poem is by Albert Ernest Fleming.
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (1875-1926), better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian-Austrian poet, and is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language.
He was born in Prague on 4 December 1875 in Prague, which was then the capital of Bohemia, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
He wrote in both verse and a highly lyrical prose. He is probably best-known to English-language readers for his Duino Elegies. TS Eliot says, reading Rilke’s ‘Duino Elegies,’ it is not important that we agree with the muddle of his life-philosophy – but only see into the poetic rhetoric he exhorts and exults in.
Rilke’s two most famous prose works are the Letters to a Young Poet and the semi-autobiographical Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
He also wrote more than 400 poems in French, dedicated to his homeland of choice, the Swiss canton of Valais, although he called two places his home – Bohemia and Russia. He died on 29 December 1926 in Montreaux, Switzerland.
Rainer Maria Rilke is considered one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets. His work spans the late 19th and early 20th centuries, bridging the gap between the traditional Romantic era and the rising tide of Modernism. Rilke’s enduring appeal stems from his ability to capture the complexities of human emotion and the search for meaning in an increasingly uncertain world.
His poetry is characterized by a profound sensitivity to the subtle nuances of language. He explored themes of love, loss, faith, and the nature of existence, often through the use of evocative imagery and symbolism. Rilke's exploration of inwardness, his focus on subjective experience, and his experimentation with form and language, prefigured many aspects of Modernist poetry.
His influence can be seen in the works of other poets who grappled with existential questions and sought new modes of expression, including T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, and Marina Ivanova Tsvetaeva. Rilke’s legacy continues to inspire readers and writers today, inviting them to confront the fundamental questions of existence and to find solace and beauty in the face of uncertainty.
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For further reading on the DaVinci's Last Supper go here -
Pieces of torn bread on the tablecloth. Plates empty in front of them as if they have just removed the halos they will wear in a few years. Jesus holds out his arms like he is scolding them for such a mess. They look startled, like they are seeing it for the first time: it couldn’t be their fault.
Leonardo claimed this is the moment of Christ’s announcement of betrayal, and of course it is not clear who Judas is. But what I notice is the wine—or seeming lack of it. No goblets. No chalice. The grail no bigger than a shot glass.
Yet somehow that makes sense. That makes sense. A bartender measures as reminder of the power that he serves. We sip liqueurs between our fingertips. It takes so little to be satisfied. It takes so little to linger in camaraderie. Only a heartbeat of belief is necessary. By small increments we learn to taste.
*Jack Stewart attended the University of Alabama and Emory University, where he received his doctorate, and was a Brittain Fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His work has appeared in Poetry, Dark Horse Review, Gettysburg Review, Southern Humanities Review, and other journals and anthologies. He currently lives in Montgomery, Alabama, with his wife and two daughters, and teaches at the Montgomery Academy.
COMMENTARY
This poem is a meditation on Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting, “The Last Supper.” But the meditation moves in an unexpected direction. The first stanza stays with the painting, though with a comical interpretation of “torn bread” scattered on the tablecloth. In stanza two, the poet moves to the wine—“or seeming / lack of it.” In the painting, no chalice is visible—nothing “bigger than a shot glass.” It’s from this image of a shot glass that the poem’s speaker takes off in stanza three. He seems to be pondering its meaning, as he twice says “that makes sense.” What makes sense now to the speaker is that a single shot of liquor suffices: it reveals “the power” that a bartender serves (as Jesus serves God?); it is sufficient for lingering camaraderie. From here, the speaker reflects on other smallnesses that are sufficient in life: “Only a heartbeat /of belief is necessary.” And “by small increments we learn to taste.” To taste what? The poem doesn’t say, but in the context of the de Vinci painting, I recall a song that we often sing during Communion in my Catholic parish: “Taste and See the Goodness of the Lord.”
- Peggy Rosenthal
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For further reading on the DaVinci's Last Supper go here -
Wikipedia - Lydia Huntley Sigourney (September 1, 1791 – June 10, 1865), née Lydia Howard Huntley, was an American poet, author, and publisher during the early and mid 19th century. She was commonly known as the "Sweet Singer of Hartford." She had a long career as a literary expert, publishing 52 books and in over 300 periodicals in her lifetime. While some of her works were signed anonymously, most of her works were published with just her married name Mrs. Sigourney. During the lyceum movement that flourished in the United States in the 19th century, women named literary societies and study clubs in her honor.
Blend with ineffable benignity, And deep, unuttered majesty divine.
Whose is that eye which seems to read the heart, And yet to have shed the tear of mortal woe?— Redeemer, is it thine?—And is this feast, Thy last on earth?—Why do the chosen few, Admitted to thy parting banquet, stand As men transfixed with horror?—
Ah! I hear The appalling answer, from those lips divine, "One of you shall betray me."—
One of these?— Who by thy hand was nurtured, heard thy prayers, Received thy teachings, as the thirsty plant Turns to the rain of summer?—One of these!— Therefore, with deep and deadly paleness droops The loved disciple, as if life's warm spring Chilled to the ice of death, at such strange shock Of unimagined guilt.—See, his whole soul Concentered in his eye, the man who walked The waves with Jesus, all impetuous prompts The horror-struck inquiry,—"Is it I?
Lord!—Is it I?" while earnest pressing near, His brother's lip, in ardent echo seems Doubting the fearful thought.—With brow upraised, Andrew absolves his soul of charge so foul, And springing eager from the table's foot, Bartholomew bends forward, full of hope, That by his ear, the Master's awful words Had been misconstrued.—To the side of Christ, James in the warmth of cherished friendship clings, Yet trembles as the traitor's image steals Into his throbbing heart:—while he, whose hand In sceptic doubt was soon to probe the wounds Of Him he loved, points upward to invoke The avenging God.—Philip, with startled gaze, Stands in his crystal singleness of soul, Attesting innocence, while Matthew's voice Repeating fervently the Master's words Rouses to agony the listening group, Who, half incredulous with terror, seem To shudder at his accents.
All the twelve With strong emotion strive, save one false breast By Mammon seared, which brooding o'er its gain, Weighs thirty pieces with the Saviour's blood. Son of perdition!—dost thou freely breathe In such pure atmosphere?—And canst thou hide, 'Neath the cold calmness of that settled brow, The burden of a deed whose very name Thus strikes thy brethren pale?—
But can it be That the strange power of this soul-harrowing scene Is the slight pencil's witchery?—I would speak Of him who pour'd such bold conception forth O'er the dead canvas.—But I dare not muse, Now, of a mortal's praise.—Subdued I stand
In thy sole, sorrowing presence, Son of God!— I feel the breathing of those holy men, From whom thy gospel, as on angel's wing Went out, through all the earth.—I see how deep Sin in the soul may lurk, and fain would kneel Low at thy blessed feet, and trembling ask— "Lord!—is it I?"
For who may tell, what dregs Do slumber in his breast.—Thou, who didst taste Of man's infirmities, yet bar his sins From thine unspotted soul, forsake us not, In our temptations, but so guide our feet, That our Last Supper in this world may lead To that immortal banquet by thy side, Where there is no betrayer.
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For further reading on the DaVinci's Last Supper go here -
Mar 12, 2016 - In her Broadway concert show in 1995, Patti finally got the chance to sing "Meadowlark" on Broadway. Stephen Schwartz's song is from "The Baker's Wife," which closed out of town in '76. Patti's first words refer to the Kennedy Center in D.C. Patti LuPone is a Tony Award-winning actress and original singer of this song.
LYRICS
when i was a girl l i had a favorite story of the meadowlark who lived where the rivers wind her voice could match the angels' in its glory but she was blind, the lark was blind an old king came and took her to his palace where the walls were burnished bronze and golden braid and he fed her fruit and nuts from an ivory chalice and he prayed: "sing for me, my meadowlark, sing for me of the silver morning, set me free, my meadowlark, and i'll buy you a priceless jewel and cloth of brocade and crewel and i'll love you for life, if you will sing for me." then one day as the lark sang by the water the god of the sun heard her in his flight and her singing moved him so he came and brought her the gift of sight he gave her sight and she opened her eyes to the shimmer and the splendor of this beautiful, young god, so proud and strong and he called to the lark in a voice both rough and tender "come along. fly with me, my meadowlark, fly with me on the silver morning, past the sea where the dolphins bark we will dance on the coral beaches, make a feast of the plums and peaches just as far as your vision reaches fly with me." but the meadowlark said no for the old king loved her so she couldn't bear to wound his pride so the sun god flew away and when the king came down that day he found his meadowlark had died every time i heard that part i cried ... and now i stand here starry-eyed and stormy oh, just when i thought my heart was finally numb a beautiful, young man appears before me, singing "come, oh, won't you come?" and what can i do if finally for the first time the one i'm burning for returns the glow? if love has come at last it's picked the worst time still i know i've got to go fly away, meadowlark fly away in the silver morning, if i stay, i'll grow to curse the dark so it's off where the days won't bind me i know i leave wounds behind me but i won't let tomorrow find me back this way before my past once again can blind me fly away ... and we won't wait to say good-bye my beautiful young man and i.
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Source: Musixmatch Songwriters: Neil Sedaka / Howard Greenfield
In the musical, it is sung by the character Geneviève, trying to decide whether she should stay with her husband or run off with a younger man. She likens her situation to the fairy tale about a meadowlark who lived with a king who adored her. One day, the sun god approached the meadowlark and urged her to come with him. The meadowlark refused and perished. At the end of the song, Geneviève decides to leave with the younger man.
LuPone was part of the first graduating class of Juilliard's Drama Division (1968–1972: Group 1),[9] which also included actors Kevin Kline and David Ogden Stiers.[10] She graduated from Juilliard in 1972 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.[11] LuPone has a mezzo-soprano vocal range,[12][13][14] and she is known for her strong/high "Broadway" belt singing voice. In a 2008 interview, she maintained that she was "an actor who sings", and thankful she "had a voice".[15]
In 1976, theater producer David Merrick hired LuPone as a replacement to play Genevieve, the title role of the troubled pre-Broadway production of The Baker's Wife. The production toured at length but Merrick deemed it unworthy of Broadway and it closed out of town.[21]
Since 1977, LuPone has frequently collaborated with David Mamet, appearing in his plays The Woods, All Men Are Whores, The Blue Hour, The Water Engine (1978),[22]Edmond, The Old Neighborhood (1997),[23] and The Anarchist (2012). The New York Times reviewer wrote of LuPone in The Old Neighborhood, "Those who know Ms. LuPone only as a musical comedy star will be stunned by the naturalistic fire she delivers here. As Jolly, a part inspired by Mr. Mamet's real-life sister and his realized female character, Ms. LuPone finds conflicting layers of past and present selves in practically every line. She emerges as both loving matriarch and wounded adolescent, sentimental and devastatingly clear-eyed."[24] In 1978, she appeared in the Broadway musical adaptation of Studs Terkel's Working, which ran for only 24 performances.[25]
In 1979, LuPone starred in the original Broadway production of Evita, the musical based on the life of Eva Perón, composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, and directed by Harold Prince.[26] Although LuPone was hailed by critics, she has since said that her time in Evita was not an enjoyable one. In a 2007 interview, she stated "Evita was the worst experience of my life," she said. "I was screaming my way through a part that could only have been written by a man who hates women. And I had no support from the producers, who wanted a star performance onstage but treated me as an unknown backstage. It was like Beirut, and I fought like a banshee."[27] Despite the trouble, LuPone won her first Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical.[28] It was not until she had reprised the role in a production in Sydney when she had finally enjoyed the part and felt comfortable singing the score.[29] LuPone and her co-star, Mandy Patinkin, remained close friends both on and off the stage.
1980s
In May 1983, founding alumni of The Acting Company reunited for an off-Broadway revival of Marc Blitzstein's landmark labor musical The Cradle Will Rock at the American Place Theater. It was narrated by John Houseman with LuPone in the roles of Moll and Sister Mister.[30] The production premiered at The Acting Company's summer residence at Chautauqua Institution, toured the United States including an engagement at the Highland Park, Illinois' Ravinia Festival in 1984 and played in London's West End.
When the run ended, LuPone remained in London to create the role of Fantine in Cameron Mackintosh's original London production of Les Misérables, in 1985, which premiered at the Barbican Theatre, at that time the London home of the Royal Shakespeare Company.[31] LuPone had previously worked for Mackintosh in a short-lived Broadway revival of Oliver! in 1984, playing Nancy opposite Ron Moody as Fagin.[32] For her work in both The Cradle Will Rock and Les Misérables, LuPone received the 1985 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.[33][34]
She returned to Broadway in 1987 to star as nightclub singer Reno Sweeney in the Lincoln Center Theater revival of Cole Porter's Anything Goes. She starred opposite Howard McGillin, and they both received Tony nominations for their performances.[35][36] The Lincoln Center cast reassembled for a one-night-only concert performance of Anything Goes in New York in 2002.[37]
1990s
In 1993, LuPone returned to London to create the role of Norma Desmond in the original production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard at the Adelphi Theater. There was much anticipation of LuPone appearing in another Lloyd Webber musical, the first since her performance in Evita. Her time in the show was difficult, and she was abruptly fired by Lloyd Webber and replaced by Glenn Close, who opened the show in Los Angeles and eventually on Broadway.[38][39]
In November 1995, LuPone starred in her one-woman show, Patti LuPone on Broadway, at the Walter Kerr Theatre.[40] For her work, she received an Outer Critics Circle Award. The following year, she was selected by producer Robert Whitehead to succeed his wife, Zoe Caldwell in the Broadway production of Terrence McNally's play Master Class, based on the master classes given by operatic diva Maria Callas at Juilliard.[38] LuPone received positive reviews, with Vincent Canby writing "Ms. LuPone really is vulnerable here in a way that wasn't anticipated: she's in the process of creating a role for which she isn't ideally suited, but she's working like a trouper to get it right."[41] She appeared in the play in the West End. In November 2001, she starred in a Broadway revival of Noises Off, with Peter Gallagher and Faith Prince.[42]
She returned to Broadway in October 2005 to star as Mrs. Lovett in John Doyle's new Broadway production of Sweeney Todd. In this radically different interpretation of the musical, the ten actors on stage also served as the show's orchestra, and LuPone played the tuba and orchestra bells as well as performing the score vocally.[44] For her performance, she received a Tony Award nomination as well as Golden Icon Award for Best Female Musical Theater Performance.[45] In August 2006, LuPone took a three-week leave from Sweeney in order to play Rose in Lonny Price's production of Gypsy at Ravinia.[43]Sweeney Todd closed in September 2006.
Following the Ravinia Festival production of Gypsy, LuPone and author Arthur Laurents mended a decade-long rift, and she was cast in the City Center Encores! Summer Stars production of the show. Laurents directed LuPone in Gypsy for a 22-performance run (July 9, 2007 – July 29, 2007) at City Center.[48] This production of Gypsy then transferred to Broadway, opening March 27, 2008 at the St. James Theatre.[49] LuPone won the Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama League Award, Drama Desk Award and Tony Award for her performance in Gypsy.[50][51] It closed on January 11, 2009.
2010s
In August 2010, LuPone appeared in a three-day run of Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun where she played the title role opposite Patrick Cassidy at the Ravinia Festival, directed by Lonny Price.[52] That same year, LuPone created the role of Lucia in the original Broadway production of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, which opened at the Belasco Theater on November 4, 2010, and closed on January 2, 2011, after 23 preview and 69 regular performances. LuPone was nominated for a Tony and Drama Desk, and an Outer Critics Circle Award for her performance.
LuPone's memoir recounting her life and career from childhood onwards, was published in September 2010 titled Patti LuPone: A Memoir.[53][54]
In 2011, LuPone played the role of Joanne in a four-night limited engagement concert production of Stephen Sondheim's musical Company at the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Paul Gemignani. The production starred Neil Patrick Harris as Bobby. Harris had previously worked with LuPone in the 2000 and 2001 concert productions of Sweeney Todd. The cast of Company performed the song "Side by Side by Side" at the 65th Tony Awards on June 12, 2011.
LuPone concluded a 63-performance Broadway engagement of her concert with former Evita co-star Mandy Patinkin entitled An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin. The run started on November 21, 2011, at the Ethel Barrymore Theater and ended on January 13, 2012.[56]
In the fall of 2012, LuPone appeared with Debra Winger in the premiere of David Mamet's play The Anarchist. Despite the play receiving less than stellar reviews from critics, LuPone received widespread praise for her role as Cathy.
In June 2015, LuPone appeared in the Douglas Carter Beane play Shows for Days at Lincoln Center Theater.[61] In October 2015, LuPone, along with the current Fantine on the West End, joined her castmates to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Les Misérables.[62]
In 2017, LuPone originated the role of Helena Rubinstein in the musical War Paint on Broadway, after performing the role in the summer of 2016 in the musical's world premiere at Chicago's Goodman Theatre.[63] Performing opposite Christine Ebersole as Rubinstein's longtime competitor Elizabeth Arden, LuPone stayed with the role for War Paint's entire run at the Nederlander Theatre, from March 7 to November 5, 2017.[64] The show closed prematurely to allow LuPone to undergo hip surgery.[65] LuPone disclosed in an interview that War Paint would be her last musical on stage: "I'm too old. It's been hard—it's been harder than it's ever been. I can't do it anymore."[66]
A transfer of the successful West End production of Company was set to open at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on March 22, 2020, coinciding with Stephen Sondheim's 90th birthday, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[69] The production returned, featuring LuPone starring opposite Katrina Lenk, with previews starting on November 15, 2021, before officially opening December 9, 2021.[70] LuPone won her third Tony Award for the role.
LuPone performs regularly in her solo shows Matters of the Heart; Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda; and The Lady With the Torch[73] which sold out at Carnegie Hall. For example, she performed her one-woman show The Gypsy In My Soul at the Caramoor Fall Festival, New York, in September 2010.[74]
She also appears at venues across North America in concerts with Mandy Patinkin, at such venues as the Mayo Center for the Performing Arts in September 2010.[75][76]
She appeared as the inaugural act at a new cabaret space, 54 Below, in New York City in June 2012. According to The New York Times reviewer, "Nowadays Ms. LuPone generates more raw excitement than any other performer on the Broadway and cabaret axis, with the possible exception of Liza Minnelli.... And her brilliant show, conceived and directed by her long-time collaborator, Scott Wittman, deserves many lives, perhaps even a Broadway run in an expanded edition. It certifies Ms. LuPone's place in the lineage of quirky international chanteuses like Lotte Lenya, Marlene Dietrich and Edith Piaf, who, like Ms. LuPone, conquered show business with forceful, outsize personalities while playing by their own musical rules."[77]
She also appeared as the inaugural act at the Sharon L. Morse Entertainment Center in The Villages, Florida on April 30, 2015, to a sold-out audience of residents mainly 55 years-of-age and older.[78]
LuPone's TV work also included a recurring role on her cousin Tom Fontana's HBO series in its final season, Oz (2003).[86] She appeared as herself on a February 2005 episode of Will & Grace.[87] She also appeared on the series Ugly Betty in March 2007 as the mother of Marc St. James (played by Michael Urie).[88] LuPone had a recurring guest role as Frank Rossitano's mother on 30 Rock. LuPone appeared as herself in the season two finale of the television series Glee.[89]
In 2013, LuPone was cast in the third season of the FX series American Horror Story as Joan Ramsey, a religious mother with a hidden past,[93] and played herself in the third season of HBO's Girls. In 2015, she appeared in several episodes of the Showtime horror series Penny Dreadful as a cantankerous yet powerful white witch. She returned to the show in 2016 in the role of Dr. Seward, an alienist aiding Eva Green's character. Seward is an adaptation of John Seward from Bram Stoker's Dracula, and claims to be a descendant of Joan Clayton, the character LuPone portrayed in the second season. Also in 2016, she began appearing in Steven Universe as the voice of Yellow Diamond, reprising the role in the movie and the epilogue series Steven Universe Future.[94] In 2019, LuPone played an antagonistic role in Pose, appearing in second season of the series. The following year she teamed up with social media star Randy Rainbow to perform a duet song criticizing Donald Trump three weeks before the 2020 US election.
LuPone has expressed concern about the conduct and etiquette of some theatergoers. "Where's the elegance?" she asked in a blog post on her official site. "I mean, I'm glad they show up because God knows it's a dying art form and I guess I'm glad they're all comfortable, sleeping, eating and drinking, things they should be doing at home and in a restaurant. But it's just not done in the theater or shouldn't be."[100] LuPone has been the subject of some controversy due to the bluntness of her statements on the matter, which on some occasions have risen to her directly admonishing audience members for their behavior during performances.
2009 incident
At the penultimate performance of Gypsy on January 10, 2009, LuPone, irritated by an attendee taking flash photography in apparent violation of theater policy, stopped in the middle of "Rose's Turn" and demanded that the miscreant be removed from the theater. After he was removed, LuPone restarted her number. The audience applauded her stance.[101][102] The event was recorded by another audience member, who released it on YouTube.[103] She later stated that such distractions drive "people in the audience nuts. They can't concentrate on the stage if, in their peripheral vision, they're seeing texting, they're seeing cameras, they're listening to phone calls. How can we do our job if the audience is distracted?", and also mentioned that "the interesting thing is I'm not the first one that's done it".[104]
2015 incident
On July 8, 2015, during the second act of Shows for Days at the Lincoln Center Theater, LuPone grabbed an audience member's cellphone while leaving the stage as the audience member had been using their phone during the play. It was returned after the show. LuPone stated:
We work hard on stage to create a world that is being totally destroyed by a few, rude, self-absorbed and inconsiderate audience members who are controlled by their phones. They cannot put them down. When a phone goes off or when a LED screen can be seen in the dark it ruins the experience for everyone else – the majority of the audience at that performance and the actors on stage. I am so defeated by this issue that I seriously question whether I want to work on stage anymore. Now I'm putting battle gear on over my costume to marshal the audience as well as perform.[105]
2022 incident
On May 10, 2022, during a live conversation with the American Theatre Wing and her Company co-stars, LuPone called out at audience members who were not wearing their face masks "properly" during the event and not adhering to the COVID-19 safety protocols implemented by The Broadway League yelling, "Put your mask over your nose. That's why you're in the theater ... That is the rule. If you don't want to follow the rule, get the fuck out. I'm serious. Who do you think you are if you do not respect the people sitting around you?" When an audience member called out in response, "I pay your salary," LuPone replied "You pay my salary? Bullshit. Chris Harper [the producer of Company] pays my salary".[106] After the incident, a spokesperson for the show said in a statement: "We stand with Patti [...] support her efforts to keep our entire community—from patrons to ushers, cast to stage crew—safe and healthy so we can keep Broadway open". This also resulted in the League extending the mask guideline end date from May 31 to June 30, 2022.[107][108]
In an interview, LuPone later explained that prior to her dispute with the patron, the patron had already been approached by the theater's COVID safety manager and been asked to wear the mask over her nose and mouth, and that the patron had responded mockingly by placing the mask over her eyes in a dismissive manner. It was the entirety of the patron's disrespectful behavior, not just the manner in which she was wearing her mask, that LuPone was responding to in her outburst.[109]
A live concert special film, An Evening with Patti LuPone, was filmed in July 2012 and released in November 2012 on SethTv.com with 104 minutes of Patti LuPone songs and stories with host Seth Rudetsky.[164]
A new CD of one of her shows, The Lady with the Torch, was released in 2006 on Sh-K-Boom Records. In December she released bonus tracks for that CD only available on iTunes and the Sh-K-Boom website.[165]
^Azzopardi, Chris (June 11, 2009). "GLT " Everything's Coming Up Patti". Gaylesbiantimes.com. Archived from the original on July 28, 2011. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
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