Patti’s in good Company as she returns to London after 20 years
TOBY STEPHENS and Lydia Leonard lead an exceptional ensemble in J.T. Rogers’ play Oslo, about how secret Norwegian diplomacy helped usher in a Middle East Peace deal. I saw Bartlett Sher’s Lincoln Centre production twice in the U.S. It’s on at the National Theatre until tomorrow, and then at the Harold Pinter from October 2.
Patti LuPone, the tonyaward winning Broadway star, will return to the London stage for the first time in more than 20 years, to join the gender-bending version of Stephen Sondheim’s musical Company. Her casting as the acerbic Joanne, who sings the famous number the Ladies Who Lunch, is a major coup for elliott & Harper Productions, the theatre company recently formed by acclaimed director Marianne elliott and former national theatre producer Chris Harper. the last time Ms LuPone appeared on a West end stage was 1993, when she originated the role of norma Desmond in andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard. She later felt blindsided when Lloyd Webber cast Glenn Close instead of her in the Broadway production. (the fallout from that clash was good for the Broadway legend in one respect: the settlement paid for a swimming pool at her country retreat.) Ms LuPone told me in new York that Ms elliott had sent her a video of a workshop of Company, featuring Rosalie Craig as Bobbi, a 35-year-old, commitment-shy singleton whose body clock is ticking. From 1970 until now Bobbi has, in fact, been Bobby: a 35-year-old bachelor. But Ms elliott, the force behind national theatre blockbuster successes War Horse and the Curious incident of the Dog in the night-time, persuaded Sondheim to let her explore a gender swap.
LuPone, who won her second tony for Sondheim’s Gypsy, and who has given concert performances of Company, was captivated by what she saw on the video.
‘then Marianne came to new York to talk about it,’ she told me. ‘ We spent hours talking about everything . . . and then we got to the show!’
Still, intrigued as she was, the actress found herself in a quandary. She’s currently on Broadway, portraying Helena Rubinstein in the musical War Paint, for which she was nominated for another tony.
‘Here’s the dilemma,’ she told me. ‘i never want to do a musical again. But i
would work with Marianne. She’s a visionary. and i very much wanted to come and live and work in england, and move away for a while from the s***storm that has become america.’
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‘it’s not the musical piece itself,’ LuPone conceded. ‘ it’s everything leading up to it. the production of a musical is so technical and complicated.’
But elliott’s approach was persuasive; and LuPone found herself wavering. ‘i’m a woman!’ she laughed. ‘i have the prerogative to change my mind. and, obviously, i did.’
elliott will direct Company herself. it will have its first performance at the Gielgud theatre on September 26, 2018, with Bunny Christie creating the sets and costumes. Ms Craig, who collected an evening Standard theatre award for the Light Princess (another elliott show at the national) will play Bobbi, whose group of friends includes Joanne. in addition to being partial to a Vodka Stinger, or three; Joanne also enjoys lunching, accompanied by a bottle of scotch. LuPone, who was the original Broadway eva Peron in evita, has some experience of the part. She played Joanne in a concert version of Company with the new York Philharmonic; and also at an 80th birthday celebration for Sondheim. But she said she was excited to be tackling her in a fully staged show. the 1970 musical has been updated by Sondheim and elliott to 2018, elliott’s business partner Chris Harper told me. ‘ Bobbi is a sexually confident woman, looking for love. She’s a woman of today,’ he said. the gender swap will mean some script changes, he added. ‘Stephen and Marianne have worked on reassigning dialogue, and some lyrics; but not as much as you might think.’ LuPone, meanwhile, has been in contact with Ms Craig; and continues to liaise with elliott (who, by the way, is directing the first elliott & Harper production, Simon Stephens’s new play Heisenberg — the Uncertainty Principle, with anne- Marie Duff and Kenneth Cranham, at Wyndham’s theatre from october 3). tickets for Company are available from 10am today on 0844 482 5130; or online from elliottandharper. com or delfontmackintosh.