For Patti LuPone, ‘These concerts are my expression’
Q. How does “A Life in Notes” differ from your longstanding “Don’t Monkey with Broadway” concerts?
A. It’s less Broadway show tunes and more of the music that I grew up with in America. I grew up with rock ’n’ roll. I’m a child of the ’60s and ’50s. Some of the songs are touchstones. What I say in the show is that when you hear a song, you remember exactly where you were, who you were with, how old you were, the impact it had on you when you heard them. Those are the songs that I’m singing.
Some songs by Joni Mitchell and Laura Nyro impacted me then. The time of my life when I heard “A Case of You,” on [Mitchell’s] “Blue” album: It reflected a love affair I was having. And I’ll never, ever hear that song without thinking of that person.
Q. Have you found, as you’ve gotten older, that you develop a new appreciation for a songwriter that you did not at first find interesting? Or vice versa?
A. There are some that I still don’t like [laughs]. But it’s definitely a new appreciation. One for sure: the Rascals. They were a Long Island band. [LuPone grew up on Long Island.] They were cute. When I listen to them now, it’s like, these songs are universal. They’re so potent. The adolescent chaos is gone, and something else takes its place.
Q. I think Globe readers are going to be surprised to see the words “Patti LuPone” and “The Rascals” in the same sentence.
A. I want to sing “How Can I Be Sure” so bad! We listened to disc jockeys in various degrees of our growing up, in a marijuana haze. With radio, it was Cousin Brucie, it was Wolfman Jack. We listened on our transistor radios. We wanted to forge our own identity, and my identity coincided with the birth of rock ’n’ roll.
Q. You sort of broke up with Broadway recently, saying it had become a circus. Are you really done with Broadway for good?
A. No. I think I’m done with musicals. I gave up [Actors] Equity [the union for actors and stage managers]. I don’t use their services.
Q. Do you think Broadway will ever return to full strength? A. With these ticket prices, I am not sure at all. It’s ridiculously expensive. It shouldn’t be this expensive. I don’t know how many people are going to support the theater anymore. If we continue putting on schlock, I don’t think people are going to come around.
Q. Do you try to alternate between straight plays and musicals?
A. No, it’s just how the work comes.
Q. You’ve done a lot of TV as well as theater. Is there any kind of cross-pollination when you transition between the two?
A. You’re applying your technique. I went to school to learn how to adapt from one to the other. In one, you have to hit the back wall. In the other, you don’t hit the back wall. You have to understand technique, and if you understand technique, you can easily cross over from one medium to the next.
Q. There are a lot of college students in Boston hoping for a career in the theater. Any other advice for them?
A. You need tenacity. And you need to understand rejection. Because it really is a business about rejection. There’s more “Nos” than “Yeses.”
Q. When you broke through with “Evita,” did you ever think you would be able to remain on top for 40 years? Was that kind of career imaginable in 1979?
A. I feel so lucky every time I get hired. I’ve had bouts of unemployment. I don’t think there’s an actor, unless they’re a huge star, who doesn’t wonder, when their job is over, when they are going to get hired next. I’m so lucky that I continue to work.
Q. It’s now been more than two years since Stephen Sondheim died. As someone who has done a lot of Sondheim — “Sweeney Todd,” “Company,” “Gypsy” — have you thought about what made him such a singular figure?
A. I always thought about that. He was a very complex man. We can relate to it [in his musicals]: The complexities are sometimes overwhelming. He was a deeply emotional man, a sensitive man, a highly intellectual man. He never had a hit, a long-running show. He would have loved to have had that in his lifetime.
Q. You’ve always made time for these concert tours. I’m wondering what you get from them [artistically]. Is it a chance to literally be yourself ?
A. Yes. As an actor, you hide behind a mask. You create a character. It’s not you. Obviously, it’s got some of you in it. But it is a character. These concerts are my expression. They’re my ability to express myself.
I learned more about how to present a song in a cabaret environment than I ever learned at school. I had to look at the audience — honestly look at the audience. And they were looking back. I learn so much every time I go out. And I hope I continue to go out.