WEBVTT - From the Archives: Patti LuPone 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:03.400 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the 0:00:03.480 --> 0:00:09.119 Thing from iHeart Radio. According to the online Urban Dictionary, 0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:14.360 today's guest has become a verb. To LuPone is quote 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:18.560 to give an outstanding theatrical performance, to make an audience 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:24.320 revel in, open mouthed awe at your unparalleled brilliance. Unquote. 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:32.400 Don't cry for me, gentlea. The truth is I never 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:33.640 left you. 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:41.280 All through my wild days, my mad existence, I kept 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:42.479 my promise. 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:46.479 Dorge your dist. 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:51.599 Patty Lapone has twenty six Broadway credits to date and 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:54.960 has won two Tony's, one for Evida and one for 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:58.840 Gypsy in London. She originated the role of Norma Desmond 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:03.160 in Sunset Boulevard and Fantine in Les Miserabla, for which 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:06.800 she won an Olivier Award. She's worked in film and 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:10.200 on television, most notably as the mom on the ABC 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:14.319 drama Life Goes On. Before all this success, Patty was 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:17.480 in the first class of the Drama Division at Juilliard 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:20.960 in nineteen sixty eight, which seems like a reasonable place 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:24.000 to start dreaming of a career in the theater. But 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:27.480 Patty Lapone's story really begins even earlier. 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:29.640 I knew when I was a kid that I had 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:31.920 a Broadway voice. I wanted to be a rocker because 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:34.560 I grew up in that era of transistor radios at 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:39.440 the beach, you know, the rascals. We started in the fifties, 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:41.760 Little Anthony in the Imperials. I mean, all through the 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:44.520 fifties and sixties and seventies, I knew I didn't have 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:47.119 a rock voice. Though I knew I had a Broadway voice. 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:48.840 This is all. 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:54.800 Instinctual behavior, completely instinctual behavior. And my mom listened to 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:57.560 opera and my dad listened to jazz. 0:01:57.640 --> 0:01:58.160 What did he do? 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:01.480 He was a principal of an lamentary school on Long 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:05.520 Island in Northport, and my mom was a housewife, a homemaker. 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:06.520 How many kids in your family? 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:09.760 Twin brothers and me, you know, typical in a ranch 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:13.119 house on Long Island, right, typical. I know the drum, yeah, exactly. 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:17.000 And I was enrolled in dance at four years old, 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:19.880 and I fell in love with the stage. But that 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:23.360 wasn't really the first inkling of some sort of connection 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:25.440 to the stage. My mother used to troop me out 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:29.040 in front of guests to do my Marilyn Monroe imitation, 0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:31.560 and I don't even know how I came up with this, 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:34.080 but I would come out, they'd laugh, and I'd go, oh, 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:36.120 this is cool. Like you know I was. I was 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:39.000 pretty astute when I was very very young, pretty. So 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:41.880 I started dancing, and I fell in love with the audience, 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:46.200 and so the performance aspect started very very young in dance. 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:51.359 When Julliard happened, well, my brother attended the dance division 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:53.160 of the Juilliard School and told me that they were 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:55.680 starting a drama division. I actually had moved into New 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:58.440 York City and was auditioning for musicals and working, and 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:00.240 I just wanted to be in musicals and hang out 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:03.760 in New York City and party. And I auditioned and 0:03:03.760 --> 0:03:06.120 I got in. And what happened in the four years 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:07.800 the course of the four years of the Juilliard School, 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:09.839 I fell out of love with musical and in love 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:12.680 with classical theater. And I was actually trained as a 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:16.359 classical actress. So we did know a lot of other 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:21.320 great classical actress Yes, Kevin Klein, David Steyers, David Shram, 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:25.360 Mary Louisatto, and then of course the classes below me 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:28.800 have gained more recognition than my class did. We were 0:03:28.840 --> 0:03:29.720 the very first class. 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:34.560 But that girl from Northport who's doing Marilyn Monroe impersonations 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:36.800 in the ranch house with your family, what's that like 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:40.280 for you that transitioned to be in that very heady, sophisticated. 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:41.760 With Well, it was tough for me because I was 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:44.280 not a favorite at school. My best friend, who I 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:48.480 met in the first year, Nancy Nichols, was a favorite 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:50.360 and I was not. But Nancy and I would always 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:53.040 palle around together and make trouble, but Nancy would get 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:55.600 the roles and I would not. And that went on 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:57.840 for several years. I think it was only my third 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:00.800 year when I realized that they were trying to throw 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:04.080 me out of school. And what they did. They couldn't 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:06.360 throw me up because they didn't like my personality. But 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:08.400 what they did was they through every conceivable role in 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:10.720 my direction to make me fail as an actor. But 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:14.880 what happened was they that they didn't belong. Yeah, they 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:18.479 didn't like me. They or you know, I didn't get cut. 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:23.839 Every year students got cut, So we started with they 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:26.960 wanted to years. We ended up with the seventeen of 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:29.240 the original thirty six. In the fourth year. I never 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:33.200 got cut. So I'm confused as to why that actually happened, 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:36.240 because why didn't they just cut me? Possibly because every 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:39.280 role I played I succeeded in. But what they did 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:42.520 was they trained one actor in my class and versatility, 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:46.120 and the rest of them were pigeonholed, as you know, 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:49.760 life will pigeonhole you into exactly the sub brett, the 0:04:49.839 --> 0:04:53.159 leading lady, the character woman. But I went back and forth, 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:58.560 back and forth, back and forth, which taught me that 0:04:59.200 --> 0:04:59.640 I could. 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:03.040 There were no boundaries, no, and if you look. 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:05.320 At my history, I've done more plays than i've done musicals. 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:08.120 But because I guess the voice is a powerful instrument, 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:10.400 do you know what I mean? And it's an American 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:14.400 cultural event, the American broad the musical, not the Broadway. 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:17.520 Well, also the music that you've performed when someone is 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:19.720 as successful as you, And I've said this to people 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:24.679 who have careers of music beyond the theater, as leading 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:28.400 actresses in the theater. Music distinguishes things because it's a 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:31.880 product you can consume anywhere. You know, your career goes 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:34.240 to another level when I can drive in my car 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:36.040 and listen to the soundtracks. 0:05:35.520 --> 0:05:37.480 When anything goes I never thought about that I can. 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:39.240 Be on the beach and I can listen to the 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:43.120 soundtrack from Sweeney Todd music. Performers will always have the 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:47.360 upper hand on actors. But you were saying, how the 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:51.560 versatility thing. You were almost forced to embrace this versatility 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:54.200 to survive. And you graduate from that program the first 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:55.000 class graduates. 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:58.080 What year nineteen seventy two and where do you go? 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:01.880 John Housman in our third year, he presented a season 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:06.520 to the prominent people in New York theater and critics, 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:09.200 and mel Gusa was the one that said. Mel Gusa 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:10.880 was a second string critic for the New York Times, 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:12.280 and he was the one that said, why break this 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:15.520 company up? Why not form a permanent acting company? Which 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:18.839 was John's q. And when we graduated, he handed us 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:22.560 our equity card and four years. But we stayed for 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:26.960 four years of touring the country performing classical plays in 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:30.320 true revolving rep which is a different play every single night. 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:33.360 So we got even more training because in our first 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.520 year we lost several bookings because we didn't know how 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:39.120 to tour, We didn't know how to maintain a performance. 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:41.440 We only did three at Juilliard and we had no 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:44.480 idea what happened on the fourth and that sounds crazy, 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:45.680 but it's we lost. 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:48.800 Do you think this acting company idea and the touring 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:50.920 was what Hausman had up asleeve the whole time when 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:53.039 he instigated the Juilliard program, No, I. 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:55.840 Don't think so. You know, the training was intense and 0:06:56.200 --> 0:07:01.640 emotionally intense, psychologically intense, physically intense. By there was one 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:07.239 production where the company formed an invisible circle of support 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:10.800 around each other, and that was his He saw the 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:15.720 ensemble and I remember, I mean it was it bores 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:19.720 to Marn's production of You from the Bridge, and oh, 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:24.280 I could cry now thinking of it. It was an extraordinary, 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:30.600 powerful experience to be a student actor but in a 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:34.640 professional mindset. And I remember our curtain call and the 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:41.320 pride and the power, and it was an amazing moment 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:44.840 that changed the course of all of us. And we 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:47.960 understood what ensemble meant, and we understood what support meant, 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:50.880 and we understood the power we had as individuals and 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:56.160 as actors. And John saw that in his actors. There's 0:07:56.240 --> 0:07:59.320 been a couple of experiences that I've had that it's 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:02.320 that same ensemble mentality. So that's the other thing I 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:05.800 have to interject here when I left Juilliard and left 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:07.960 the acting company, and then of course landed musicals. We 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.080 all did, by the way David Stiers did, Kevin did, 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:15.400 Mandy did. We all ended musicals. But there's only a 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:17.120 couple of times where I felt I had that kind 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:19.760 of ensemble. And one was Lima's in London because it 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:22.679 was a Royal Shakespeare Company actors. And the other was Gypsy, 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:26.920 where every actor owned their part, big or small, and 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:30.160 gave themselves to the play every single night. The other 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:33.400 one was Sweeney Too, because and our stage manager said 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:35.960 in Sweeney that we acted more like a band than 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:36.920 a bunch of actors. Right. 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:39.720 I love that feeling. So the acting company thing lasts 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:40.560 for how long? You didn't? 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:42.920 I did it for four years. Nobody goes in for 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:44.960 four years anymore. We all did it for four years, 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:46.800 and you know, I thought about the other I don't 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:49.160 know why we stayed, except we thought, I'm sure we 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:51.520 all went we are not going to be able to 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:53.720 play these parts in real life. 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:55.440 And that was back in a time when there were 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:59.040 the very last vapors in the air here in New 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:01.839 York of the old way, and the old way was 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:04.480 you went downtown, and you sat carried a spear for Joe, 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:06.160 or you carried a spear in the park. And there 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:08.400 was an apprenticeship in the theater. And if you didn't 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:11.319 have cred in the theater, Raoul and Chris Walkin and 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:15.079 Sir Gurney and you and Kevin and everybody, everybody who 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:18.199 were the princes and princesses and Mandy of the theater 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:21.280 in New York, that's where you headed. So when you 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:23.959 finished the acting company and you've decided, you know, you've 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:26.400 done enough, it's four years, which was a typical of people. 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:27.760 Then where do you go? 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:30.959 Then we came home, Kevin and I came home. 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:34.600 And so you're with Kevin. Yes, Kevin and you were 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:36.320 Kevin and you were a. 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:39.520 Couple for seven years. We broke up, we got back together, 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:42.200 we broke up, we got back together, we broke up, 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:43.040 We got back. 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:44.840 To Can you imagine the children you would have had 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:48.840 for him? Good God, in heaven, good God, they would 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:51.640 have a theater big enough to house that person's ego 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:52.240 and talent. 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:56.160 So we both came home and Kevin went off and 0:09:56.240 --> 0:10:01.960 did a play, and I had auditions four I didn't 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:06.160 get the Baker's Wife Stephen Schwartz musical The Baker's Wife, 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:10.880 based on marcell Panos La fem de Boulange. But I 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:16.440 got a telephone call from David Merrick's general manager, Helen Nickerson, 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:19.080 and to ask if I was free because they wanted 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:21.800 me to come out to La to replace the leading lady. 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:25.160 And I wanted to do this musical so badly, so 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:31.440 I went out and I did my first big, gut wrenching, 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:37.320 rip out of your body, squish heart, the most horrible, 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:40.640 vulnerable experience of my life, The Baker's Wife. 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:44.000 Who does he think he is? Who could be as handsome? 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:46.559 Who could be as smart as he thinks he is? 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:50.760 He just had to snap his fingers. Women fall up? 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:54.040 What does he think that'll. 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:58.360 Slink away with him? Palla him rise? 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:04.679 And truly it was an unbelievable disaster, and we were 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:08.599 on the road for six months. That is that's the 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:11.760 big question. It is a great idea, it's a great film. 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:16.079 It had Stephen Schwartz music, it had Joe Melziner's last sets, 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:18.800 Jennifer Tipped into the lights and the one Oldrins did 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:22.400 the costumes. David Merrick was producing. It had all the 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:26.280 potential to be a smash hit, and it got progressive. 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:29.839 I joined two days after they opened in LA and 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:34.280 it got progressively worse. For you knew months and no 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:36.040 I thought it was going to be okay, but I 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.000 didn't realize that nobody realized what was really going to 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:42.760 happen to us and it and what did happen, Well, 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:45.960 six people were fired. The show never got better. David 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:48.240 Merrick came out. One of the most theatrical moments I've 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:51.120 ever had in my career was David Merrick showing up 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:53.679 in San Francisco. We were performing in San Francisco with 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:56.480 no director. We were told to stay after the show. 0:11:56.800 --> 0:11:59.400 They assembled us on the stage and there was it 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:02.959 was not lit except for the ghost light. David Merrick 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:04.720 showed up and stood in front of the ghost light, 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:08.280 so he was totally backlit. Couldn't see his face, only 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:11.560 saw the outline of a long coat and a bowler hat, 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:15.480 and proceeded to ask us to go into rehearsal for nothing, 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:18.880 so that we could save this wonderful show. And it 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:23.400 was so dramatic, because he's incredibly dramatic, and so in 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:26.280 the light of day, everybody went what we had just 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:29.320 gotten out of rehearsal for nothing. We were in rehearsal 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:33.160 every single day, performing at night for six months. And 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:36.160 what we rehearsed that day when in that night, only 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:38.200 to rehearse the next day, and that stuff would come out, 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:40.319 some new stuff would go in that was not better 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:42.000 than what we had just taken. 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:44.839 We're in a laboratory. We were in you were in 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:45.920 Doctor Frankenstein's. 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:49.240 The people were dying, the rats were dying, the rats 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:53.120 were losing air. Oh my god, it was so horrible. 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:55.640 And you know, there's an expression, Larry Galbart's expression. If 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:58.920 Hitler were alive today, his punishment should be to send 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:00.720 him out on the road with the music in trouble. 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:04.679 I did a movie once in the movie was going 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:06.640 really badly and said, this is as if the government 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:07.360 made movies. 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:10.320 You know, I've always said, there's a fine line between 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:11.839 a hit and a flop. And you don't know what 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:14.120 it is. You don't know why it is a hit, 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:16.319 and you don't know why it is a flop. You know, 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:19.360 if it's really terrible, you know right off the bat, 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:21.760 and you're not going to take the job. But if 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:23.559 it has the potential to be a hit and ends 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:26.400 up being a flop. You can't figure it out, so you. 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:30.679 Do this show and when you come out of that, like, 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:32.800 what's the lesson for you? Was there something you said 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:35.640 to yourself? Never again am I going to no? 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:38.520 I went into a depression for nine months. I was 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:40.839 on valium to sleep for the six months, and I 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:44.720 went into a valium depression for nine months, gained forty pounds, 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:50.439 woke up went what the hell just happened? And I 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:51.640 couldn't say you think that? 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:54.560 It is like like you care a lot. There's nothing 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:58.480 casual about you. There's nothing amateurish about you. You know, 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:01.040 you're very serious and you're very dedicated. You're very hard 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:04.920 working along with being very talented, and you feel these wounds. 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:05.920 Why do you think that is why? 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:09.640 Our business is subjective? It's all subjective, you know what 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:11.880 I mean? You talk to anybody from the baker's wife 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:13.680 and they can remember it as if it was yesterday, 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:17.320 and there's blood spilled, and we became blood a blood family. 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:20.160 I just said to me Jerome, who's in phantom now 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:24.320 and we see each other and what we recall is 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:27.440 that bonding in that horrible experience, and we can talk 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:29.320 about it as if it was yesterday. I think it's 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:32.840 because you know, it happened to us. Of course it 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:34.920 happened to the creators, but they're not on stage. We're 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:37.800 on stage succeeding or failing in front of an audience. 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:40.720 We're on stage being judged by the audience. We're the messengers. 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:41.960 We're the ones who take the hit. 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:45.160 We take the hit all the time. This was really abusive. 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.760 It was just horrible. I woke up one morning and 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:52.520 my face was filled with what looked like whiteheads. The 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:56.160 entire face had raised bumps on it. I didn't know 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:58.200 what it was. I went to sleep, well, God, and 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.200 the entire face. I maybe it was from the valume. 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:03.360 I have no idea what I was. Things were happening 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:06.400 to us, physically happening to us. And when does the. 0:15:06.400 --> 0:15:08.680 Sun come out for you? When does the sun come 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:10.920 out for Patty Lapone? Career wise? 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:13.040 I think when I go back to work with David Mammott, 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:16.600 I go back and work with David, I go into 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:19.320 I mean, go back David and I did it play 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:23.720 in Chicago? Was that after Baker's wife? Was that I see, 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:25.280 I'm trying to keep I'm trying to keep it straight. 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:26.400 What play did you do with him? First? 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:28.080 The very first play I did with him was a 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:30.920 thing called All Men or Whores Kevin sam ch Chiffish 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:33.120 and I did it at Yelle Rep for one night. 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:35.520 I said, Hey, Dave, we opened and closed in new Haven. 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:37.960 And new Haven used to be one of the circuit 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:40.480 you know, when you took a show out of town, 0:15:40.600 --> 0:15:42.760 your first stop was new Haven and it was a 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:47.240 big deciding factor. So we opened and closed, we bombed well. 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:50.440 And from there he gave me a play called The Woods. 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:51.960 What happens when you do the Woods? 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:55.160 Well, I go back to what I was trained for, 0:15:56.360 --> 0:16:00.880 and I go back to an honest environment pretty much. 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:04.480 And you're back to the circle of trust. Yeah, eving 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:06.360 feels right. This is more like it. 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:08.480 And it's a risk. It's a big risk. And when 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:10.800 every time I work with David I learned so much 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:13.320 as a human being. Was that approximately and I think 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:17.160 late nineteen seventy six, seventy seven, So you had a 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:19.680 relationship with him, yes, well we met him in thirty 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:22.640 five years. Yes, yes, and I will I will drop 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.960 everything to do a play by David everything. I don't 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:29.080 care how risky. It is. I learned so much from 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:33.120 David and I instinctually have the mammot speak. That's something 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:37.440 that I know how to do his rhythms, and I 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:39.280 think it's because it's someone said I cut my teeth 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:42.800 on David. David's words when you know, starting with allmen 0:16:42.880 --> 0:16:46.080 or whores and the woods and the water engine and Edmund. 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:48.480 I had finished Devita and I went down to the 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:53.600 Provincetome playoffs at the opening of Edmund, and I said, 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:55.480 why couldn't I have been in this? In the back 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:57.360 of my head? And not two weeks later I got 0:16:57.400 --> 0:16:59.760 a call from Gregorymoser and David saying would you replace 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:02.200 to Linda's a Chicago actress, and she wanted to go 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:04.920 back to Chicago. She was playing What the Wife. She 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:06.640 came on and she was at the beginning, beginning, That's 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:09.320 that's it, you know, and she visits broke. 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:11.360 The dish or whatever it is exactly I'm leaving. She's 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:12.680 what do you mean you're leaving? Of course we're leaving. 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:14.520 We'read geting dress book and I think, no, I'm leaving 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:15.879 you what do you know? 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:16.040 This? 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:16.480 Will you know? 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:18.720 I begged Mammon to give me the right to do 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:20.399 the movie, but he gave it to Bill Mason. 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:24.800 And so I joined the company and my agent was 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:26.800 so furious with me. He said, this will hurt your 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:30.760 negotiational you know ability, And I went for what you know, 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:33.600 If anybody in the business knows who I am, they 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:36.359 know that this is where I came from before I 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:40.280 did Ivita, and they did not want me to go backwards. 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:42.119 They didn't want me to go to the Guthrie to 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:44.320 do Rosalind and As You Like It. But I was 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.200 able to work with leave U Chule, a great Romanian 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:49.560 director which is passed god rest is soul, in his 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:52.919 internationally famous production of As You Like It at the Guthnment. 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:54.679 I was raked over the calls by the critics. One 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:57.640 critic said, you know, basically, what was Ivita doing here? 0:17:57.880 --> 0:17:59.760 And it was It was difficult, as you say to 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:02.520 rad all that, but I kept doing it because I 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:05.160 was given the opportunity to do it, and I wasn't 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:07.159 going to say no, I have to wait for the 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:09.840 next ev de part to come along. If I waited 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:12.280 for the next ev de part to come along my 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:14.159 ten years, I'd still be waiting. 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:20.680 Is a Vita. The next big thing for you, recollection 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:22.720 Avida is the big thing is the. 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:25.240 Thing that was nineteen seventy nine. But in because how 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:30.280 does that happen? I auditioned Joanna Merlin is how princess 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:33.320 casting director, and of course how directed, how directed, And 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:35.679 as I said earlier, all of those people had come 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:38.960 to see this acting company at Juilliard, this unsemble. 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:39.560 They were aware of you. 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:42.000 They were aware, yes, And so I was brought in 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:44.200 for a preliminary audition, and then I was told to 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:46.440 make myself free, make sure that I made myself free 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:49.200 for the final callback. And as I understand it, How 0:18:49.320 --> 0:18:53.399 wanted to cast actors in the role the roles as 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:55.479 opposed to just musical theater people. So I think that's 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:57.320 one of the reasons why I got in there, because 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:01.600 he knew, they knew I was an actor. Between there 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:05.200 were several plays, there was stage directions by Israel Horovitz, 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:07.359 John Glover, Ellen Green and I down at the public 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:09.200 while Merrill's. 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:11.800 Doing You're doing everything you can to scratch that inch 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:13.200 of yours and not become a star. 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:15.440 No, I get it, No, no, it was it was 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:17.400 it was the available work. 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:20.119 We're about to talk about the moment when perhaps one 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:23.760 of the greatest musical stars of the last fifty years 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:27.760 is born on Broadway. So let's talk about how that 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:30.439 the moment this happens, how Prince wants people who can 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:33.080 act and sing. And you go to the make yourself 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:35.159 available to the final callback and what happened. How do 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:36.560 you feel when you're in that room. 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:39.879 Well, I was very mad because I was actually shooting 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:42.960 nineteen forty one and there was a little issue about 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:45.800 the Larch movie. Yes, about letting me go, and the 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:48.399 producer said, if you're not back tomorrow or the next day, 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:51.879 you'll never work in Hollywood again. So I left Hollywood 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:55.040 with those words ringing in my ear. And I woke 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:57.159 up in New York to the nineteen seventy eight blizzard 0:19:57.200 --> 0:19:59.000 where they are like two feet of snow on the ground. 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:00.600