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jmslsu01
Registered User
Registered:
6/9/2003
From:
northern VA | posted: 3/20/2005 at 6:08:40 PM ET
via The Sondheim Review, Vol. XI, no.3
p. 28 "Patti LuPone: Telling the Story"
"...I auditioned to replace Bernadette Peters [in Sunday in the Park];they gave it to Maryann Plunkett and I died a grisly death. I remember Steve saying, "I don't want you belting; I don't want any belting." I said, "Give me a shot!" And they gave it to Maryann Plunkett. [She sighs] [Then in 1987] James Lapine and Steve called me to play the witch in Into the Woods. I told them I wanted to be Cinderella. They said," Come on in,we'll audition," but they still wanted me for the witch."
However,she was offered Anything Goes,and of course she accepted.
Is this common knowledge? This is the first I've heard of it. I know she was approached for the ITW revival,but I don't know the reason for her not taking/getting the part.
However...the next line includes this parenthetical after the AG mention,which states [winning her second Tony Award for best actress in a musical]. I understand mistakes happen,but no one caught this before it went to press? Or thought about checking the Tony website? Weird,since Joanna Gleason's win was so celebrated.
Jenn
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 3/20/2005 at 7:18:50 PM ET
I've certainly never heard that story.
Dot? Cinderella?? What was she thinking?
Maybe she was making some kind of sly, self-deprecating joke. That's my first reaction.
|  moljul
Registered User
Registered:
4/2/2001
From:
New York
Fav. BP CD: I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
Fav. BP Song: Dublin Lady
| posted: 3/20/2005 at 8:33:09 PM ET
I'm sure if that story is accurate, they were approaching her for the role at the beginning of the shows production. It eventually went to Ellen Folley and then Betty Buckley. Bernadette came in later when it came to Broadway and if everyone remembers the story, it was Bernadette who asked to play the witch. Sondheim and Lapine said they would never have asked her because they didn't think she would agree to play a role that was the secondary lead.
| jmslsu01
Registered User
Registered:
6/9/2003
From:
northern VA | posted: 3/20/2005 at 8:34:48 PM ET
I believe her when she said she wanted to play Dot (her reason for playing Yvonne in the recent concert production with Audra was that if she couldn't play the lead,she'd at least play something in the show),but I think she was somewhat joking about Cinderella.
From the same interview:
"I wanted to be in Sunday in the Park originally as Dot. If I can't play Dot,then I'm going to play Yvonne;I'm going to be in that environment. I was trained as an ensemble actor. It's not always about the lead. It's about the atmosphere,about walking into that world that is Sunday in the Park with George,watching others in their roles. You want to be on the stage in whatever capacity. I'm not going to turn it down because I don't get the lead."
So,I'm convinced that she's sincere in wanting to play Dot. As for Cinderella-I think she was putting Sondheim and Lapine on. Cinderella is a throwaway comment and ITW is never mentioned again,but she discusses Dot in two separate answers.
Jenn
| PTM
Registered User
Registered:
6/26/2003 | posted: 3/20/2005 at 9:45:26 PM ET
I don't recall hearing about LuPone auditioning for Dot before; that's interesting. It's sort of fascinating to contemplate her in that part although I'm thinking some of it could have been kinda grotesque if the role was unaltered.
I have heard her tell that story about wanting to play Cinderella and I always figured she was joking but since she keeps saying that, I'm beginning to think she may be serious. In that case I agree with Karen -- what could she have been thinking.
According to this interview with Betty Buckley, she was in the first workshop of ITW
http://www.sondheim.com/features/betty_buckley.html
I heard different stories about why LuPone didn't do the revival, one had to do with the amount of money she wanted and the other had to do with who the producers of the show were willing to bankroll the revival with.
Here's something I'd never heard before that came up in the BWW thread of ITW witches:
"The producers of WOODS did not submit Bernadette's name for a nomination because she had left the production a few months into the run to make a movie. She came into the show late in the pre-production process knowing she could open the show but could not stay with it more than a few months. It was by mutual agreement that Joanna Gleason's name be submitted and indeed she won the Tony."
New York Magazine had a lengthy profile of Rocco Landesman following him as ITW was developing. He and Lapine were at odds a little over Rapunzel's tower and the cost of having it rise from the trapdoor below. The story then quotes Landesman's portion of his phone conversation with Lapine, "'Really? Is that a fact? If we can have Bernadete Peters, you can have Rapunzel's tower. You're kidding. That's great. That is thrilling. Our advance will pay for the tower . . . You just talked to her? I'll send her flowers. Did she say how long she wants to be in it? Wouldn't she want to stay for the Tony awards? Boy, what a great ... I am ecstatic. I was excited about the show before. Now I can hardly contain myself.'"
"Bernadette as the witch. I told Lapine he could have the tower if we got Bernadette."
The profile ends at a run-through of Woods two weeks before the start of previews and says that Sondheim can be heard laughing at almost everything Benadette says and does. Then "Landesman shows up late and comes into the rehearsal room just as Peters starts to sing a soft, imploring ballad called Stay with Me. He stops and stands transfixed, listening to the song and staring at the back of Peters's head. 'It's not all business,' he says later. 'And it's not all a gamble. Some of it is beauty, pure and simple.'"
PTM
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 3/20/2005 at 10:00:13 PM ET
Oh God, reading that reminds me that I love Bernadette so much that hearing those things makes me want to cry.
"...beauty, pure and simple."
|  Jean
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2003 | posted: 3/21/2005 at 7:16:41 AM ET
Very interesting about Patti and...Dot-Cinderella-and Witch (one wonders how she feels about Bernadette).
And finally, the answer to the question: how much is a big star worth? A moving tower!
This is one of the most interesting threads I've read in a while--thanks, ladies (hmm, not so sure about that), you made my day.
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