Patti LuPone-Interview Plus "Rainbow High"

Merv Griffin interviews LuPone after celebrating her first year in Evita

[@jimmyk5769]

She used to babysit for my cousins when she lived in Northport, on Long Island. I remember when she got famous in Evita, my aunt and uncle saw her backstage and brought me back an autographed Playbill. I eventually met Patti after her concert in Albany, NY. I was able to get a note to her telling her who I was related to, and she recognized my last name and invited me backstage. She was really nice and so appreciative of the praise. Her brother Robert was in the original cast of A Chorus Line back in 1975. I bowled with him at a charity bowling event in NYC and he also remembered my last name. Nice people and VERY talented!

[@tatemitchell1479]

Sir, you are so incredible lucky! Thank you so much for sharing this amazing story!! ❤

[@marisafaith9975]

She's such a shy girl back then😂

[@chrispatton6500]

An interviewer asking intelligent questions. And wow, I love seeing Patti pre-super-diva phase. (But... I kinda love her modern iteration, too)

[@rebeccaxcarol]

I think of this performance every day tbh

[@ADRHYN]

The Hair , The Outfit, ITS GIVING

[@fangwolf9209]

wow she was so different back then.

[@s.c.paulson6797]

She's the same.

[@Nosjjddjjd]

@@s.c.paulson6797 Sarah Paulson is that you

[@melfortune5855]

She was on coke.

[@janphipps1492]

So here I am in 2023 watching this! So grateful to see this young woman who would become the legendary talent we know today. What a gift! To see how genuine she was early In her career.

[@Matthewgreen7779311]

Wow! Powerful performance

[@seeteeturk4256]

Amazing - I just can't watch this enough!

[@kpire6066]

Stored and filed under Broadway OG. ❤ Masterclass. Unbelievable. How do you ever approach this song as a performer seeing that? Evita was my OG intro to Broadway soundtracks. The whole thing is a mind journey that is ecstatic and complex. ❤❤❤

[@eycee14]

2:46 - 3:15 she's soooo cute!!! Love her!!!😍😍😍

[@LydiaTF96]

What an amazing interview

[@stephaniestanley8041]

Absolutely gorgeous

[@haydenanderson8804]

LOVELOVELOVE THOSE CONSONANTS PATTI

[@KenDanieli]

Regarding the military in the airport in Romania.... same era I remember military in Italian airports, with rifles. Fighter jets going overhead out in the Italian countryside.

[@TWlNKS]

She looks and acts similarly to Anne Hathaway here. Weird.

[@AndreyKiselev1994]

She's very Anne here, that's true. Which is especially funny considering how she originated Fantine in Les Mis and Anne portrayed the same character in the screen adaptation.

[@FlimFlamFloom]

More like Anne acts like Patti... Considering Patti did it first.

[@barbraseville8984]

Wow. So much.

[@ellenl.shepard-documentary7859]

Bravo!

[@mzmiller52]

Great voice back then. And those lips. The cast album rendition is much better. Evita was Mandy patinkin’s show in previews when I saw it. Nowhere near this. My partner went back 6 months later and said she was great. S saw them both just a few years ago together in concert. Mandy outshone patti once again.

[@barbraseville8984]

Will there be *A* part on Broadway that strong? Goes on to create Norma and Fantine, and win more Tonys for Rose, JoAnn. Not to mention Mrs Lovett...plus War Paint and Women on The Verge.

[@hefinrosser8685]

People hear patti complain about the role of EVITA. But ... has any one asked Elaine Paige the ORIGINAL stage Evita about her experience?? patti lupone wasn't the first stage evita and people forget that!!

[@jameswyatt6648]

truth pattis problem is she killed her voice triyng to over showboat on those jumps elaine suffered some vocal problems once in a great while during performing evita all actresses have but patti over did it and damaged her vocal chords several times. by the time patti got to australia she had a wonderful vocal coach there that taught her how to handle the score without ruining those amazing vocal chords.

[@Itstonytime77]

When you are singing a score like this 7 times a week you basically can’t do much else. Got to be on vocal rest.

[@amandac.6477]

Ela só precisava de um copo de água pra molhar o bico 😔💓 3:10

[@alvarocastro1997]

love her! but she look kinda tired

[@destinyymurrayy6424]

Alvaro probably was.

[@alvarocastro1997]

Hamilzel Ripley yes i imagine, with all the work

[@s.c.paulson6797]

LOL did you here the intro? She just got off stage!

[@rugby8-Philadelphia]

@Alvaro .......shhhhhhhhhhh!

[@efren7592]

☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️

[@jackl.gansner6102]

woah, I know it’s Patti LuPone singing Rainbow High, but can we talk about that conversation about communism?? Ima need to my research 🧐

[@Chaneloweenz]

what about it?

[@dohaperson1]

This is when she liked Evita. After Sunset Boulevard, she suddenly changed her mind and says Evita and Sunset are terrible and ALW can't write music. Unfortunately, Patti, your career and legacy will always be connected to him - a bad composer in your mind.

[@Cc-is3is]

dohaperson1 actually she said sunset bolivard was bad and Evita was the only good thing he wrote

[@BlakeJAskew]

She has always been on the record as saying Evita was hard .

[@lukeworsham1757]

Not true.

[@bigred8432]

She's the queen of retcon

[@barbraseville8984]

I've never heard her say anything other than the scores are hard to sing.

[@davidbabcock2947]

Merv's musical director sucks! Patti Lupone deserved better!

[@bercg]

Agreed. The band is terrible and this is music that demands rhythmic precision and tightness in the ensemble.

[@user-rz9iw4jc7m]

She says in her memoir she is extremely high on cocaine in this interview. Just take that into account before judging her performance.

[@IkrAlzheimer]

John T. Omg is that 100% sure? :O

[@user-rz9iw4jc7m]

Cosmicbleh I mean, it’s in her memoir that she wrote so probably accurate

[@user-rz9iw4jc7m]

Cosmicbleh she was also high every night at évita during act 2

[@IkrAlzheimer]

John T. Oh, I definitely should buy it and read it. Thank you!

[@carly-fx3ut]

I read her memoir and don’t remember reading anything about that....

[@musicalaudios549]

I know shes an icon of Broadway but this is awful

[@musicalaudios549]

tonyguy2 it's far too harsh! And the falsetto and vibrato is all over the place. But your all entitled to your own opinion

[@tonyparadise7801]

Your entitled to your opinion as well.

[@mattgeiler8665]

Personally i find the harshness very telling of how intense the character is at that point of the story. I get how someone might not like that , but I guess it's an acting choice that makes sense.

[@tonyparadise7801]

It was the director's choice not her's Matt.

[@stageobsessed755]

I love how firm it is, she's a woman filled with a desperate obsession for power. The song builds bigger and bigger to accommodate her vanity, I really don't think it should be sung softly in any way. As for her vibrato, at certain points she doesnt stay on pitch but by doing it the same at every point the line is sung it becomes a stylistic choice. So its a bit harsh to say that her vibrato is all over the place. But as you say were all entitled. Out of interest do you like her voice in other songs or is it her vocal style your not a fan off.

[@michaelc2266]

Horrible she shouts instead of singing , Madonna does it better , she actually sings and her style is a much smoother sound.

[@barbraseville8984]

The song is defiance, rebellion, and anger. Of course it's an aggressive performance.

[@stuffoftaiwan]

Who needs smooth sound in Evita??? That’s hilarious 😂 All we need is a crazy bitxh on the stage

[@hrhbear]

I hated the way she sang this song!.....She doesnt sing it so witchy sounding in the play and she acts more like Norma Desmond on this show!.....

[@jameswyatt6648]

she did rainbow high this way in he rles mouches performances as well. she was irritated and exasperated with the score patti didnt get the coaching or support that say elaine paige, loni ackerman, derin altay, katherine evans, florence lacey and so on did. the worst problem was patti was told do it like elaine did instead of letting her develop her own nuances on evita. she had very little preparation compared to elaine. even still elaine her under study susannah fellows and all her replacements in london did suffer some because of the vocal demands of the score. after a few years they had to give the understudy some of the performances during the week on broadway and in the west end so the lead actresses could get some vocal rest. there were so many times before that the actresses were doing 8 performances 2 matinees a week with no break. a little insider info for you ;)

[@FlimFlamFloom]

You clearly have zero clue about the history of her Les Mouches show.

[@jonl7692]

awful

[@matthewohara2321]

I wouldn’t say she’s awful, yes the performance is a bit strange but that’s because it was a modified version of the song and she’s singing it out of context from the show. Also at the time of this being recorded she had done that show 8 times a week for 13 months, that’s got to have a lot of effect on her voice to be belting this out everyday. Ok bye bye have a nice day!