What Could Have Been

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Every career has its frustrations. Even Patti LuPone, who sports the most impressive theater resume the modern era could offer, thinks about the shows that got away.

Or sometimes, the classic roles that came before her time: Annie Oakley in "Annie Get Your Gun." Adelaide in "Guys and Dolls." Nellie Forbush in "South Pacific" — though the 58-year-old singer says she did get to do that one in high school.

"My career constantly takes me by surprise. I have no control of it. It just sort of goes," LuPone says.

But part of it now goes into performing "Coulda Woulda Shoulda," her touring revue of Broadway hits; the ones people know her for as well as the ones that passed her by.

"It’s show tune after show tune after show tune," says LuPone, who performs the revue at the Suncoast today through Sunday. Now the song list has grown from parts she "longed to play and never got a chance" to some of the roles originally sung by men.

"I think I tell a story, whatever song I’m singing," she says. "I try to tell the story or my point of view of the story. I guess I’m always in a character when I sing."

LuPone was the U.S. star of "Evita," the first Fantine in "Les Miserables" and the British Norma Desmond of "Sunset Boulevard" (getting dropped from the Broadway debut resulted in a legal settlement from Andrew Lloyd Webber).

But the star who attached her name to so many ’80s blockbusters hasn’t found many new musicals to replace her Stephen Sondheim bias, and doesn’t believe Broadway’s commercial and creative interests are as aligned as they once were.

"It’s different now. How do I say this diplomatically? I don’t hear the melody," she says of recent musicals. "Some stuff is fantastic but it’s of a piece; not standards like the good old days."

She heard Christine Ebersole sing "Around the World," the big song from "Grey Gardens," at various benefits. "But out of context it made no sense," she says. "It’s not ‘Oh What a Beautiful Morning.’ "

The current trend of Broadway hits such as "Legally Blonde" and "Young Frankenstein" spun from movies isn’t helping those who try to create original works, she notes. "I wish the producers who have big, huge mega-hits would support and nurture the young playwrights and composers and have black box theaters where they could try out their material and let them grow with their audience.

"Nobody’s willing to take a chance. It has to be a surefire hit or there’s hell to pay," she says. "Unfortunately, that’s not art. … It’s sort of our inherent right to create, to tell stories. America’s being robbed of its culture. We’re being robbed of a voice. It’s a pity there isn’t a more nurturing environment in America, period."

A Vegas Thanksgiving weekend for LuPone was to include a family trip to the Grand Canyon and a performance of "O." She was last in town for a 2003 concert at Artemus Ham Hall. This time, it’s for casino shows, albeit a locals-oriented casino with an intimate showroom.

But should the sound of slot machines trickle in, they won’t phase her. "In the ’80s, I played Atlantic City," LuPone says. "I remember the first time I played — I don’t know if this was the owner of the casino or what he was. I said, ‘What did you think?’

"And he said, ‘A high roller walked out. Don’t put ’em to sleep at the end of the show. Make ’em go back to the casino.’ "

Now she has a new plan to keep ’em awake in a show that has only solo piano accompaniment. "I want to have a bingo game on the piano and call out numbers between songs. With the little ball in the little cage? It could be so much fun!"

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0288.