Don’t Mess with Patti LuPone

During the closing week of “Gypsy” on Broadway, Patti LuPone was heading into the climax of her song “Rose’s Turn” when the Broadway diva realized “you either have it… or you’ve had it.” And boy did she have it.

Listen as Patti LuPone stops the production, turns up the house lights and has a unruly audience member ushered out for taking photos during the show. Pretty intense.

We saw Patti LuPone and her “Evita” co-star Mandy Patinkin represent here at the Cadillac Palace in Chicago, singing some of their favorite songs from Broadway in “An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin.”

If you’re a fan of these two performers or musical theater in general, it’s really great opportunity to see two of the genre’s biggest stars tearing it up and trying to string a narrative out of some classic songs from musicals.

But the glaring omission was the lack of any songs from the musical “Evita.” Both starred in the 1978 rock opera loosely based on the Argentine political leader Eva Peron. “Evita” was a breakthrough moment in Patinkin’s carreer and cemented these performers as icons.

And for many drag queens (like me) Evita has always been one of our favorite musicals starring a bad-ass diva like Lupone. So you can imagine my dissapointment when “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” was listed in the program, but never made it into the hour and a half show. I even considered breaking out my own flash camera just to upset her and unleash the beast of talent that is Patti LuPone.

– Click here to buy tickets to see “An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin.”

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