What you need to knowAn evening with Broadway legend Patti LuPone has opened at the Leicester Theatre, West End. LuPone is best known for her Tony Award-winning performance as Eva Perón in Evita on Broadway and creating the role of Fantine in the original London production of Les Misérables.
The show also features Grammy-award winning US musician and radio presenter Seth Rudetsky, who interviews LuPone about her Broadway career and accompanies the star on piano during her musical numbers. Runs until 23 June.
What the critics like"Anybody who has ever enjoyed a musical on the stage should see this show," says Laura Thompson in the Daily Telegraph. This miraculous close-up encounter with LuPone works because of her adamantine brilliance and pianist/interviewer Rudetsky's, take-no-prisoners New York energy and wit.
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LuPone's show is "weird, yes, but wonderful too", says Clive Davis in The Times. Audiences come away marvelling at the grit and charisma of a Broadway legend who sings up a storm and sinks her claws into one or two old enemies along the way – what a night.
It's a light, revealing and often hilarious evening, interspersed with performances from a career full of musical theatre's strongest female roles, says Scott Matthewman on The Stage. "London is in the presence of more than a little touch of star quality."
What they don't likeLuPone talks a lot about her life's work and while she offers some lovely insights into shows many know and love, some will be of more interest to the die-hard fans, says Alice Chappell on Broadway World. Also "LuPone would have come off rather better if she'd sang more and discussed her lack of affection for Andrew Lloyd-Webber less".
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