Bio
Patti LuPone is an American singer and actress best known for her Tony Award-winning performance as Eva Perón in the 1979 stage musical Evita and for her Olivier Award-winning performance as Fantine in the original London cast of Les Misérables.
She is also known for her Tony Award winning performance as Mama Rose in the 2008 revival of Gypsy.
Other Broadway appearances include creating the role of Lucia in the musical Women on the Verge of A Nervous Breakdown, for which she was nominated for Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards and starring in The Anarchist, written and directed by David Mamet. The Anarchist, marked a reunion with the writer-director with whom LuPone has enjoyed a long collaboration.
She has acted in his plays The Woods, The Water Engine, Edmond and The Old Neighborhood, as well as in his films Heist and State and Main.
Her other stage credits include Joanne in the NY Philharmonic's concert production of Stephen Sondheim's Company, and appearance as guest soloist with the NY City Ballet in the company's production of The Seven Deadly Sins, her debut with the Los Angeles Opera in Weill-Brecht's Mahagonny, the world premiere of Jake Heggie's opera To Hell and Back with San Francisco's Baroque Philharmonia Orchestra, Mrs. Lovett in John Doyle's Broadway production of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations); the title role in Marc Blitzstein's Regina, a musical version of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes at the Kennedy Center, Fosca in a concert version of Stephen Sondheim's Passion, which was also broadcast on PBS' Live From Lincoln Center, the City Center Encores! production of Cole Porter's Can-Can, the NY Philharmonic's productions of Leonard Bernstein's Candide and Sweeney Todd (NY Phil debut) and performances on Broadway in Michael Frayn's Noises Off and Terrence McNally's Master Class.
Beginning in 2000 she's appeared regularly in the Ravinia Festival's Sondheim series, starring as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, Desiree in A Little Night Music, Fosca in Passion, Cora Hooper in Anyone Can Whistle, Madame Rose in Gypsy and in two different roles in Sunday in the Park with George.
A graduate of the first class of the Drama Division of New York's Juilliard School and a founding member of John Houseman's The Acting Company, in which she toured the country for four years, her subsequent New York credits include Dario Fo's Accidental Death of An Anarchist and Israel Horovitz' Stage Directions as well as performances in the musicals Pal Joey for City Center Encores!, Anything Goes (Tony Award nomination, Drama Desk Award), The Cradle Will Rock, Oliver!, Working and The Robber Bridegroom (Tony Award nomination).
In London, she won the Olivier Award for her performances as Fantine in the original production of Les Miserables and in the Acting Company production of The Cradle Will Rock.
She also created the role of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard and recreated her Broadway performance of Maria Callas in Master Class.
Her film appearances include Taylor Hackford's Parker, Nancy Savoca's Union Square, City By The Sea opposite Robert DeNiro, Spike Lee's Summer of Sam, Bruce Beresford's Driving Miss Daisy and Peter Weir's Witness.
Best known to television audiences for her performance as Libby Thatcher on the ABC series Life Goes On, her appearances include Glee, 30 Rock, Army Wives, Ugly Betty, Will & Grace, the Emmy Award winning PBS broadcasts of Passion and Sweeney Todd, PBS Great Performances' Candide, Oz, the TNT film Monday Night Mayhem, Frasier (1998 Emmy nomination); Law & Order and An Evening with Patti LuPone (PBS).
She also had a recurring role in the horror anthology television series American Horror Story: Coven.
Recordings include Patti LuPone at Les Mouches, the 2008 Broadway cast recording of Gypsy, The Lady With the Torch, Sweeney Todd (both the 2006 Broadway revival cast recording and 2000 live performance recording on NY Philharmonic's Special Editions Label), Matters of the Heart (cited as one of the best recordings of 1999 by both Time Out/NY and The Times of London), Pal Joey, Heatwave with John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra; Sunset Boulevard, and Patti LuPone Live.
She also recorded a live performance CD of her critically acclaimed new concert Far Away Places, which she will perform an expanded version of in November at Carnegie Hall, marking her fourth solo concert at that venerable venue.
She is the author of the NY Times best-seller Patti LuPone: A Memoir.