BWW Flashback: Randy Rainbow (Re)Reads Patti LuPone's Autobiography- Patti Auditions for EVITA

sang my first show tune when I was just three

My mother knew I'd go far. I'm going to be. I've been a show queen since way before Glee

Now I'm a Broadway star. Not exactly, but my friend has a friend who knows Edina Menzel

You know, I mean, sort of. So things are happening, you'll see. But till my ship comes in, I've got a lot to tell you

Let's start chewing the scenery with. Welcome to chewing the scenery with

Me. Turn off your cell phones. Chapter 7

I Vita, Part 1. Audition and Out of Town, 1979. It made me a star

It was the most difficult role I had been given to play. It also gave me a reputation and a shadow of controversy that has followed me

to this day and took its toll on every aspect of my life

Nothing has ever come easy for me. What many believed must have been a glorious ascent into Hetty stardom was for me a trial by fire with a constant threat of being burned at the stake

But I did it. I accomplished this part, and I wouldn't change any of it

Okay, that's not entirely true. There's a shitload I would have changed

But ultimately, it was worth it. Why? Because of the lessons, the lessons, the lessons. The lessons

The Lessons. The Lessons. The height of anticipation over the Broadway production of Ivita was pretty much the first of its kind for a musical

There's no question that it was and is a benchmark in musical theater

The music had been around for a couple of years. In 1976, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Weber put out a concept album of Ivita

As I listened to it, all I could think was that this guy, Andrew Lloyd-Weber, hated women

The high notes in the score, which the character of Ivita sits on all night long, are placed in the Passagio, or the passage

The Passagio are the weakest notes to produce as the voice passes from chest to head I had to audition for Ivita There was only one problem Every actress in the country wanted this part Barbara Streisand and Margaret Merrill Streep Faye Dunaway

Clearly, Patty Lepone, with one pre-Broadway disaster to her credit, was a dark horse

But what they were finding out was almost nobody could sing it. There are still probably only a handful of women who can sing Evita in the original keys

Joanna Merlin was the casting director. She'd seen me on stage at Juilliard and with the acting company

She knew I could act, but at that point, nobody knew whether I could sing

After the preliminary audition, Joanna asked me to keep myself free for the final callback

Meanwhile, in October of 1978, I was doing catch-penny twist by Stuart Parker at the Hartford stage

when I got an audition for Stephen Spielberg's film, 1941. Nancy Allen got cast in the role

Stephen, however, liked my audition so much that he created a small part for me so I could be in the movie

My part was tiny For some reason I had billing and a picture in the end credits I had one line Say you devil how about a deviled egg

I was in heaven. Naturally, I then got the call to return to New York for the Evita final callback

I went to Buzz and asked for special permission to go to New York. No way, he said

If you're not back on Tuesday morning, Buzz threatened, your career in Hollywood is over

People really talk like that out there. But even that was thrilling to me

I had a career in Hollywood. I flew to New York on the 18th of February, 1978

I went home to my apartment, and on the morning of the 19th, I woke up to a foot of snow on the ground

My heart sank, but I headed for the audition anyway. When I got out of the subway, I was at the wrong end of 42nd Street

and had to trudge two long blocks to the Schubert Theater. I was pissed off because I knew in my heart I wasn't getting out of JFK that night

which meant that I wouldn't be on the set in Los Angeles the next day

which meant that when I finally did get back to Los Angeles, my career in Hollywood really would be over

Oh shit