Randy Rainbow (Re)Reads Patti LuPone's Autobiography- Patti Lands the Part in SWEENEY TODD!

Sang my first show tune when I was just three

My mother knew I'd go far I've been a show queen since way before Glee

Now I'm a Broadway star Well, not exactly, but my friend has a friend who knows Idina 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 her

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

Turn off your cell phones. In April of 2005, I went home briefly before leaving for Portland, Oregon to perform my concert Matters of the Heart

when I got a telephone call from my current agent, Gary Gersh. This time the question was not, are you interested

This time the question was, do you play an instrument? I began studying music in the North Port Long Island public school system, whose educators believed that a music education was as crucial to the development of a child as math or sports

Do you play an instrument? Yes. Why are you asking? Because they're mounting a Broadway production of Sweeney Todd, and they need singers who also play instruments, he answered

I had an edge on snagging this Nelly. The producers arranged for the director, John Doyle, to fly from London to Portland to meet me

I finished the show and went to my hotel lobby to find my visitor

There was a gentleman sitting in a chair looking very jet-lagged. You must be John Doyle, I said. I'm Patti LuPone

At this he stood up and asked, Where can we get a drink? I took him to a great little wine bar that was right around the corner from my hotel I drank lots of wine he had several gin and tonics and we talked about life our families and our backgrounds It was the best meeting I ever had with a director

Being a normal person clinched the role for me in John's eyes

In addition to being a great director in rehearsal, John also has a keen eye for casting actors in the right roles

Then he brings out the best in the actors he's chosen, and he trusts his decisions

That's one thing that can bother me about creative staff. They cast us, then they second-guess their own casting decisions and get mad at the actor for whatever reason

See Sunset Boulevard chapters. The Eugene O'Neill is a great theater, and it was well-suited for Sweeney Todd

It's also one of Broadway's haunted houses. I had a ghost in my dressing room

The ghost let me know he was there one day when I thought I'd stepped on one of my dresser's feet as I backed away from the closet

She was ten feet away. The ghost was right behind me, or so we both thought

The ghost would turn the shower light on and close the dressing room door to let us know he was there

I liked him. He was friendly. And a male. I played several instruments in the show, not the least of which was the tuba

I became very fond of my tuba. So fond, I actually named her Irene

I had a teacher in Connecticut whose friend lent me her tuba while I studied

Her name was Irene. Irene, the three-quarter tuba, was placed in my dressing room closet every night

And as I closed the door, I always said, Good night, Irene

Okay, it's not the best story in the book, but it's a happy memory, and you can never have too many of those

Whatever