Patti LuPone, famously fired by Andrew Lloyd Webber from her role as Norma Desmond in the 1993 London production of Sunset Boulevard, is putting old grudges aside – kinda, sorta – and plans to see the new Jamie Lloyd-directed Broadway production next Wednesday.
In a deliciously on-point LuPone appearance on ABC’s The View today, the former Evita was in peak candid form in delivering a side-eye “compliment” about the hot new Broadway Sunset revival starring Nicole Scherzinger as Norma.
First, a little background. In 1993, LuPone created the role of Norma Desmond in the original London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard, directed by Trevor Nunn. The project was a re-teaming of LuPone and Lloyd Webber following their massive success with Evita, but history didn’t repeat itself: LuPone was abruptly fired by the composer, who subsequently hired Glenn Close to open the show in Los Angeles and eventually on Broadway.
LuPone had been contracted to open both the L.A. and Broadway productions, and the money she got from the agreement went to a good cause: She has ever since referred to the swimming pool at her Connecticut estate as the “Andrew Lloyd Webber Memorial Pool.”
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On The View today, with LuPone promoting both Disney+’s Agatha All Along and her Broadway two-hander with Mia Farrow The Roommate, the Broadway icon was asked whether she had seen the new largely reimagined – and very well reviewed – Broadway production of Sunset Blvd.
“I can’t wait to see it!” she belted, adding that she’s scheduled to see the show next Wednesday.
“I’m very curious to see what Jamie Lloyd has done with this,” she said, then added that she wishes talented directors like Lloyd would focus on “original material, support new playwrights and new composers and lyricists instead of things that we’ve seen.”
“But I’m curious to see it,” she said, adding, “It’s a lumbering musical” – here she intoned the word lumbering like it carried an Agatha All Along curse. “It always has been, so I’m curious to see what he’s going to do to make it less lumbering.”
With that, she burst into her trademark laugh, only to stop when cohost Joy Behar mentioned the new production’s good reviews.
“Well, we’ll see,” LuPone said. “There’s no accounting for taste.”
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