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Segerstrom Center for the Arts presents Broadway icon Patti LuPone, and her show Don’t Monkey with Broadway for one night only in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall on February 9, 2023 at 8:00pm. The performance was conceived and directed by Scott Wittman, with musical direction by Joseph Thalken.
Three-time Tony Award-winner Patti LuPone returns to Segerstrom Center with her acclaimed one-woman show. In Don’t Monkey with Broadway, LuPone explores – through indelible interpretations of classic Broadway show tunes by the likes of Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Jule Styne, Stephen Schwartz, Charles Strouse, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Cole Porter, and Irving Berlin – how her life-long love affair with Broadway began and her concern for what the Great White Way is becoming today.
Patti LuPone won the Tony Award for her roles as Joanne in Marianne Elliott’s award-winning production of the Stephen Sondheim George Furth musical Company, Madame Rose in the most recent Broadway revival of the Jule Styne-Stephen Sondheim-Arthur Laurents classic Gypsy and the title role in the original Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Evita.
In addition to Company, her most recent NY stage appearances include the Scott Frankel-Michael Korie-Douglas Wright musical War Paint (Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for Best Actress in a Musical), Douglas Carter Beane’s new play Shows For Days, at Lincoln Center Theater, her debut with the New York City Ballet as Anna 1 in their new production of The Seven Deadly Sins, Joanne in the New York Philharmonic’s production of Company, David Mamet’s The Anarchist, and Lincoln Center Theater’s production of the David Yazbeck-Jeffrey Lane musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, for which she was nominated for Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards
Her other stage credits include appearances with Los Angeles Opera in their production of John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles and Weill-Brecht’s Mahagonny (debut), 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 production of Sweeney Todd (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations; Drama League Award for Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theatre), 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 Passion, which was also broadcast on PBS’ Live From Lincoln Center, a multi-city tour of her theatrical concert Matters of the Heart, the City Center Encores! productions of Can-Can and Pal Joey, the NY Philharmonic’s productions of Candide and Sweeney Todd (NY Phil debut) and performances on Broadway in Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, David Mamet’s The Old Neighborhood, Terrence McNally’s Master Class and in her own concert Patti LuPone On Broadway.
Beginning in 2000, she has appeared regularly at the Ravinia Festival. First in its Sondheim series when she starred 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. Her subsequent appearances there include a reprise of her performance in Heggie’s To Hell and Back, a concert performance of Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins and starring in the title role in a concert production of Annie Get Your Gun.
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, David Mamet’s The Water Engine, Edmond and The Woods and Israel Horovitz’ Stage Directions and 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.
In London, where she most recently won her second Olivier Award for her performance as Joanne in Company, she recreated her Broadway performance of Maria Callas in Master Class, created the role of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (Olivier Award nomination) and won her first 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.
Film: Disappointment Boulevard (opposite Joaquin Phoenix) and The School for Good and Evil (both upcoming); Last Christmas; The Comedian; Union Square; Parker; City by the Sea; David Mamet’s Heist and State and Main; Just Looking; Summer of Sam; The 24 Hour Woman; Family Prayers; Driving Miss Daisy; Witness.
Television/Streaming: the Netflix limited series Hollywood; Pose; Crazy Ex-Girlfriend; Penny Dreadful (Critics Choice nomination); Girls; American Horror Story: Coven; Law & Order: SVU; Glee; 30 Rock; PBS Great Performances – The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Grammy Award for the broadcast’s recording); Ugly Betty; Will & Grace (as herself); PBS Great Performances’ Candide; Oz ; the TNT film Monday Night Mayhem; PBS’ Evening At The Pops with John Williams and Yo Yo Ma; Falcone; Bonanno: A Godfather’s Story; Frasier (1998 Emmy nomination); Law & Order; An Evening with Patti LuPone (PBS), the NBC movie Her Last Chance, Showtime’s ACE Award and Emmy nominated The Song Spinner (Daytime Emmy nomination, Best Actress); The Water Engine; L.B.J.; AMC’s Remember WENN; and ABC’s Life Goes On.
Recordings: Don’t Monkey with Broadway, Far Away Places, Patti LuPone at Les Mouches, The Lady with the Torch, and many original cast recordings including, most recently: the West End production of Company, War Paint, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Gypsy, and Sweeney Todd (both the 2006 Broadway revival cast recording and 2000 live performance recording on NY Philharmonic’s Special Editions Label).
She is the author of the NY Times best-selling memoir Patti LuPone: A Memoir.
Tickets start at $39 and are available at online at SCFTA.org, at the Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa, or by calling (714) 556-2787. For inquiries about group ticket discounts for 10 or more, call the Group Services office at (714) 755-0236.
