The highly anticipated memoir from the Broadway legend.

PATTI LuPONE

A Memoir

By Patti LuPone

“LuPone…raises the curtain on her life and career in this engaging memoir. With razor-sharp memories and hundreds of colorful anecdotes, LuPone knows how to capture an audience. She makes an easy transition from stage to page, writing with wit, flamboyant energy, and a theatrical flair.” —Publishers Weekly

“I love her. And I love her book.” —David Mamet

“LuPone shares the story of her life in the theater in this intimate and frank memoir… Patti chronicles her professional and personal life with relish. LuPone’s many fans will appreciate the insightful look at her career-defining roles in Evita, Les Misérables, and more. In these sections, LuPone chronicles her process for achieving these iconic performances in great depth… LuPone ultimately reveals her deeply felt passion for theater and music.” —Booklist

“Patti LuPone, with honesty and humor, gives a brave and candid account of an astonishingly unique and brilliant performer’s journey to reach Broadway stardom.” —Angela Lansbury

Broadway, opening night…I had the flu. I threw up in the sink at intermission, then went out and sang “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina.” A review from one of the critics called my performance “colorless.” No shit.

The legendary Patti LuPone pulls no punches in her eagerly awaited book, PATTI LuPONE: A MEMOIR (Crown Archetype, on sale September 14, 2010). One of theater’s most beloved leading ladies, she recounts her life and career from her childhood to the present, recalling both professional and personal triumphs and disappointments with the humor and outspokenness that have become her trademarks.

From an early performance at age four when she first falls in love with her audience (”Hey, they’re all smiling at me. I can’t get in trouble up here.”) to the tearful closing night of the hit revival of Gypsy, Patti takes us on an unforgettable odyssey through the highs and lows of life on the stage. Nearly 100 photographs complement fascinating stories about her collaborations with such people as Andrew Lloyd Webber, David Mamet, Stephen Sondheim, Hal Prince, Kevin Kline, Paul Sorvino, and others; tales of personal setbacks she overcame; and a distinct perspective on how she developed and honed her Tony Award-winning performances. In the book Patti shares:

The untold story behind her role as Eva Peron in Evita—How it was her most difficult role; how it gave her a negative reputation and a shadow of controversy that she still carries around today; living each day with “the constant threat of being burnt at the stake”; how the ghost of Evita herself visited Patti three times during the run; the time she spent after Evita to convince people she was ready for other roles;

Her upbringing on Long Island and introduction to showbiz—Stories include her appearance on Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour with her brothers – they were underneath a stairwell when they found out the show was fixed.

Sunset Boulevard—At the time it was the most talked about theatrical controversy on both sides of the Atlantic; now Patti tells her full side of the story for the first time, including her friction working with Andrew Lloyd Webber, the underhanded way she found out she was being replaced by Glenn Close in the U.S. production, and how the experience had profound and far-reaching effects on her personal life.

Incredible stories from the time she was training at Juilliard—of her rigorous training there; about her mentor, Marian Seldes; and of the start of her long-term relationship with Kevin Kline.

Behind the scenes of Sweeney Todd—An experience that Patti describes as the ultimate way to return to the musical theater stage after the Sunset Boulevard debacle, the musical was performed at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, which she calls one of Broadway’s most haunted houses, and presents the ghost in her dressing room as evidence.

Personal struggles—Patti recounts how hours before she was to make her solo concert debut at Carnegie Hall, she got a call from her doctor that she had breast cancer. Frozen with fear, she informed her director, whose response was, “You have a sound check.” “It was the wisest thing to say,” she writes. “I went on with my life.”

Patti’s most recent triumph in her Tony Award-winning role in Gypsy—Her experiences during the show’s run, including why the final performance of this production was perhaps the most emotional: “Closing nights are a little like death.”

PATTI LuPONE: A Memoir is as inspirational as it is entertaining. A moving love letter to the theater, it is also a useful handbook for anyone interested in developing a career in this sometimes brutal industry. Patti LuPone lays it all bare in this brave and intimate narrative, a most fitting tribute to a storied and colorful life on the stage.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Patti LuPone swept the 2008 theater awards, winning the Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance as Rose in the critically acclaimed Broadway production of the classic Jule Styne–Stephen Sondheim–Arthur Laurents musical, Gypsy. LuPone has twice been nominated for an Emmy Award, has won two Grammy awards, and has numerous film, television, and on and off Broadway stage credits to her name. A two-time Tony winner, LuPone was the first American actor to win an Olivier Award.

This fall, she returns to Broadway in the musical adaptation of the Pedro Almódovar film, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. It begins previews at the Belasco Theatre on October 2.

PATTI LuPONE

A Memoir

By Patti LuPone

with Digby Diehl

Published by Crown Archetype

On sale September 14, 2010

ISBN: 978-0-307-46073-8* Price: $25.99 * Hardcover

Also available as an eBook

978-0-307-46075-2

www.pattilupone.net

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Campbell Wharton