NEW YORK (Top40 Charts/ Razor & Tie Records) - On November 11th, a 'time capsule' of 1980's Pop Culture will be released for the first time ever, in any format. 'Patti LuPone at Les Mouches' captures a moment in time and offers a snapshot of LuPone during her 'Evita' days: The year was 1980, and she was on her way to winning the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. But every Saturday night at midnight, for 27 weeks, after performing one of the most demanding roles ever, LuPone made her way to Les Mouches - a legendary nightclub in New York City, to perform a solo concert...This was a one-woman tour de force that - until now - only the lucky few who were on hand knew about.
'Patti LuPone at Les Mouches' is a digitally-restored concert recording of LuPone's 1980 solo show. Ghostlight President Kurt Deutsch, along with longtime producing partner Joel Moss and co-producers Ben Rimalower and David Lewis, have culled performances from the venue's original board mixes, and assembled a recording that captures the raw energy and excitement of a once in a lifetime concert event, and a moment in time. Everybody who was anybody was there, from Andy Warhol to Jodie Foster to Stephen Sondheim. It was literally the hottest ticket in town. This music has never been released before, in any format.
To preview the release, on Monday, November 3rd, from 6:30 to 8pm, Ms. LuPone will participate in the popular TIMESTALKS Series: Broadway Divas as Gay Icons: Patti LuPone. Fans will have the opportunity to meet the Tony Award-winning stage and screen actress, now starring in the hit Broadway show "Gypsy." The discussion will be followed by advance CD sales (a full week before the CD is in stores,) and signing of 'Patti LuPone at Les Mouches'. LuPone will be interviewed by Anthony Tommasini, chief music critic of The New York Times. Details: The Times Center, 242 West 41st Street, New York City. In cooperation with The New York LGBT Community Center. Tickets: TimesTalks.com or call (888) NYT - 1870 General Admission: $30
On 11/3, Patti LuPone will also participate in a 2:45pm phone-in Press Conference, organized by Audience Rewards Curtain Call, and moderated by Andy Propst of AmericanTheaterWeb. *** If you are interested in participating in the Les Mouches Press Conference, please contact [email protected] asap for call in/access details.
Here's an excerpt of Patrick Pacheco's brilliant Liner Notes for Les Mouches:
Saturday Night Fevers
by Patrick Pacheco
Coming across a recording of Patti LuPone's nightclub act at Les Mouches is tantamount to discovering a Rosetta Stone of popular culture, circa 1980, and the role of one fearless explorer firmly planting her standard on a particular time and place. Amid the sounds of her soaring glissandos and cascading notes, nervous patter and giggles, the scuffling of chairs and shouts of "We love you", Patti LuPone at Les Mouches is a wise, sad-funny, oddly moving prefiguration of what this entertainer would become in the decades to follow. Here is the exclamatory Patti! The vulnerable waif. The blowsy vulgarian. The heartbreaking torch singer: "longing walking around on two legs", as someone once said of Billie Holliday.
Nearly three decades later, what is still recognizable is her confident ability to take us on her "magic swirling ship" to the outer edges of a journey unlike any other. How apt then that this gem is being released at the apex of an astonishingly eclectic career: a Tony-winning performance as Madam Rose in Gypsy. After all, it was during the run of Evita, which marked her first Tony and anointment as Broadway's newest star, that Patti and her musical director David Lewis made their way to a gay disco/cabaret on the far West Side for what was to be only four Saturday midnight shows and quickly extended to twenty-seven weeks. Those of us who are there when history is being made are often clueless as to its import at the time. This is especially true when what starts as a routine night on the town turns out to be anything but. Patti at Les Mouches follows in the tradition of other legendary nights: Judy at Carnegie Hall, Barbra at the Bon Soir, Bette at the Continental Baths... (Excerpted from Liners...)
THE ADVOCATE
The Force That Is Patti LuPone
For Patti LuPone, the standing ovations began almost 30 years ago and have not stopped. The excitement of seeing Patti LuPone live has been thrillingly captured in Patti LuPone at Les Mouches, the never-before-released recordings from her legendary 1980 nightclub act.
By Charles Romaine, 10/08
This summer Patti LuPone won her second Best Actress Tony Award for her work as Rose, the ultimate stage mother, in the latest revival of Gypsy. That evening she brought the audience to its feet with her electrifying performance of "Everything's Coming Up Roses."
Gypsy is often described as the greatest musical of all time - the perfect marriage of book and score. Revived on Broadway in 2003, critics agreed Bernadette Peters was an odd choice for the role, and most went out of their way to dismiss her and the show itself. But Peters's superior acting made the performance a thrill a minute, and the actress scored a Tony nomination.
But Patti LuPone's stepped it up a notch. Vocally she is perfect for the role. Where Peters struggled with the Styne-Sondheim score, LuPone plants her feet a little wider and steamrolls through each song with a brassy belt you just don't hear on Broadway these days - and the standing ovations from audiences and critics were among the loudest they've ever been on the Great White Way.
For Patti LuPone, the standing ovations began almost 30 years ago and have not stopped. The excitement of seeing Patti LuPone live has been thrillingly captured in Patti LuPone at Les Mouches, the never-before-released recordings from her legendary 1980 nightclub act.
The album is an eclectic, often inspired combination of songs recorded throughout her 27-week run at Les Mouches. The music ranges from '30s standards to iconic moments from her own musical theater triumphs in Evita and the lesser-known work The Baker's Wife. For extra measure she throws in some pop, disco, and even a little punk - a reach the show's musical director, David Lewis, wasn't originally certain LuPone could handle.
Lewis had already created nightclub acts for actresses including Butterfly McQueen and Diane Keaton when he began working with LuPone. He had met the Broadway star playing for her at auditions and decided to fashion a show after her Eva Peron persona, a portrayal he describes as "fierce." He refers to her as a diva of the people, and the album proves if you can sing...you can sing. And Patti LuPone can indeed sing it all.
The Advocate: Not that you ever went away, but please describe for our readers what your enormous success with Gypsy means to you now, both personally and professionally, almost 30 years after Evita made you a star. Patti LuPone: It feels 30 years later, and it feels great.
Rose is such an iconic role...how much freedom did Arthur Laurents give you as an actress to make Rose your own? Total freedom. He even let me deconstruct "Rose's Turn" so that it is my own interpretation, not one handed down through the decades.
In developing your character, what parts of Rose did you find yourself identifying with? I started with the humanness of Rose, and I never abandoned that quality in her.
Which parts of Rose make you cringe? None of it makes me cringe. I'm an actor and I'm playing a part, and I have to love the character.
What do you think about the current trend of using movies or song catalogs as source material for new musicals? Good material is good material, and if it translates into another medium, that's great.
Does it depress you when there are so many talented writers and composers out there struggling for their break? Yes, it depresses me. That new voices, the future of the American musical, are not being heard.
You were in the first graduating class at Juilliard's drama school. What is the biggest difference you see in the kids who come to New York City now to pursue acting versus when you were starting out? The lack of training...the lack of technique.
Was stardom your goal, or was it a happy accident? What do you think? [L aughs]
In the '60s Barbra did the Bon Soir; in the '70s Bette did the Continental Baths; and in the '80s you did Les Mouches. Can you tell us a little bit about that experience? It was just a wild Saturday night for 27 weeks. I left Evita, put on different makeup, and let down my hair.
Looking at your set list, you had quite an eclectic repertoire. What is "offstage" Patti's favorite style of music to sing? I don't sing offstage, but if I did it would be rock and roll.
Describe the challenge of putting together a nightclub act while you were also in the middle of your Evita run. David Lewis put the whole thing together. I just learned the music. The challenge was getting people to see who Patti LuPone was.
Was there anything specific you and David were looking to say? We did not set out to say anything. David put a nightclub act together for me, we got a booking, and it turned into "this thing."
Were there any acts you saw as an aspiring actress that inspired you when it was time to put together this show? I went to all the clubs and I was inspired by a lot of people; most notably Ellen Greene at Reno Sweeney, and Barbara Cook wherever she sang.
Finally, I have to ask your take on the upcoming election, and if you don't mind sharing with our readers, who you are supporting and why? I'm supporting Obama and his wife because he is uplifting and inspirational.
Patti LuPone at Les Mouches is in stores November 11. LuPone is currently starring in Gypsy on Broadway at the St. James Theatre. https://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid62817.asp
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Patti LuPone's early club act is born again on CD
By MICHAEL KUCHWARA, AP Drama Writer
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Before there was Madame Rose, there was Eva Peron.
And during the run of the Broadway production of "Evita" in 1980, Patti LuPone, a Tony winner this year for "Gypsy," did a club act at a Chelsea nightspot called Les Mouches. Saturday nights at midnight - after her "Evita" performance was over - LuPone would perform her one-woman show, singing a wildly diverse collection of songs.
There were numbers from "Evita," of course, but also songs by Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. And "Meadowlark," the power ballad from "The Baker's Wife," the Stephen Schwartz musical that starred LuPone but which died during an out-of-town tryout on its way to Broadway. What was to have been a short engagement of the club act extended for 27 weeks. Now digitally restored recordings from LuPone's one-woman show will be available on CD. Called "Patti LuPone at Les Mouches," the recording will be released Nov. 11 by Ghostlight Records.
Sunday Newsday
New CD: 'Patti LuPone at Les Mouches'
Patti LuPone, After Hours - 8/08
It was 1980, and, even as Patti LuPone was cementing her star status in "Evita," she was performing her debut cabaret act at the New York nightclub Les Mouches. Nearly three decades later, a selection of songs recorded on Saturday nights after midnight - and after that demanding 8 p.m. curtain - are being made public on a new CD from Ghostlight Records.
"Patti LuPone at Les Mouches" is a collection of digitally restored tracks made in 1980 and said by one gushy critic of the time to induce "sexual hysteria."
LuPone's concerts at the long-shuttered venue often featured nontraditional cabaret choices, such as Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen's "Because The Night" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man."
LuPone mixed it up with familiar Broadway tunes, including "Don't Cry for Me Argentina." All of the above tracks make the new CD, as do "Rainbow High," "Come Rain or Come Shine" and "Meadowlark." The recordings all are culled from the venue's original board mixes. "Patti LuPone at Les Mouches" drops Nov. 11. -Robert Kahn
https://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/sunday/fanfare/ny-ffbuzz5808992aug24,0,6329321.story
BROADWAY.COM
Etcetera: Patti LuPone at Les Mouches
by John Simon
Ghostlight Records Available Nov. 11 While starring in Evita in 1980, Patti LuPone also did cabaret late Saturday nights. This little bundle of energy (as the phrase goes) piled Ossa on Pelion in the wee hours by appearing at Les Mouches, a disco/cabaret whose name translates as the Flies.
Why would a nightspot pick such a seemingly unappetizing moniker? Well, there is a French idiom, une fine mouche, which means, of a man, that he is a card; of a woman, that she is a sly minx. The idea was, I guess, that a French card is even sharper, a French minx even cannier, than their American counterparts.
It is to Patti LuPone's credit that she could garner the attention of the most raffish audience. Where hooch and palaver could easily hold sway, she could make the show the thing, and do it for 27 consecutive weeks. Now a batch of those midnight performances have unexpectedly seen daylight on some forgotten tapes; from them was extracted the CD Patti LuPone at Les Mouches, 20 tracks covering quite a trajectory.
There are moments when LuPone's singing turns mannered or overzealous. At times she will explode into a growl or shriek; at others, she forgets that words have meanings as well as sounds. Never mind, though; her great ability is to be all things to all men and women: brash and tender, vulgar and delicate, streetwise and ingenuous. And always very New York: You can hear its sidewalks in her accent.
What does she sing? A bit of everything: from Fats Waller ('Squeeze Me') to Stephen Sondheim ('Not While I'm Around'), from Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen ('Because the Night') to Cole Porter ('Love for Sale'), from Bob Dylan ('Mr. Tambourine Man') to Yip Harburg and Burton Lane ('Look to the Rainbow'), from Stephen Schwartz ('Meadowlark') to Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer ('Come Rain or Come Shine').
The songs were picked and arranged by her music director and pianist, David Lewis, to whom, as well as to the musicians, she pays ample tribute. She will even effervescently recognize celebrities in her audience-Tovah Feldshuh, Vincent Gardenia and, most glowingly, Sondheim-rather like a charmingly bubbly starstruck schoolgirl.
She has her special way of tossing thank yous to her audience: slightly breathless, a trifle abashed, borderline plangent, occasionally accompanied by a nervous little laugh that can, however, erupt into guffaws. Patti's patter, of which there is a taste or two here, is mostly childhood reminiscences, somewhat naive and thus endearing. There is a personality there.
The mostly disco arrangements don't always work for the best, and here and there we get a song I could have gladly done without: Paul Jbara's 'Heaven Is a Disco,' Leiber and Stoller's 'I've Got Them Feelin' Too Good Today Blues' or Al Dubin and Harry Warren's 'Latin from Manhattan,' which is not so much Gotham as Tinseltown.
But there are also-besides the obligatory Gershwin ('I Got Rhythm') and the then mandatory 'Downtown,' orphaned without Petula Clark-pleasant surprises, like the David Lewis and Norman Dolph 'Everything I Am' and especially the Norman Gimbel and David Shire 'It Goes Like It Goes,' so good that I even forgive that 'like' usurping an 'as.'
And, as you would expect, there are two songs from Evita, in which she was then triumphing, 'Rainbow High' and 'Don't Cry for Me, Argentina,' wherein no one has ever surpassed her. Also, would you believe that the blowsy belter could turn into a caressing ingenue in 'Goodnight Sweetheart'? Well, she can. An old chestnut, of course, like 'Street of Dreams,' but, with the agility of one retrieving chestnuts from the fire, Patti pulls them into a pulsating present-1980 or 2008.
With the help of the booklet's generous essays and photographs, you can picture Patti LuPone in her unisex white tie and tails being, before that motley Les Mouches crowd, raucous and rowdy one instant, down-home and dreamy the next. Truly, the face, the figure, the voice of everyone's desire.
https://www.broadway.com/Patti-LuPone-at-Les-Mouches/broadway_news/5013601
GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS:
Ghostlight has emerged as the standard bearer on the Broadway music scene. Their team is relentless in their efforts to promote the music of the most innovative new voices on the Broadway scene, and to preserve the music of past productions.
Ghostlight's recent releases of the OCRs for Tony winners In The Heights and Passing Strange, as well as their single release featuring the winner of MTV's Legally Blonde The Musical competition, have brought the label acclaim for their innovative marketing techniques and their efforts to reach the next generation of Broadway music fans via iTunes, music videos and more.
Coverage has ranged from Rolling Stone to USA TODAY to The New York Times, from Blender Magazine to Playbill to Billboard, from AP Radio to NY-1 TV, and much more. Other current releases include the OCR for '13 - The New Broadway Musical,' and a double CD collector's edition of 'Reefer Madness.'
