Broadway star and three-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone is performing at Boston Symphony Hall on April 2, in concert with the Celebrity Series of Boston.
LuPone began doing one-woman concerts when she was still performing the titular role in the 1979 Broadway production of “Evita.”
“Someone came to me and said, ‘You should do a cabaret act,’” LuPone told Boston Public Radio on Friday. “Evita” was already a tough show to perform in, but LuPone considered it.
“I wanted everybody to see what I look like: brown hair, not, you know, a blond, fascist tap dancer,” she said, referencing the Argentinian politician the musical is based on.
Many Broadway performers will augment their income with concert work, she added. This concert, “A Life in Notes,” differs from her Broadway roots.
“It’s about the music that impacted me growing up in America,” said LuPone, who grew up in the 1950s and ‘60s with rock ‘n’ roll. “Music is the gift and the power to crystallize a moment in time,” she added.
The show also gives space for LuPone to talk about the social and political contexts in which these songs were made.
“When I was growing up, there were a lot of songs about teen tragedy,” said LuPone, citing songs like Mark Dinning’s “Teen Angel” and the Shangri-Las’ “Leader of the Pack.” LuPone attributes this to being at the height of the Cold War and the threat of the atomic bomb.
“We were paranoid,” she said. “Why save your virginity? We're all going to die anyway.”
LuPone said that while music can capture moments in time, she fears today’s theater-goers are not choosing to be challenged with difficult subject matter.
“Theater is supposed to educate,” she said. “It's supposed to reflect what is happening in society.”
Part of the problem may be the high costs of a theater ticket, turning the art form into what LuPone called an “elite sport.” But she was heartened to see lots of kids in the audience during a recent performance of “Back to the Future” on Broadway.
“If a kid is enraptured by what they are seeing, the magic that they're seeing on the stage, that's another generation that will go to the theater, that will support the theater," she said.
