Just What Does Patti LuPone Think of the Musical She Was Fired From and Its Composer?

If Ryan Murphy is looking for a subject for his next installment of "Feud," he need look no further than Patti LuPone and Andrew Lloyd Webber, who came to battle during the London run of "Sunset Boulevard" some 30 years ago, and, despite a brief respite, are back at it again.

Recently LuPone was asked by the Hollywood Reporter about Webber and the musical as it reopens on Broadway with an abbreviated title "Sunset Blvd." in a much-acclaimed production from London with Nicole Scherzinger as Norma. And she was blunt: "Andrew Lloyd Webber is a narcissistic, insecure man. So, there'll be no explanation for that except that he didn't get what he wanted in London and thought he would get it in New York. It's still a shitty musical. I know it has a brand new life with Nicole Scherzinger. We'll see what happens. But it's not a good musical. It's a lumbering musical."

This marked something of new phase in the long-running feud between LuPone and Webber, which was thought to have ended in 2016 when the star sang "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" at the Grammy Awards. LuPone became a star and won her first Tony Award for playing Eva Peron in Webber's 1979 production of "Evita" on Broadway, which led to them partnering on "Sunset" some 14 years later. According to the New York Post, when the two met at a rehearsal for the show, LuPone told a crowded, hushed room: "Hello, Andrew. This is détente, ladies and gentlemen." But now, six years later, the feud is back on.

Some 31 years ago Patti LuPone opened in London as Norma Desmond in "Sunset Boulevard." It was a much ballyhooed opening at the time, in part because Great Britain was in recession and news that another musical about Hollywood – the Tony-winning "City of Angels" – was closing after three months despite strong reviews. The London newspaper the Evening Standard even wrote an editorial praying for the show's success, writing that smash hits lifts our thoughts from humdrum, everyday toils" and "also draws foreign visitors to London."

"Sunset," though, proved less than smashing. Its reviews were mixed, making matters worse that New York Times critic Frank Rich reviewed the show and found serious fault with LuPone, who was set to travel with it when it eventually opened in New York. "Ms. LuPone is a gifted actress whose vocal pyrotechnics are especially idolized by the British, not least because their own musical-theater stars can rarely match them. Yet despite her uncanny mimicry of Gloria Swanson's speaking voice and her powerhouse delivery of the score's grand if predictable ballads, she is miscast and unmoving as Norma Desmond. Until the final scenes, when she is given a fright wig more suggestive of radiation treatment than of advancing years, Ms. LuPone acts and looks her own spry 40-something."

And in an interesting turn of events, Robert Osborne (from Turner Classic Movies fame) writing in the Hollywood Reporter said: "cruel: "LuPone should take the 'Sunset' off-ramp.... She is a distinctly negative hurdle if the show is to go further. LuPone never seems to have a clue as to how a great star would behave. As Norma Desmond, she has no mystique, no elegance. She often runs up and down stairs like Irene Ryan in 'The Beverly Hillbillies'.... Glenn Close is a cinch to be an infinitely better Desmond; for one thing, she already possesses an imperious air that suits the role extremely well."

As LuPone dryly comments in her book: "She wasn't opening for nearly a year and she was already getting better reviews than I was."

To say such reviews made Webber (and his investors) anxious is an understatement. How could they bring such an expensive production, which was not the smash they needed it to be, to New York when the city's leading newspaper slammed its star? Even before LuPone signed on to the role with a contract that stipulated a New York run, rumors of Meryl Streep playing the role circulated that (according to LuPone's autobiography) came from Webber's Really Useful Company. But LuPone was offered the role, and she recalls celebrating at a LA drag bar. "At one point I went to the ladies' room and came face-to-face with two six-feet-tall drag queens, both prettier than me. I said, 'Girls! Guess what? I'm playing Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical, Sunset Boulevard!' They squealed in delight." she writes in "Patti LuPone: A Memoir."

The show had an advance sales of $6 million pounds, the show appeared headed towards success, but months into the run rumors began appearing that LuPone would only be Norma in London and that the producers were seeking a different actress for the American run. When a second production opened in Los Angeles with Glenn Close to rave reviews, rumors spread that LuPone was to be replaced in New York. According to LuPone who heard the rumors, Webber denied otherwise; then it was announced he was closing the show to revamp it and it would reopen with Betty Buckley as Norma. And that Glenn Close would play Norma in New York. LuPone read the news in a gossip column. "In view of the expense of the production, and that our investors have been vocal about this, the consensus was that the wisest course for us on Broadway, which is the pre-eminent place for a musical to be, was that we had to go with Glenn," Webber's spokesman said at the time.

LuPone fought back, eventually getting a one million dollar settlement from Webber that she used to build what she called the Andrew Lloyd Webber Memorial Pool at her country house.

In her autobiography LuPone recalled going to the opening of "Assassins" at the Donmar Warehouse while preparing for "Sunset." And she recalls asking herself two questions: "1. Would Andrew be pissed off that I chose to see a Sondheim musical? 2. Why couldn't I be in a Sondheim musical?"

In the ensuing years the question would have been, which Sondheim musical hasn't she been in? Though the late genius never composed a role for LuPone, in the past three decades she has appeared in "Sweeney Todd" (Mrs. Lovett), "A Little Night Music" (Desiree), "Sunday in the Park with George" (Yvonne/Blair Daniels), "Passion" (Fosca), "Anyone Can Whistle" (Cora Hoover Hooper), "Gypsy" (Rose), and "Company" (Joanne). She won her second Tony Award for "Gypsy" in 2008, and her third for the recent "Company" revival in 2021. But even before she began working on any of his musicals, they were friends. And in her autobiography she recalls a unique gift she received from Sondheim after it was announced she was to play Norma."One day I received a very funny gift from Stephen Sondheim. He sent me what he called the "real score" from 'Sunset Boulevard.' In the late 1950s, Gloria Swanson made the first effort to get a musical version of 'Sunset Boulevard' produced, but nothing had ever come of it. The composer was a man named Richard Hughes, who was said to have been her lover at the time. As an added bonus, Steve also included a track of Swanson herself performing the climactic song on 'The Steve Allen Show.' It is something only he could have found. It is a treasured gift and quite a listen. Steve has a wicked sense of humor. Gloria's musical adaptation? Not so good."

In the Hollywood Reporter interview, LuPone was asked what was the greatest lesson Sondheim had taught her. "The fact that he was in the room, the notes he gave me, when he died I said to myself, "Who would make me better?" I went to Juilliard, and I had some pretty extraordinary teachers. But the two teachers who taught me the most about acting and singing were David Mamet and Stephen Sondheim."