Patti LuPone, Broadway legend, debuts in Malaga at 77 years old: 'I'm still here and still viable"

Entertainment

She is spontaneous, fun and an anti-Trump activist. "The situation is terrible," says the New York artist who will be running through classics from the musicals in Malaga

Regina Sotorrío / Rachel Haynes

During this conversation, Patti LuPone is everything you'd expect her to be: spontaneous, passionate and funny. She bursts out laughing when asked if she'd change anything about her career. "I'm one of those people who, when they say there's no regrets, it's bullshit. I've got a ton of regrets."

She makes no secret of her unease the moment Trump is mentioned: "I could cry. It's a disaster right now, a disaster." And she smiles again as she recalls a trip to Ronda where she came across a man on horseback with his shirt open "to just below the breastbone with his hat on", and he was "so sexy and masculine".

A living legend of Broadway musical theatre and London's West End, the New Yorker is making her debut in Spain at the age of 77 with a tour that opens in Malaga on 10 June at the Soho Caixabank theatre (from 60 euros, 8pm).

"I don't like to watch myself, I don't like to listen to myself sing, I'm not a big fan of me"

"I'm still here and I'm still viable," the actress and singer says. It is this "longevity" on stage that LuPone displays with pride. For the titles of "legendary", "grand dame of musical theatre" and "queen of Broadway" that accompany her are no mere whims. She has won three Tony Awards, two Laurence Olivier Awards and two Grammy Awards.

She was the first Eva Perón on Broadway in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Evita and the first Fantine in the London debut of Les Misérables. She has starred in Stephen Sondheim's great classics: Sweeney Todd, Company and Gypsy. But she has also appeared in numerous plays by David Mamet, a true authority on drama and screenwriting.

On television, you'll find her in series such as Life Goes On and Frasier, and younger generations will recognise her from American Horror Story and Penny Dreadful.

But she is also recognised from videos that have gone viral thanks to her bluntness and honesty when she speaks. No holds barred. "That's probably one of my regrets, but I'm me. What am I going to do?" and she points to her Italian roots to explain that impulsiveness.

"I can't sit on it because I'll get cancer if I do. Do you know what I mean?" she says on the other side of the screen, during a video call from her home in New York.

Asked about her country's decline and Trump's immigration policy, the floodgates open. "My God, I can't believe it! I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know if we'll ever have a free or fair election again." She continues: "We're in deep trouble. I don't want to be here. I haven't wanted to be here for years, but this is the worst I've ever seen this country. It's a disaster right now." She admits she's always been a pessimist, but now she feels completely "hopeless".

It is the only moment in the interview that her expression clouds over and she looks sad. As she looks back over her career, her smile never fades. As well as plenty of theatre and television, Patti LuPone has also appeared in films, though not as many as she would have liked.

"It eluded me, yes. When we were kids and graduated from Juliard, we were trained for the stage. Nobody told us to go to Hollywood and make a career there. So I stayed on the stage," she says.

Back in the 70s and 80s, the film industry could not conceive of a stage actor making the leap to the screen, "because the gestures were too big".

Not even with the backing of as many awards as she had accumulated. "In my day, with those awards you could get a reservation at a good restaurant. But it wasn't a stepping stone for women," she says.

Now it's a different story, and the move from film to theatre -and vice versa - is seen as perfectly natural. Just a year ago, George Clooney made his Broadway debut in Good Night, and Good Luck. "And when I saw him, I went backstage and said: 'You're a stage animal'. He came on stage with such confidence and command. That's the keyword. He was radiant, charismatic, committed and his performance was fantastic," she says.

In any case, her commitment to the stage has spared her from that bad habit in the film industry of ignoring actresses when they reach a certain age.

In her case her longevity on the stage is what she is most proud of. But it hasn't been easy. Even less so in musicals. "It's the toughest job in show business. It's brutal," she says emphatically. And she adds: "You have to have the muscle for it. If you don't have the muscle, you have to develop it. And the muscle is basically a monastic life." Otherwise, you can't sustain that pace of eight shows a week, giving it your all, singing and dancing live.

"Look at Megan Thee Stallion. She couldn't cut it; she didn't know what was required of her. It is not physically understood," she adds, referring to the famous American rapper's hasty exit from the musical Moulin Rouge! due to exhaustion.

Behind the confidence she exudes lies a great deal of self-criticism. "I don't like to watch myself, I don't like to listen to myself sing, I'm not a big fan of me," she confesses when the conversation turns to regrets.

But, at the same time, she says: "I'm still here, you know? And I'm still viable." This will be evident in Malaga on 10 June, in a show entitled Songs from a Hat.

Accompanied by her pianist Joseph Thalken and with no script whatsoever, the artist will perform songs drawn at random from her hat. Broadway standards and classics from the popular songbook, interwoven with anecdotes from a career spanning five decades.

It will take place at Antonio Banderas's theatre; she knows him and is aware of his commitment to Sondheim's musicals (Company and Gypsy). She asks if his venture has been successful in Malaga. "Yes, he's much loved in his home city," we reply. "He's much loved, period," she adds.