Patti LuPone is in Rochester this weekend!

Broadway fans are rejoicing, as this weekend we’ll be sharing the same air as Patti LuPone.

     The Tony-winning Broadway legend hasn’t performed in Rochester in more than 40 years. And when she does make her grand return this weekend, she’ll be sharing the stage with some great guys — composers like Rodgers, Hart, Schwartz, Strouse, Sondheim, and Porter, as well as the fabulous Rochester Gay Men’s Chorus backing her up vocally.

     Rochester has two opportunities to experience Patti in person — a free Q&A in Kilbourn Hall at the Eastman School of Music at 5 p.m. Saturday, April 28, and her “Don’t Monkey with Broadway” show on the Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre stage at 8 p.m. Sunday, April 29. Tickets are $20 to $85 at eastmantheatre.org, by calling  (585) 274-3000, or in person at the Eastman Theatre box office, 433 East Main St., Rochester.

     Wait … moonwalk that back. Patti LuPone (aka Eva, Reno, Fantine, Mrs. Lovett, Mama Rose, and the mama from 1990s TV show “Life Goes On”) is taking part in a free Q&A before her big show?

     In short, a friend asked and she obliged.

     “It’s because of Tony Griffey,” she said in a phone interview last week, referencing the Grammy-winning tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, who is on the vocal faculty at Eastman and with whom she shared a stage in the past.

     “We had a ball performing together and wow, what a BEAUTIFUL voice,” LuPone said, punctuating the word “beautiful.”

     Talking with LuPone on the phone was like a coffee chat with a long-lost friend, who is equally charming and dramatic. We touched on (and immediately jumped off) the subjects of politics (“I’m scared out of my mind, frustrated, and appalled”) and her long-time and recently resolved feud with Andrew Lloyd Webber (“Oh, the feud was FUN,” she declared).

     Her biggest laugh during the call was when I told her the answer my friend and fellow performer Hector Manuel shares when asked where he got his theater training. Hector’s honest and confident answer: “Patti LuPone videos.”

     Here are some of the interesting, yet random, bits of info she shared during our phone call:

Her early music aspirations:

• “Musical theater was not a driving force in my life, at least consciously. I remember in the ‘50s seeing Elvis on the Steve Allen Show on TV, singing to dog on a pedestal. My obsession growing up was rock ‘n’ roll.”

Her current obsessions:

• “Wondering why only the good die young.”
• “Bob Fosse’s work. I went down the rabbit hole and all of the sudden I got turned onto more of Fosse’s work.”

Her favorite musical of all time:

• “West Side Story. The score is emotionally volatile and the story is so sad. It was the Golden Age of the Musical.”

Her advice for those wanting to make it in musical theater:

• “STUD-EEE! Know your craft, technique, history. Know your craft and apply it.”
• “I tell students, ‘Know what you’re doing because you’re going to need that because no one else knows that they’re doing.’” (she said with a laugh)

Her thoughts on the arts :

• “Our art is suffering. I don’t understand why the arts in this country are so neglected.”
• “We produce kick-ass art that HEALLLS.”
• “I do wonder why people want to go into show business … it’s a lot of sacrifice.”

What is lacking today in theater?

• “We have no showmen left; no producers with a theatrical eye who understand original ideas or support a new playwright.”
• One exception is David Stone, with whom she worked in War Paint. “He trusts the composers and the lyricist and the directors. And he trusts the actors.”

Her biggest objection in music theater today?

• “The sound! I don’t know why they think I’m deaf. All the sound mixers on Broadway must have made a pact to set all the levels at a decibel 8.”
• “After a while you stop listening and an audience loses interest if it can’t follow the plot. Audiences have to work to listen. When an audience is listening it is deafeningly loud. When an audience is listening, it is electric. But how can a collective audience listen when they are being forced back into their seats with the sound?”

What is great about theater today?

• “I’m blown away by the talent on the Broadway stage.”
• “Today’s universities are doing something right, because these young performers are so polished, so trained.”

Thoughts for the members of the Rochester Gay Men’s Chorus, with whom she’ll be performing Sunday night:

• “Do this for yourselves. I’m in YOUR town. Sing for your parents and your lovers and your friends. This is for you! And hopefully you’ll all have a good time.”

About her upcoming “Don’t Monkey with Broadway” show at Eastman Theatre:

     This show is about as close to perfection as you’re likely to get,” wrote the Philadelphia Inquirer. In her one-night-only performance of “Don’t Monkey with Broadway,” Patti LuPone explores — through indelible interpretations of classic Broadway show tunes — how her lifelong love affair with Broadway began, and her concern for what the Great White Way is becoming today. 

     “Don’t Monkey with Broadway” was conceived and directed by Scott Wittman, with musical direction by Joseph Thalken.

     LuPone’s career spans four decades and she is described as a fireball of talent and a musical force to be reckoned with. She is heralded as one of the greatest performers in modern musical theater.