By: Darryl Reilly
“Happy New Year, everyone!” So, Patti LuPone jubilantly announced at the start of her triumphant cabaret show, Songs from a Hat!, which was livestreamed from 54 Below, on January 1, 2023. “Nah! Not that one, it’s too early. I’ll sing it later…You just know there’s a couple in here I do not want to sing!” laughed Ms. LuPone who was dressed in a simple black ensemble, while jocularly exhibiting her trademark diva tempestuousness and straightforwardly presenting her renowned talent.
The show’s conceit centers on an onstage black top hat filled with the titles of 43 songs on slips of paper, 13 of these LuPone had never publicly performed before this engagement. The evening’s song selection was accomplished by LuPone picking a title out of the hat, or her offering an audience member the opportunity to do so. “Thank you, Kara! I really wanted to sing that tonight!” This device of randomness was sometimes suspended. “Just because I want to!” declared LuPone as she spontaneously launched into a beautifully distinctive rendition of “Moon River”.
For 80 glorious minutes, LuPone was accompanied by her charismatic virtuoso Music Director Joseph Thalken on piano. Mr. Thalken supremely musically matched LuPone for this exhibition that was grounded in surprises. Admirers of LuPone are accustomed to her powerful vocals, her barbed banter and affective reminiscences, all of which were grandly displayed in Songs from a Hat!
“There’s a scandalous story about this revival I’m not going to tell you, I’m just going to sing the song” she cryptically stated before doing Cole Porter’s “So in Love” from Kiss Me, Kate. “What a great song! I saw it with Richard Burton and Julie Andrews” she said of Camelot’s “How to Handle a Woman,” which received a ravishing treatment. “Being seven years old was a big year for me, it was my favorite age. I watched Elvis Presley on Steve Allen’s show…” was the preamble to a mesmerizing “Love Me Tender.”
“’Tis the season! We have a couple of Christmas songs for you…” was followed by two offbeat selections, the comic “Santa Lost a Ho” and the elegiac W.W. I-themed, “Christmas in the Trenches.” Her recent appearances on television’s American Horror Story were connoted by the two bathhouse-set numbers she sang on it. There was an outrageous “Fever” and a soaring “Calling You” from the film Bagdad Café.
“That was a fabulous flop!” she said of The Baker’s Wife, before majestically singing her signature number, “Meadowlark.” “I like it better as a solo!” she crowed about doing a song from War Paint, without co-star Christine Ebersole. “I was in this show on Broadway, but didn’t sing this song” was her segue into a stirring “Another Hundred People” from Company.
Indeed, there was no “The Ladies Who Lunch,” or anything from Evita, Les Misérables or Gypsy, in this concert. It was refreshing and exhilarating to experience LuPone’s artistry through unfamiliar material. Stephen Sondheim was also represented by a wistful “Anyone Can Whistle,” “That’s a SONG!” she said of it, and a deliciously wry, “I Never Do Anything Twice.”
“I grew on Long Island, shopping at the A & P. For $1, they sold Ed Sullivan’s albums of performers who were on his show. That’s where I first heard these, they spoke to me…” was Patti LuPone’s reverie before performing passionate incarnations of Rodgers and Hart’s “I Could Write a Book” and “There’s a Small Hotel.”
Patti LuPone: Songs from a Hat! (through January 8, 2023)
54 Below, 254 West 54th Street, in Manhattan
For tickets, visit www.54below.com
Running time: 80 minutes without an intermission