Patti LuPone: A Memoir

Adorei o livro! A narrativa de Lupone como memória e não biografia é irresistível para quem a tem como uma referência na Broadway. Divertido e engraçado, tenso e dramático como a própria parece ser. E dá uma dimensão de como foi difícil a construção da carreira dela. Grandes realizações e sucessos tanto quanto grandes sofrimentos e fracassos. Difícil parar de ler! Fiquei adiando terminar para não "ter que que me despedir" do livro e da atriz!

L'articolo è arrivato nei tempi previsti e senza particolari complicazioni. Le condizioni sono come descritte, buone per essere un libro usato. Certo, se cercate la perfezione assoluta ve lo sconsiglio. Ma per il resto tutto ottimo!

What an exciting roller coaster of a read this is! I defy anyone not to love this witty, human and thoroughly life affirming book - you do not need to be a Patti LuPone fan to enjoy it.It is sooo funny - I found myself laughing out loud at the hysterically funny one liners. Yet, it also has enormous depth and perception - it's in a different league to most show bizzy books. It is remarkably well written and well structured - the text is a real pleasure to read. It also delivers a vivid 3-dimensional portrait of this talented lady.Patti pulls very few punches. The likes of Topol and Andrew Lloyd Webber come out of this particularly badly. She can be extremely caustic and very irreverent and this makes the book all the more rivetting. This is a lady I certainly wouldn't want to upset! Indeed, the chapters on Sunset Boulevard are compelling - they are a complete drama in themselves (they would make a great play or TV drama though I doubt if Lloyd Webber would approve!).Explosive, entertaining and never less than thoroughly engrossing. A great, great read.

It's very rare that I start and finish a book within 24 hours but when its setting is the world of theatre and its written by a Broadway diva and legend, it has all the right ingredients for me!I have enjoyed a number of Patti Lupone's performances on stage over the years (including her ill-fated Norma Desmond). She is an actress who for me, draws me in and holds my interest and attention. This book did exactly the same; a fascinating account of life in the theatre, the highs and the lows (sometimes extreme lows). Its an honest, sometimes brutal account of the world of theatre and the people in it.Love her or hate her, she certainly isn't dull - the Sunset Boulevard chapters alone are testament to that!I eagerly await whatever she does next in her career and hope I'll have the chance to be there to experience it.

Diva? Maybe. Difficult? Possibly. Talented? Most definitely. Patti starts her book off in her (and, coincidentally, my) hometown of Northport, where she neatly bookends her memoir by describing her performance in "Gypsy" with a local theater group at the beginning, and winds it up with the penultimate closing night as Mama Rose on Broadway, Arthur Laurents by her side. Genius. Dreams really do come true. You just have to have the raw talent to get there. Patti has it in spades and has from a very young age. Most big stars know early on that they will make it. Always focused, Patti's performances (I saw her play Nellie Forbush in our high school production) ranked her as a star from the beginning. As the daughter of a school principal, Patti would probably make an excellent drama teacher, having diligently studied the craft of acting throughout her life. She knows her stuff. But how do you follow a career like this? I like the fact that Patti includes some of the negative reviews she has received over the years, as well as the good ones. (Brantley's revisionist review of Gypsy, after Patti had "found" her voice in it, is a revelation.) I have to admit I was a little surprised by the tone of the book. No matter how many times she claims to have moved on from the missed opportunities and the screaming matches, the reader (and possibly Glenn Close) doubts she fully has. The lady doth protest a bit much, but it's a tribute to her sensitivity as a professional actress that she cares so deeply about the roles she plays. I also would have liked a bit more armchair self-analysis, perhaps, but what we get is a chronological description of her shows -- the tears and triumphs with a little bitchery tossed in -- with very little introspection. But I don't think Patti is particularly introspective. She's more reactive. Whenever we feel we're headed for a revelation, Patti reaches for "the square bottle" instead. That's another thing. I find it amazing that Patti, who likes to drink and smoke, is one of the only singers who can do justice to the extremely hard score of Evita. I liked the book. But I love Patti LuPone.