Miscellaneous
Reminiscing with LuPone
Stage icon’s cabaret act, here Saturday, inspires wide-ranging stories and memories
Patti LuPone says her gay friend Scott Wittman, who directs her cabaret act, is a personal and professional friend. (Photo courtesy UMD)
It’s a little tough coming up with questions for Broadway icon Patti LuPone. Her startlingly candid 2010 eponymous memoir is so unabashed at first it seems she left no obvious career stone unturned.
Some called it pessimistic and lacking in joy. Others reveled in its no-bullshit tone that, some said, was uncanny in its ability to make readers feel they were sitting on a barstool with LuPone over several rounds of no-holds-barred career anecdotes. That’s how it feels interviewing her. During a nearly hour-long phone conversation from her South Carolina beach home the weekend of Hurricane Irene, LuPone is loquacious and chatty. She balks at no question and riffs and rants much as one imagines she does with her friends. She can be merciless and lacerating with the gauche and ill-prepared — this is a woman who does not suffer fools gladly — but today she’s quick to laugh, happy to go anywhere the questions lead with the same degree of candor she incorporated in “Patti LuPone: a Memoir.”
LuPone, 62, says her outspokenness is “just how I’ve always been.” It didn’t particularly come with time.
“I’ve always been very candid and yes, it’s always gotten me in trouble to some degree. I just always think it’s important to tell one’s truth. It is what it is. It’s a difficult business and it’s a difficult business especially for a woman.”
Might her career have unfolded differently had she the unfailing politeness of, say, a Debbie Reynolds?
“I don’t think anything would be different,” LuPone says. “Because then I wouldn’t be me. It’s who I am. It’s the way I was brought up.”
This leads to a little philosophy. She rolls with it.
Do you think about “what if?” Isn’t a bit of that implied in the cabaret act, dubbed “Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda” that she’ll perform Saturday night at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at University of Maryland? (claricesmithcenter.umd.edu or 301-405-ARTS)
“It’s a futile way of thinking,” she says. “It’s just not who I am. It’s like [playwright] David Mamet says, it is as it is. The universe is unfolding. Why regret anything?”
LuPone admits she’s of the “everything-happens-for-a-reason” mindset.
The career slights have gotten easier the more she’s able to look back and trace the “pattern of my career.” The one constant has been surprise, she says. She long ago gave up trying to control it or determine its course. Almost for every disappointment there has been serendipity.
An example? She cites her chance to do “Sweeney Todd” in 2000, which started a chain of events that not only led to the 2005 Broadway revival of that show, but her chance to do several classic Sondheim roles with the Ravinia Festival over a six-year period that included Fosca in “Passion,” “Cora in “Anyone Can Whistle,” two roles in “Sunday in the Park with George” and, of course, Rose in “Gypsy,” for which she won her second Tony in 2009.
“I never thought in a million years, I would get to do that,” she says. “It never entered my mind. I hadn’t done Stephen Sondheim and had, by that time, kind of written it off and just figured that’s the way it goes. That led to the rest of my Sondheim roles and … by the end, I finally had my Sondheim canon. … That’s why I believe in destiny. If it’s to be, it will be.”
LuPone says the regret-tinged name of her act, which she’s been performing off and on for about four years, is meant to be taken whimsically, not as any big treatise on regret. The format is loose enough she and accompanist Joseph Thalken, can rotate material in and out as they wish.
“The beginning of my career, beginning with my childhood, that part doesn’t change, but the other songs we rotate a lot.” She calls director Scott Wittman, who’s gay, her “very, very dear friend” and says she’s “lucky to have him in my life both artistically and personally.”
With the business at hand — this weekend’s concert — duly addressed, LuPone is up for anything. She tackles a dizzying array of topics in our remaining moments.
She calls same-sex marriage in her beloved New York “loooooong overdue.”
“I’m thrilled to death and I’m sure I’ll be attending a lot of weddings,” she says. “This country is so insane sometimes, so tilted. I wish it would come back to its senses.”
That theater is so ephemeral and fleeting by nature doesn’t particularly bother her, she says. Despite last year’s book, she’s not particularly inclined to look back.
“I have all the cast recordings but I never put them on,” she says. “I have an archive and scrapbooks — that’s one of the things that made the book so much easier to do — … but I don’t even have a theater room really. I don’t go back and look. It’s a memory, a treasured memory, when I finish something. Besides, I can’t really look at myself. I’m not a big fan of me.”
She says having work-life balance, even in the arts, is important: “You have nothing to bring to the boards if you’re only living for the boards,” she says.
But does she care about her legacy since her greatest hits, so to speak, have been on the stage?
“Of course you care, but there’s plenty of stuff on YouTube. Besides, the memory of it is always better than the actual footage. You can’t really film a theatrical production adequately. Seeing them on camera just doesn’t do them justice.”
She admits she’s “had a beef for years” with big-name movie stars swooping onto Broadway for brief runs and special treatment that sometimes even wins them Tonys.
LuPone says for actors like her, who’ve made their career largely on stage, it’s highly frustrating.
“[The producers] will say, ‘Forget you, I can get so and so,’” she says. “But to do it well, you really have to have the chops for it, the years of training.”
It must be maddening too, when movie stars of dubious talent land film adaptations much more talented, but lesser known, stage stars originated, right?
LuPone says yes and no. She admits there are film “treasures” that can be “equally good, but other times the casting is really ridiculous.” It’s not just money, though. LuPone says some actors have talent that merely translates better to either the stage or screen as the case may be. The difference, largely, is projection, she says.
“If they have no talent and they’re in the movie musical, then yeah, of course I’m pissed off. But on stage you have to hit the balcony. The delivery is so much larger. Film is a much stiller medium. … People tell me I have a stage face. It’s too big for the camera, whatever that means.”
As soon as the words are out of her mouth, though, LuPone starts thinking of exceptions. She mentions international stars like Irene Papas and Anna Magnani who did well in film.
“You look at somebody like Irene and there’s no censure. We have a certain type in this country that just seems to be designated for film. It’s almost like the raw emotional power of a European actor is feared by Hollywood casting producers.”
As one would imagine, LuPone writes at length in her book about her experience on stage with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Evita,” for which she won her first Tony. Curiously missing, though, is any mention of the 1996 film version with Madonna.
Yes, it’s true she was offered a cameo as Evita’s mother — LuPone laughs heartily recalling it — but it was for a previous incarnation of the film years before the Madonna version got off the ground. She claims not to have seen the Madonna version.
“I saw a little of it on the treadmill once,” she says. “It looked like a bore. There was no reason to see it.”
Broadway, she says, has suffered the same shortsightedness that also ails the recording industry and TV. Talent that doesn’t hit big right out of the gate nowadays is dead in the water.
“In the past there were producers who supported and nurtured young composers and lyricists, who developed them and stuck with them. I was able to grow with a lot of these young playwrights and the audience was able to grow too. Now Times Square looks like a tawdry Las Vegas and people don’t know what they’re looking for other than a chance to make a lot of money. … It’s the same thing with TV. I turn the TV on and just scream at my husband. It’s the most boring piece of shit and there’s more commercial time than there is dramatic time. Don’t even get me started on reality TV. It’s a bunch of coddling of stupid, ignorant people.”
While it doesn’t take much to get LuPone ranting and lamenting, neither is it hard to induce warmth and delight.
She’s thrilled to reunite with her “Evita” costar, Broadway legend Mandy Patinkin, for a joint show on Broadway this fall.
“It’s great,” she says. “Very rarely do you get to work with someone again. For the most part it doesn’t ever happen, at least for me. But with Mandy, are you kidding? I adore him. Hopefully we’ll sell.”
Miscellaneous
SMYAL receives $25,000 award for ‘courageous acts’
D.C. group provides support services for LGBTQ youth
The D.C.-based organization SMYAL, which provides services for LGBTQ youth in the D.C. metro area, including housing for homeless LGBTQ youth, announced on June 30 that it received a $25,000 award for its “courageous acts” in support of the community it serves.
The award was a monetary grant from The Courage Project, which describes itself as a “national initiative investing in acts of courage and compassion that strengthens our communities and democracy.”
A statement on its website says it was launched in May 2025 and is funded and backed by leading national foundations in the U.S.
“At SMYAL, we are deeply grateful to receive support from The Courage Project and are inspired by their bold investment in LGBTQ+ youth at such a critical moment,” SMYAL CEO Erin Whelan said in a statement. “For queer and trans young people, simply showing up as themselves each day requires immense courage, and that courage is strengthened when organizations like The Courage Project stand behind them loudly, proudly, and without hesitation,” Whelan said.
In its statement announcing the award SMYAL says The Courage Project will recognize SMYAL and other awardees and their work on July 3 at the Washington National Cathedral as part of a special interfaith service marking the U.S. 250th anniversary.
“The Courage Project is a bold initiative honoring everyday acts of bravery – the quiet, often unseen acts of heroism that reflect the best of the American spirit and strengthen democracy at the community level,” the project states on its website.
Miscellaneous
LA-based TransLatin@ Coalition leads in time of attacks
Members of Congress ‘calling us a radical organization’
As ICE raids intensify across Southern California and anti-immigrant sentiment resurfaces in Orange County, transgender and immigrant communities are once again being targeted. These crackdowns go beyond enforcement — they’re designed to instill fear. At the same time, a coordinated right-wing smear campaign is attempting to discredit the very organizations working to keep these communities safe.
Last month, the TransLatin@ Coalition, a cornerstone in the fight for trans, queer, and immigrant rights in Los Angeles, was publicly named by members of Congress. But this was no recognition. It was a calculated attack.
“They’re calling us a radical organization,” said Bamby Salcedo, president and CEO of the TransLatin@ Coalition. “They’re spreading lies, saying we’re using government funding to abolish ICE and the police and to provide abortion access. We do believe in those things, but the funding we receive is used to serve our people.”
Now, that funding is being stripped away.
In the face of state violence, political backlash, and economic sabotage, TLC is responding the way it always has: by organizing, celebrating, and building a better world. Because when our communities are under attack, we show up — stronger, louder, and more united than ever.
Salcedo, herself a proud trans Latina immigrant, has spent decades fighting for those living at the margins. “I always say I am an intersection walking,” she said with a smile. “Our organization is made up of the people most impacted — and we are the ones leading the work.”
In Los Angeles County, roughly one-third of residents are immigrants, the majority of whom are Latino. Unsurprisingly, trans Latinas represent the largest segment within the local trans community.
Yet even within immigrant justice spaces, trans people are often sidelined.
“It’s a very hetero-centric space,” Salcedo said. “Most of the time, they don’t even consider the lives and experiences of trans and queer immigrants.”
The TransLatin@ Coalition is actively changing that. As a key member of a broad alliance of more than 100 immigrant-serving organizations across Los Angeles, including CHIRLA and the Filipino Workers Center, the TransLatin@ Coalition helped secure over $160 million in American Rescue Plan funds for immigrant housing, internet access, and legal services.
They also co-created the groundbreaking TGIE (Transgender, Gender-Nonconforming, Intersex Empowerment) initiative, which allocates $7 million in Los Angeles County’s annual budget to support trans-led service providers.
“We don’t just want symbolic policies,” said Salcedo. “We fight for resources. We analyze the budget. We make it real.”
Despite these victories, the TransLatin@ Coalition is now confronting devastating federal cuts.
“Our work has been defunded,” Salcedo said bluntly. “Multiple programs are gone. And we’re not alone — trans-led organizations across the country, especially in the South, are facing the same.”
She pointed to a broader backlash against anything associated with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). “The private sector is pulling back. Philanthropy is scared. Even the same corporations that fund us during Pride are investing in our opposition the rest of the year. It’s hypocrisy.”
Rather than retreat, the TransLatin@ Coalition is calling for bold, collective action.
“Now’s the time for people to step up,” said Salcedo. “We have the strategy. We’re doing the work. But we need resources — and we need real solidarity, not just statements.”
To respond to the crisis and raise urgently needed funds, the TransLatin@ Coalition is organizing its Walk for Humanity on Saturday, Aug. 24. The event will begin at 9 a.m. in Silver Lake and march to Sunset and Western, featuring live performances, a resource fair, and a unified call for justice.
And yes — it will be joyful.
“This is a call for all people to stand in solidarity with one another,” said Salcedo. “We want to bring together 1,000 people, each raising $1,000. It’s going to be a beautiful day of community and resistance.”
In a surprise announcement, Salcedo also revealed she will debut her first single — a cumbia track inspired by the movement. “It’s about movement in both senses: our political movement, and moving our bodies,” she laughed. “We can’t let them take away our joy. Joy is how we survive.”
When asked what more local leaders can do, Salcedo didn’t hesitate. “Elected officials are public servants. That means serving all people,” she said. “We may be a small population, but we are deeply impacted — and we contribute so much to this city.”
She pointed to data from LA’s most recent homelessness count, which identified over 2,000 trans and gender-expansive people experiencing homelessness. That number exists thanks in large part to years of advocacy demanding the city count and name trans lives. “We have the data now. There’s no excuse not to invest in our people.”
She also uplifted allies like Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and newly appointed City Council member Isabel Urado, the first openly LGBTQ person to hold her seat. “They’ve seen our work and are fighting to invest in it,” Salcedo said. “We’re hopeful we’ll see another $10 million in city funding. But we need the community behind us.”
At the end of our conversation, I asked Salcedo what she would say to undocumented, queer, and trans Angelenos who are feeling afraid right now.
Her answer was clear, powerful, and full of love:
“You are a divine creation. You deserve to exist in this world. Walk your path with dignity, love, and respect — for yourself and for others. You belong. You are part of me. You are part of us.”
If standing with trans immigrants, resisting federal rollbacks, and dancing in the streets sounds like your kind of solidarity, join the TransLatin@ Coalition on Aug. 24. Because when we show up together, we protect each other. And when we dance together — we win.
Watch the full interview with Salcedo:
Miscellaneous
LGBTQ cruise ship rescues 11 migrants between Cuba and Mexico
Rescue took place in Yucatán Channel on Wednesday
A cruise ship chartered by an LGBTQ travel company on Wednesday rescued 11 Cubans from a boat that was adrift between their country and Mexico.
Vacaya in a press release said the Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas, which had left from New Orleans, discovered the migrants’ boat in the Yucatán Channel, a strait between Mexico and Cuba that connects the Gulf of Mexico (the Trump-Vance administration now refers to the body of water as the Gulf of America) and the Caribbean Sea.
A video that Vacaya provided shows the migrants’ boat before the rescue. Other videos show the rescue taking place.
MTV’s Downtown Julie Brown, who was performing on the ship, described the rescue in a video she posted to social media.
“We are in the middle of a live rescue operation right now,” she said. “The captain of the ship, while we were hauling so fast the other way, thought he saw a boat in distress. So, we looped around … and it was indeed a boat in distress.”
“Nothing speaks more to VACAYA’s values than providing comfort in a moment of need,” said Vacaya CEO Randle Roper in the press release. “I’m so happy we were able to bring these 11 refugees onboard safely and provide medical care, dry clothes, food, and, most importantly, water.”
“It’s sad that some people have to put themselves through such trauma in hopes of finding a better life, but that’s where we are today,” added Roper. “I’m so proud of our LGBT+ guests rallying to collect clothes for these fellow humans in need.”
The ship is scheduled to return to New Orleans on Saturday.
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