Uma Thurman told ‘leave theatre to stage professionals’ by Broadway legend Patti LuPone The Broadway and West End star Patti LuPone has criticised Hollywood stars who take to the stage, singling out a […]

The Broadway and West End star Patti LuPone has criticised Hollywood stars who take to the stage, singling out a performance by Uma Thurman as a notably poor example of celebrity casting.

Speaking at the launch of a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Company, in which she will star opposite Rosalie Craig and Mel Giedroyc, Ms LuPone said: “I don’t necessarily need to see film actors on stage, because they can’t. Not in my country they can’t.” Ms LuPone added: “Can I just say, Uma Thurman in The Parisian Woman, anybody see it? Holy shit! I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” The i newsletter cut through the noise Email address is invalid Email address is invalid Thank you for subscribing! Sorry, there was a problem with your subscription.

“I’m not sure there is a stigma any more (about film actors doing theatre), perhaps there should be.”

Thurman’s ‘train wreck’ Broadway role

The Pulp Fiction star Thurman received lukewarm reviews for her role in the “train wreck” Parisian Woman, a satire on contemporary US politics which ran on Broadway last year.

She “flails around the stage, as if she does not know what to do” in a performance described as “shaky”, “exceedingly bland” and “half-baked” by critics.

“It’s hard work, so I want you to understand that I have nothing against Uma Thurman,” said the double Grammy and Tony award-winning LuPone, who starred in Evita and Sunset Boulevard.

Stars ‘lowering the standard of theatre’

“But you want those people to come to the stage for the right reason and that is to honour the stage, honour the theatre and not be in for themselves, and I’m not saying that Uma was.”

“You also lower the standard, and that seems to be happening in the world with everything.”

Gender-switched Company

Ms LuPone plays the acerbic Joanne in a gender-flipped version of Company, opening at the Gielgud Theatre in September.

Sondheim agreed to change the central character of Bobbi, a 35 year-old New York singleton who can’t find the right woman, to a woman, played by Rosalie Craig.

Olivier award-winning director Marianne Elliott persuaded Sondheim that a female protagonist would put a contemporary spin on the show, first staged in 1970, which could seem “dated”.

Song lyrics and the genders of other characters will be altered, although the search for love remains heterosexual.

Seated ovation as protest

Ms LuPone also criticised the enthusiasm for standing ovations, especially in her native US, and said she stays seating in protest.

She said: “Ovations are cheap in America; it’s almost as if they stand because they have spent so much money.”

“It’s almost as if I’ve spent this money, I’m forced in my head to think it’s good and I’m going to stand to cement it, because I’ve spent that much money.”

“I don’t stand. In protest, I stay seated. I am in protest of standing ovations, I stay seated and I’m just making my point. It’s too cheap to stand now.”

Lloyd-Webber feud

The Broadway star also spoke about her two-decades long feud with Andrew Lloyd Webber after he sacked her from lead role of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, which she had originated in London, and replaced her with Glenn Close.

Ms LuPone said: “He fired me. He didn’t tell me anything. I found out through my agent on performance night at my dressing table. “It was in a newspaper in New York that I found out, not from Andrew.”

The duo finally put aside their differences when LuPone sang Don’t Cry For Me Argentina from Evita at the Grammys earlier this year.

She said: “It was about getting the work done at the orchestra rehearsal but there was never any discussion about why I was fired.”

:: Company is at the Gielgud Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, 26 September – 22 December 2018