Legendary actress Patti LuPone portrayed Evita in 1979’s original Broadway run, and she has some choice words for Madonna‘s eventual interpretation in the 1996 film.
Related:
Talking to Andy Cohen on Tuesday’s edition of Watch What Happens Live!, she said, “I was on a treadmill when MTV used to have videos, and I saw, I believe it was ‘Buenos Aires,’ and I thought it was a piece of sh*t.”
“Madonna is a movie killer. She’s dead behind the eyes. She cannot act her way out of a paper bag. She should not be on film or on stage. She is a wonderful performer for what she does but she is not an actress. Bang.”
Watch: Donald Trump: Madonna is “disgusting.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
DuMaurier
Well, I can imagine the blowback against THIS, but Lupone is basically right. Madonna got through Evita, but watching her was kind of like when your six year-old is in the school pageant and you’re holding your breath until it’s over, hoping he’ll remember that line, hit that note, not fall down. For such an aggressively erotic performer it’s weird how timid and ineffectual she is as an actress. She was good in the driving campaign sequence (“A New Argentina”) where the director somehow focused her, but in quieter moments there were times when her expression and manner literally had nothing to do with the meaning of the lyrics (“I’d Be Surprisingly Good For You”, just for one–and where the only surprise is that Madonna–Madonna!–cannot be convincing as a seductress)
UWSguy
Well put
inbama
Lloyd Weber’s shallow and overblown music doesn’t work on film eiither.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
No lies detected. Although to somewhat contradict myself: how to account for Despreatly Seeking Susan in which she was objectively good? I know I can’t square that. They’ll eventually get to round to solving that after the Nazca ley lines and the Bermuda Triangle
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
*Desperately
jkthsnk
That wasn’t acting that was her and, yes, it was thoroughly enjoyable, but remember who carried that film allowing Madonna’s one note performance to shine. Think about how fun she was on Will and Grace again, playing herself.
Observant
Lupone is dead-on in her assessment. Madonna is a video star and a master at marketing herself. But she’s a lousy singer, a mediocre dancer, and a non-actress. Videos suited her because of the quick cutaways and rapid-fire editing.
Her turn in “Speed the Plow” on Broadway was painful to sit through, and her movies are equally difficult to watch. Her only halfway convincing role was Breathless Mahoney in Dick Tracy, and she was essentially a live-action, one-dimensional cartoon character.
Paraphrasing a magnet on my fridge, I fondly remember when fame was a by-product of talent.
(Rinse and repeat the above for Beyoncé.)
cleancut123
Spot on! Neither Beyonce nor Madonna are proper actresses. There is something soulless and a lack of depth in both of them. Both of them are amazing superstars and amazing music video stars but they have both proven that they cannot pull off a demanding acting role.
Sluggo2007
Patti Labelle said it best 30 years ago. Madonna is not talented, she’s lucky.
MarionPaige
How is Evita news again?
Someone did an amazing job of re-arranging the songs in Evita for Madonna’s voice.
I heard back in the day that Meryl Streep was aggressively pursuing the role of Evita.
At this point in time,
I think it is pretty much impossible to actually insult Madonna.
Jack Meoff
How is Pattu Lupone news again is the better question I think. As to insulting Madonna given the way her career has gone I think insults are redundant.
difficultsphinx
Andy Cohens show sucks, so he has to dredge up ANYTHING to keep his show on the air.
getmebrian
And Patti finally figured out how to get back in the headlines again. Artists need to stop tearing down artists – take the high road.
He BGB
Dead behind the eyes and a piece of sh**. Kills every movie she’s in. Yep, that pretty much says it all. I doubt Julie Andrews would say that about Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady though. Lapone is a true new yorker (don’t know if she was born there but she says it like she means it)
Sluggo2007
Patti is from Long Island.
He BGB
Also, I think Andy Cohen gets them liquored,up, to say these things.
UWSguy
True
kurt_t
I think an expressive face, or an unexpressive one, is something you’re born with. Rose Marie, now there’s somebody with an expressive face. Fred Astaire, Buster Keaton, Valerie Harper, Rhea Perlman, Jack Klugman, all exceptionally expressive faces. When you hear the words “expressive face” there’s probably somebody you know whose face comes to mind right away.
So yeah, I think it’s like any gift. You’re born with it, and you can develop it or not.
And Madonna was definitely not born with it. She would bomb in a Carol Burnett Show sketch.
But sometimes a “dead behind the eyes” face is what the role calls for. You know a great “dead behind the eyes” actress? Whoever it was who played Woody Allen’s post-Dianne-Keaton date in “Annie Hall.” The scene with the lobsters. You know the one I’m talking about?
She was amazing.
niles
Rose Marie?
OzJosh
In a promotional interview at the time Madonna talked about her approach to playing Evita, which was basically relating to her because “she was also misunderstood”. Thereby demonstrating that she utterly missed almost every crucial facet of Evita’s character, along with the entire thematic arc of the musical.
Stenar
Lacking class, Patti.
Bob LaBlah
My ‘rithmetic skills aint all that good but if it cyphered it right that means girl here featured in the article was a star thirty eight years ago. She did it right though. You see, if your a faded or mediocre star you find an obscure gay website such as Queerty and offer them a story trashing another star and viola, your on the front page of something at least.
I do agree with her but whats with the thirty-eight year wait to tell the truth about how you felt regarding a performance that itself is more than twenty years old? Its really a shame the late Eartha Kitt didnt come forward and let the world know how she felt about Madonna’s butchering of her Christmas hit Santa Baby. Madonna should have been arrested for that song. Thats just how awful she sounds on it.
seaguy
Patty get over yourself. All your doing is proving you’re the bitch everyone says you are.
tsbeast
Patti, the only performer who has ever managed to cause me to go from adoring her to loathing her in a single live appearance, seems to only feel pride when she is tearing someone down, whether it be Madonna or some poor audience member that she accuses of taking a picture of her. At this point on her rather lackluster career she should be thrilled that anyone would want a picture of her or even want to hear her bitter, nasty opinion of Madonna who got the movie role that Patti only wishes she would have had the star power to get herself! Quit being a bitch Ms. Lupone, it’s unbecoming of a has been of your magnitude!
tricky ricky
Madonna sucked. she was horrid. patty is right. and tbeast, somebody was taking pictures during the show. as for blow ups on stage nothing will top Helen Mirren stopping the show and marching down the aisle and going OUTSIDE the theatre to tell the marching band to knock it off. Madonna is a POP singer and should know her place. She’s a one trick pony.
JessPH
Madonna actually beat Meryl Streep for the role of Evita. Meryl F*cking Streep!
Meryl would have slayed it as Evita. Slayed!
DuMaurier
No kidding. She would have been magnificent. And in an adaptation of “Sunset Boulevard” (I know everyone raved about Glenn Close, but from the clips I’ve seen it’s a stage performance, not one for camera closeups)
My2Cents
Whether you agree with this comment or not, this is a comment you make to a friend at home, not to an interviewer with cameras. Totally classless statement about a 20 year old movie. Which means the only “news” made here is that Patti Lupone is a bitter diva and I don’t think that’s what she was trying to convey.
xSushi
The irony here is that she got more attention using Madonna’s name than if she hadn’t mentioned her at all… hahaha BITCH YOU’RE A FAN!!
Rob91316
She’s just pissed because Andrew Lloyd Webber is on record saying that when Madonna auditioned for “Evita,” she sang “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” better than Lupone ever did! If you asked Madonna what she thinks of Lupone, she would have nothing but gushing, unadulterated, idol-level-worship praise for her — because my M is a class-act that way!
Sluggo2007
Andrew Lloyd Webber must have been drunk if he said that at all. I’ll bet you have a Britney Spears collection too.
Joe Dalmas
Your M is a class act, Rob91316? Do you mean, Miss I-Load-Hydrangeas class act? Madonna’s singing was so bad they had to scrap the whole first day recording session for Evita, send her to take voice lessons, and come back weeks or months later to start over again. They called that first session Black Monday. I’m no fan of Patti Lupone and I love Madonna the pop singer but let’s face it, neither one ain’t no class act.
tricky ricky
she’s right. Madonna hit exactly ONE NOTE with the correct mixture of emotion and song in the ENTIRE movie. It’s in Waltz for Eva and Che.