Patti LuPone: Taking the stage at Carnegie Hall
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 19 April 2026
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Patti LuPone – three-time Tony and two-time Grammy Award winner – has long reigned as one of Broadway’s most formidable leading ladies. In this edition of In The Studio, we join her in New York for a highly anticipated solo concert at Carnegie Hall. Best known for defining roles in Evita, Les Miserables, Gypsy, and Sunset Boulevard, LuPone has also sustained a decades-long parallel life on the concert stage – a career she says began simply to “offset unemployment” between Broadway runs. What started as late-night cabaret after Evita evolved into meticulously structured touring shows, each built around narrative, character and the power of lyrics. Her current programme, Matters of the Heart, weaves a tapestry of love stories – from romance and heartbreak to family and devotion – revealing her instinct to treat every song as theatre. Patti describes her routine on the day of the concert: the soundcheck, the balancing of quartet and voice in a hall famed for its natural acoustics, and the quiet rituals that precede performance. LuPone reflects on nerves, storytelling and the audacity of standing alone before 2,800 expectant faces. Alongside her collaborators, including musical director Joseph Thalken, she reveals the discipline and trust behind the scenes. This is a portrait of craft at the highest level – the artist, the venue and the alchemy of live performance.
Presenter and producer: Victoria Ferran Executive producer: Susan Marling A Just Radio production for BBC World Service
Image: Patti LuPone (Credit: Emilio Madrid)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:08.0 | Welcome to the documentary in the studio from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:13.0 | I'm Patty Lepone, and we're in Manhattan, New York, |
| 0:15.7 | for the next stop on my concert tour, Matters of the Heart, |
| 0:19.1 | which I'm performing at the historic Carnegie Hall. |
| 0:24.3 | Patty Lepone is one of the great voices of American musical theatre, |
| 0:29.4 | and has long reigned as one of Broadway's most formidable leading ladies. |
| 0:35.9 | Celebrated for her work with Stephen Sondheim, she was also the original Evita on Broadway, |
| 0:42.0 | originated the role of Fontaine in Les Miserables and was the original Norma Desmond |
| 0:46.8 | in the London production of Sunset Boulevard. |
| 0:50.9 | Along the way, she's received no less than three Tony Awards, two Grammys and two Olivier's. |
| 0:57.9 | For in the studio, the series that goes behind the scenes with the world's leading artists, |
| 1:03.5 | we join Patty in New York to discover the work that goes into performing at one of the most famous concert halls in the world. |
| 1:13.6 | The history of Carnegie Hall is something you know you walk into and you just, it elevates you. |
| 1:21.6 | The building itself has entertained so many extremely important musicians. |
| 1:31.3 | I mean, everybody says you come here |
| 1:33.2 | and you can almost feel all the great artists |
| 1:37.3 | who performed here before you. |
| 1:40.1 | Asper, I better use the sir, hadn't I? |
| 1:41.8 | Because it's Britain. |
| 1:44.8 | I'm Sir Clive Gillinson, the executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall. |
| 1:50.1 | We really do have every sort of music. |
... |
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