Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
June 23, 2018

The Sydney audience wasted no time in showing how it feels about legendary Broadway diva Patti LuPone, with a large section of the house giving her a standing ovation as soon as she stepped onto the stage. There had already been laughter and applause at the message to switch off all phones – recognition of LuPone halting the show during Gypsy to demand an audience member stop taking photographs, and removing the phone from someone during the comedy Shows for Days after they had been repeatedly texting.

So here we were, phones off, and ready for a show that more than lived up to high expectations. Don’t Monkey With Broadway, named after a 1940 Cole Porter song, is essentially a love letter to Broadway in which LuPone sings an exciting selection of numbers from shows she’s starred in, as well as roles she’d love to have done, and numbers she simply adores regardless of the age or gender of the character they were written for.

Patti LuPone. Photo © Rahav Iggy Segev / Photopass.com

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