Patti LuPone, who received a Tony Award nomination for her work in the 1987 Tony-winning revival of Cole Porter's Anything Goes, will reunite with two of that production's stars — Howard McGillin and Linda Hart — for a one-night-only Lincoln Center benefit performance April 1.
The gala performance, which also boasts a cast including John Cunningham, Boyd Gaines, Kaitlin Hopkins, Elizabeth Hubbard, John Jellison and Michael McGrath, will honor Joe Cullman, a great friend of Lincoln Center, on his 90th birthday. Cullman is married to Lincoln Center Theater's vice-chairman, Joan Cullman.
The Anything Goes concert will be performed at the Vivian Beaumont Theater 6:45 PM April 1. Featuring direction and choreography by Side Show's Robert Longbottom, the evening will also include musical direction by David Chase. The performance, which is the centerpiece of the Lincoln Center's 2002 Spring Gala, will be followed by dinner at Tavern on the Green at Central Park West and 67th Street. Tickets to the performance only (in the loge section), priced at $50 and $100, are available beginning March 19 at the theatre's box office (150 W. 65th Street) or by calling Telecharge at (212) 239-6200.
Tickets for the performance (orchestra seats) and dinner are priced at $600, $1,000 and $2,500 and are available by calling Karin Schall at (212) 501-3251.
Anything Goes — with a score by Porter and a book by Guy Bolton, P.G. Wodehouse, Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse — premiered on Broadway in 1934 with the legendary Ethel Merman in the role of Reno Sweeney. LuPone portrayed the sassy nightclub singer in the 1987 revival, which featured an updated book by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman. About her performance former New York Times theatre critic Frank Rich raved, "Forget about the Coliseum, the Louvre museum, a melody from a symphony by Strauss—Patti LuPone is the top...With her burst of Lucille Ball red hair, a trumpet's blare in her voice, and lips so insinuatingly protruded they could make the Pledge of Allegiance sound lewd, Ms. LuPone's Reno is a mature, uninhibited jazz dame: loose, trashy, funny, sexy." The 1987 production won Tonys for Best Revival of a Musical, Featured Actor in a Musical (the late Bill McCutcheon) and Best Choreography (Michael Smuin). LuPone is currently appearing in Broadway's Noises Off. She won the Tony Award for the title role of Evita.
