Broadway legend Patti LuPone appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert May 23 pulling out her high drama Juilliard training for a dramatic reading of Colbert's "Meanwhile" introduction.

The pop culture series, which has been a Colbert staple since 2019, features an ever changing introduction where Colbert appears to go off the rails in a high stakes and high melodrama introduction before arriving at a pop culture conclusion. LuPone revisited Colbert's May 7 speech, an introduction to a story on Taco Bell's Mexican Pizza menu item.

The speech, which begins with an innocuous reference to the monologue that opens the show, soon pivots to "sobering up at four thousand feet while strapped into a parachute, deducing that I have been tossed from the CESNA 162 Skycatcher used to smuggle me out of the Philippines."

By the end, even LuPone has to swallow a smile to maintain her serious demeanor.

Which version of the soliloquy do you prefer?

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Celebrating Patti LuPone's Stage Career

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