June 23-29, 2005

artpicks

Carrying a Torch

Photo By: rahav segev/photopass

cabaret

There's something deliciously perverse about it. The originally scheduled opening performer in Lenape Center's summer theater season was Kristin Chenoweth: the eternally smiling blonde ingenue who is in many ways America's Sweetheart. But conflicts necessitated Chenoweth's withdrawal, and the real news here is her substitute: Patti LuPone, diva extraordinaire, mostly famous on stage (Evita, Sweeney Todd) as a legendary shrew.

It's as if Glinda took a hike and was heroically replaced by that old trouper, the Wicked Witch of the West.

Of course, this is a real windfall for Lenape. LuPone is a card-carrying star, one of very few in our current theater scene. Some years back, there was a dustup involving Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard (she lost the Broadway production to Glenn Close), but far from hurting Patti's street cred, that enhanced it. LuPone rose from martyrdom to sainthood (at least to her faithful following) and has remained there since.

Lately, LuPone has spent much of her time on the concert stage, where she appears in carefully devised shows that allow her to show off her inimitable voice — sometimes snarling, sometimes blasting — and take-no-prisoners manner. Her Lenape evening, subtitled Lady with the Torch, should be no exception. It features a program of all-grown-up-now songs, including Cole Porter's marvelous "Find Me a Primitive Man."

Primitive? Maybe. But exciting? Count on it.

Patti LuPone, Sat., June 25, 8 p.m.; Sun., June 26, 4 p.m.; $50, Lenape Regional Performing Arts Center, 130 Tomlinson Mill Rd., Marlton, N.J., 856-983-3366.