"Art can make you understand through emotion what you are absolutely incapable of understanding through intellect." Roberto Rossellini (1962)
We are all moving targets seeking unique methods of self-expression. Our audiences are also part of the creative process, for without them we have no spirit to help define us. The infinite permutations to which art can manifest itself are really a testament to the human spirit. Enter Leslie Kritzer.
In the underground New York scene, acclaimed actress Leslie Kritzer - who describes herself as a "performance artist who happens to be on Broadway" - is reviving a lost period in that city's cultural history. Her show Leslie Kritzer is Patti Lupone at Les Mouches pays homage to the legendary Toni Award winning Broadway performer she adored.
Not without credentials herself, Leslie's body of work includes Funny Girl, Hairspray and the theatre adaptation of the film Legally Blonde.
From what I have read, seen and heard, this show can very well go right over the heads of some people. In these times where scrawlers give into the stuffy demands of superficial minds, enjoying art in its pure state is often a secondary thought. However, there are still many of us who are more than prepared to drop our intellect and let art guide our emotions.
The question begs to be asked: Why Patti Lupone?
Leslie Kritzer: "Patti Lupone used to perform at Les Mouches every Saturday night for six months circa 1980 during her run with Evita. It was an eclectic period, in that New York was still an uninhibited city. I eventually saw a bootleg of some of her shows and my friend and director, Ben Rimalower, thought wouldn't it be cool if we brought a performing arts spin on Patti Lupone? We wanted to unearth and recreate, and bring a sense of her legendary shows to a 2006 audience. The response has been overwhelming."
Indeed, New York City throughout the 1970s was a hotbed of unhinged raw sexual human exploration. From the underworld characters of Lou Reed, to the confused cross-dressing precursors to punk the New York Dolls, to the misfit cast of Saturday Night Live, NYC was where free spirits came to live and - sadly as AIDS devastatingly unleashed itself on the 1980s - die.
Ok. That's one side of the stage - excuse the pun - but is Patti Lupone aware of the show?
LK: "Yes. I would never do something like this without her blessing. In fact, the original musical director back then was David Lewis and he's now involved with this. It's been quite a ride. We listened to the badly damaged tapes and we've had to rearrange the music and took all the best of the tapes and compiled a sort of 'six month best of' compilation. The cabaret is a dead scene and through my show I am giving glimpses of what it was like."
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