CD: Patti LuPone at Les Mouches

The wait is almost over: on November 11th, Ghostlight Records will release Patti LuPone at Les Mouches, an absolutely sensational CD culled from digitally restored, never-before-released recordings of the now legendary club concerts. If you’re a musical theatre fan you’ve no doubt heard about these intimate gigs, performed with a small combo for half a year’s worth of Saturdays while LuPone was, astonishingly, on the boards as Evita.

Naturally, there’s the then-signature Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina from Evita as well as that show’s Rainbow High, which LuPone relishes here with lip-smacking delight. There’s a glorious rendition of Meadowlark (from The Baker’s Wife) in which LuPone’s full-throttle belt seems to grow superhumanly stronger as the melody soars upward.

Just as treasurable are the set’s pop songs. LuPone gives Downtown, the early ’60’s Petula Clark hit, a wholly original interpretation, true to the spirit of the original but stripping it of glitz and somewhat reshaping the melody. Her mostly straightforward take on Because The Night makes the song’s lyrics easier to understand than in the respective versions by Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen: take that, diction police! The rendition included here of Bob Dylan’s Mr. Tambourine Man is stunning: initially wistful and controlled, then finally declamatory and wrenching, it brings to mind what LuPone would later do with her solo in Les Miserables.

Apart from a couple of novelty songs that are mostly noteworthy for the personality they bring to the set (for example, Heaven Is A Disco) the rest of the CD is dominated by standards, including an upbeat Come Rain or Come Shine which follows a deeply felt intro of Sondheim’s Not While I’m Around from Sweeney Todd. LuPone’s jazz-tinged take on Street Of Dreams includes both distinctively slinky, emotionally expressive singing as well as moments of bombast, making it a one-of-a-kind gem.

The same could be said of this CD. It’s instantly essential.