The truth is, she never left us.
Patti LuPone will come back to Broadway this fall, more than two years after she dramatically tossed out her actors union card, The Post has learned.
And, in typical LuPone fashion, her return won’t be low-key.
The three-time Tony Award winner will star opposite none other than Mia Farrow in Jen Silverman’s new play “The Roommate.”
The production, directed by Jack O’Brien (“Shucked”), will begin previews at the Booth Theatre on 45th Street in late August and then open in mid-September.
Produced by Chris Harper (“Company”), “The Roommate” has signed a lease in Shubert Alley for 16 weeks.
While it will certainly be a thrill to see the 79-year-old star of “Rosemary’s Baby” back on the boards for the first time in a decade (her last go-round was in “Love Letters”), what’s really piqued my interest is Patti’s Card.
In July 2022, LuPone, 74, very publicly left Actors’ Equity, the professional actors union that a performer must be a member of to work on Broadway and at many other top-tier theaters around the country.
“Quite a week on Broadway, seeing my name being bandied about. Gave up my Equity card; no longer part of that circus. Figure it out,” LuPone wrote on Twitter, now known as X.
So, exactly how will she now be a marquee star of a major play on the Great White Way? One source said the production will make a “right to work” argument on behalf of LuPone.
It won’t be easy. You’ll think it strange!
Because, unlike in other states such as Kentucky, New York does not have any “right to work” laws. There are no legal protections here from an employer’s union requirement for a job. Join up — or do concerts at the Ice Palace on Fire Island and at Carnegie Hall.
But now, God knows, Anything Goes!
The Post has reached out to the production for what will surely be a doozy of an explanation.
While “The Roommate” is new to New York, the show has been floating around the US for about nine years.
I saw the world premiere of Silverman’s play back in 2015 during the Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville.
The one-act two-hander is a lot of fun, but I can’t say I ever imagined Rosemary and Evita appearing in it. The story is about an Iowa divorcee who takes in a lodger from the Bronx — and that duo will now be infused with a whole lot of personality.
What a coup next season will be for fans of Broadway’s great divas. They’ll get the rare chance to see three past and present Mama Roses from “Gypsy” inside of just a few months.
There’s LuPone in “The Roommate” and Bernadette Peters in the lovely Stephen Sondheim revue “Old Friends” later in the spring.
And — Here she is, boys! Here she is, world! I swear! — Audra McDonald in a new revival of “Gypsy.”
