Broadway's Patti LuPone hits all the right notes in Hill Auditorium show

Patti LuPone live publicity photo.

Rahav Cosi

Accompanied flawlessly by pianist Joseph Thalken, LuPone took the audience on a lively tour of songs and roles that she “could have played, should have played and did play” over the course of her career.

She scored with the local crowd immediately. “Go Blue! Buckeyes suck,” she shouted, to huge applause, before launching into a nearly two-hour revue (including intermission) that began with the delightful “An English Teacher” from “Bye Bye Birdie” and ended — two standing ovations later — with “100 Years From Today,” sung beautifully and without amplification to take advantage of Hill’s famous acoustics.

LuPone’s a performing dynamo, as her version of “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” from “Gypsy” — a show for which she recently won a Tony Award — proved beyond a doubt. She knows how to wring the last iota of emotion from every song, and she nailed nearly every tune.

There were so many wonderful moments it’s hard to include them all. A powerful “Don’t Rain on My Parade” made me forget all about the Barbra Streisand version. “A Boy Like That,” from “West Side Story,” in which LuPone sang both Maria's and Anita’s parts, was witty and perfectly timed. And no one, and I mean no one, else should be allowed to sing “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.” Hers is the definitive version and cannot be topped. You could have heard a pin drop during her exquisite interpretation of Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns,” and the final notes of “As Long As He Needs Me” could probably be heard all the way back to New York City.

The second act started with tunes that were written for and performed by men, including “Ya Got Trouble,” from “The Music Man.” The inimitable Robert Preston will always be the master when it comes to this gem, but LuPone’s rapid-fire delivery — with the audience chanting “trouble, trouble, trouble” — was spot-on. King Arthur’s "Camelot" lament, “How To Handle A Woman,” was delicate and delightful, as was Cole Porter’s “So In Love.”

LuPone’s warm, down-to-earth demeanor and self-deprecating humor is part of her appeal, as is her ability to express a range of emotions almost in the blink of an eye. One moment she’s the life of the party (“I Never Do Anything Twice”); the next she’s the party after everyone’s gone home (the bittersweet “September Song”).

The one time I thought her dramatics got the best of her was during “Easy to Be Hard,” from “Hair.” Some songs just don’t need a bang-up finish and this is one of them.

Her between-song patter and anecdotes about her life were equally entertaining, and she had the crowd laughing along with her during stories and one-liners about her early experiences as a singer that led up to her career on Broadway.

LuPone’s final song, “My Way,” capped the career retrospective, paving the way for the first encore, Sondheim’s “The Ladies Who Lunch.”

The audience was with her note for note, and the cheering at the end was almost as loud as the applause. What a musical treat! If this show was a dream, it was a sweet one from which I definitely did not want to awaken too soon.

Roger LeLievre is a free-lance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com.