By SHARON EBERSON
Patti LuPone’s eyes lit up and her smile was as wide as it had been all evening while entertaining a packed Byham Theater on Tuesday night.
2026 marks the 25th anniversary of the concert she had just performed, titled Matters of the Heart, and she had been told she was on this same spot 25 years ago. She has been back since, but this memory seemed to spark delight.
Even so, she began the night by saying “Hi Pittsburgh. I’m Patti LuPone,” as if we needed an introduction. Or, perhaps, the woman shimmering from within and wearing sparkly white, was just ready to get reacquainted.
LuPone then proceeded as the consummate performer she has been over the decades. There’s no mistaking the singular phrasing and emotional resonance she pours into every song, along with her bring-down-the-house belts — none stronger than on the final note of “Being Alive,” from Company, a statement to send the crowded room into intermission.
There were sparks of the uncompromising top-tier diva, but mostly, this particular concert is about spreading love, keeping her voice lush and limber, and staying in touch with fans at age 76.
After performing in the play The Roommate on Broadway in 2024, LuPone has lately been a presence on our screens, in series such as Palm Royale, Agatha All Along, and The Artist, with her pal, Mandy Patinkin, to name just a few.
She has said Broadway musical theater may have seen the last of her, but that doesn’t mean other stages are off limits. Her voice remains sharp and full-bodied, as, on Tuesday, she covered more than two dozen songs, without a lot of banter, and without a false note.
Matters of the Heart begins with a nod to love of all sorts, first love, painful love, unrequited love, etc, with lust often making an appearance as well. The point is made quickly, with “Love Makes the World Go ’Round” as LuPone’s opener and serving as a musical theme throughout the night.
She then launched right into “I’m in Love With a Wonderful Guy” from South Pacific, a sample of belts to come.
Her Broadway picks did not include numbers she is best known for – her three Tony Awards are for Evita, Gypsy and, in 2022, for Featured Role in a Musical, in the gender-swapped Company.
She did swing for the fences with Sondheim’s “Being Alive” from that last show, and dug into the Broadway songbook with “We Can Never Go Back to Before” (Ragtime), and “Easy to Be Hard” from Hair.
Her covers of pop songs, such as The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” and Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time,” earned some of the biggest applause of the night.
LuPone stood for most of the concert, with the occasional piano lean. When at last she got off her feet in the first half of the concert, she took a chair and dipped into an oldie, rendering “All I Need Is the Air That I Breathe” quietly, reverentially.
In covering all kinds of love, you might say “All I Need …” represented the good, but there were also the bad breakup (Better Off Dead) and the hilariously bawdy (Shattered Illusions).
LuPone’s accompaniment, as they had been when she performed the concert in February, at New York’s Carnegie Hall, was music director Joseph Thalken on piano, joined by Four Play String Quartet.
In a nod to her famous outbursts, often aimed at audience members who disregard rules against taking pictures during her shows, she came out for the encore aiming a bright yellow camera – with a flash! – to take pictures from the stage.
I am happy to say that that was the first time I saw anyone take out a phone while LuPone was onstage. Even better, I did not hear a single ringtone. (Confession: I have a T-shirt with the quote: “Who do you think you are?” – Patti LuPone).
LuPone left the stage reveling in the reminder of 25 years with this particular concert, and added that, even in the roughest of times, love conquers all.
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