Don’t Cry for LuPone: Life Goes On Despite Snub for ‘Evita’ Movie

Patti LuPone is not amused. She originated the role of Eva Peron in the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice opera, “Evita,” but she is not among those being considered for the film version of the show.

Barbra Streisand has been. So has Liza Minnelli, and so has Meryl Streep, who was to do the role before she backed out of the project, saying that she was tired and needed to take some time off.

“No,” said LuPone in a recent interview here. “I’m not amused that they haven’t even considered me for the film version, but then I’m in good company. The same thing happened to Carol Channing, Mary Martin, Ethel Merman and Julie Andrews. They all originated stage roles that were given to others when the film versions of their musicals were made.”

LuPone may be out of the running for “Evita,” but there is no need to feel sorry for her. She very recently had a long run in the Broadway revival of “Anything Goes,” and she is now seen weekly in “Life Goes On,” a television series in which she plays the mother of a boy with Down’s syndrome.

LuPone has also done five movies. Her newest is “Driving Miss Daisy.” In it she plays Florine, wife of Boolie (Dan Aykroyd), the son of Miss Daisy, the Atlanta matron who forms a 25-year friendship with her chauffeur.

Currently LuPone is busy with the television series. She finds the pace “extremely grueling. I’m physically capable, but it is grueling.”

If the series returns for a second season, LuPone will stay with it. “It will be back,” she said. “It’s protected. They won’t cancel it because it has had too much publicity.”