A New Argentina

Last night at Joe's Pub I got to spend a little time in history watching the future.

Leslie Kritzer is recreating Patti LuPone's legendary final 1980 performance of her run at the Les Mouches nightclub. I know it's legendary because the program told me it was.

Here's what the program says:

"On September 27th, 1980, Patti LuPone concluded a record-breaking thirty week run of midnight performances at the now long-gone club, Les Mouches. During the run she won the Tony for Evita and each Saturday, after that show, David Lewis would pick her up in a limousine and they would travel together to Chelsea, to Les Mouches, where for an A-List crowd, they would deliver a fierce and tender celebration of the hedonism, self-destruction and soul-searching of the time."

So, yeah, Patti LuPone used to squeeze in a little midnight romp after her two Saturday shows and the night before her Sunday show. David Lewis, the original musical director worked on this with Leslie and plays piano and throws in back-up vocals as well.

Well, I wasn't there for the original, but Leslie is great, the music is terrific and I'd probably listen to her and David and the rest of the band sing the phone book at me. And it doesn't feel like nostalgia--it feels like a great performance, dancing and singing the then in the now . . .