BroadwayWorld.com recently reported that Patti LuPone has been cast on 30 Rock to play the mother "of Judah Friedlander's... well, um, unique Frank". NBC has announced that also guesting on the March 5 episode will be John Lithgow.
The show airs on NBC at 9:30 pm on Thursday, March 5.John Lithgow, a two-time Tony Award® winner most recently appeared on Broadway in ALL MY SONS and also recently appeared at Lincoln Center in his critically-acclaimed one man show Stories by Heart. His other NY stage credits include Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Changing Room (Tony Award), Mrs. Farnsworth, The Retreat from Moscow, M. Butterfly and Sweet Smell of Success (Tony Award). He won four Emmy Awards, three for his performance as Dick Solomon on the hit NBC comedy series "3rd Rock from the Sun." His many film credits include two back-to-back Oscar nominations for the films The World According To Garp and Terms of Endearment. He is also the author of seven New York Times best-selling children's picture books. His newest "I Got Two Dogs" hits bookstores in October.
Patti LuPone swept the 2008 theatre awards winning the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Actress in a Musical and the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance for her performance as Rose in the critically-acclaimed new Broadway production of the classic Jule Styne-Stephen Sondheim-Arthur Laurents musical Gypsy, directed by the show's author, Mr. Laurents, currently at the St. James Theatre.
Miss LuPone's recent stage credits include her debut with the Los Angeles Opera in Weill-Brecht's Mahagonny, the world premiere of Jake Heggie's new opera To Hell and Back with San Francisco's Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Mrs. Lovett in John Doyle's award winning Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Award nominations - Best Actress in a Musical; Drama League Award for Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theatre), the title role in Marc Blitzstein's Regina, a musical version of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes at Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center, a critically acclaimed performance as Fosca in a concert version of Stephen Sondheim's Passion, which was also broadcast on PBS' Live From Lincoln Center, and a multi-city tour of her theatrical concert Matters of the Heart. She has also performed Matters of the Heart internationally, including runs at Australia's Sydney Festival and London's Donmar Warehouse Theatre. Her CD recording, based on this concert, was named one of 1999's best recordings by both The Times of London and Time Out/New York.
In addition to Matters of the Heart, Miss LuPone also performs two other solo concerts Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda and The Lady With The Torch. She made a triumphant solo concert debut at New York's Carnegie Hall in Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda resulting in a sold-out encore performance, and performs the concert with major symphony orchestras around the country. The Lady With The Torch is the basis for Miss LuPone's latest solo CD, on Ghostlight Records. She also tours in a new concert with her Evita co-star Mandy Patinkin - An Evening With Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin.
Patti LuPone's other recent New York stage appearances include performances as La Mome Pistache in the Encores! production of Cole Porter's musical Can-Can at New York's City Center, as The Old Lady in the New York Philharmonic's concert production of Leonard Bernstein's Candide, and performances on Broadway in the hit revival of Michael Frayn's Noises Off, in David Mamet's The Old Neighborhood, Terrence McNally's Tony Award-winning play Master Class and in her own concert Patti LuPone On Broadway, for which she won an Outer Critics Circle Award. Over six consecutive summers, she's appeared in the Ravinia Festival's Sondheim series, starring as Mrs Lovett in Sweeney Todd, as Desiree in A Little Night Music, Fosca in Passion, Cora Hoover Hooper in Anyone Can Whistle, Rose in Gypsy and was featured in two different roles in Sunday in the Park with George.
