by Steve Desroches
Actor Jonathan Hoover kept checking his mailbox and e-mail for a cease-and-desist letter. His impersonation of Patti LuPone started as a party trick, but was becoming part of his work with shows at the bars and cabarets of Manhattan. He had a hit on his hands with his Inappropriate Patti character, but often A-list stars, or at least their management, don’t see the honor in the homage and threaten legal action. Instead of the threat of a lawsuit from the Broadway legend, though, he ended up being cast as her co-star in a deliciously meta two-episode arc on American Horror Story: NYC. You never know what the universe will throw your way, and sometimes it’s fabulous.
Growing up in Garden Grove, California, Hoover first discovered LuPone for himself while watching Life Goes On, the landmark television drama starring LuPone and Chris Burke, an actor with Down syndrome, a first for an American TV show. While the whole cast sang the show’s opening credit song, a rendition of The Beatles “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” LuPone’s powerhouse voice rose above the rest. But young Hoover didn’t connect the voice to her at the time. That came when his mother, recognizing her son’s love of musical theater, bought him the original London cast recording of Les Misérables after seeing how much he loved listening to The Phantom of the Opera album. As he listened to LuPone sing the role of the ill-fated Fantine he was transfixed. It was the gateway album to all things LuPone. Sunset Boulevard, Evita, and Anything Goes would soon follow. He was hooked.
“My mind was blown,” says Hoover. “Her voice was just otherworldly.”
All that parental support and musical inspiration meeting Hoover’s talent and persistence paid off as he’s a working actor now, currently in New York City, where he’s rehearsing for a national tour of the musical Mrs. Doubtfire, which kicks off in Reno, Nevada, in early September. Prior to this, he’s appeared in regional and touring productions of A Chorus Line, Bat Boy, Sweeney Todd, and A Little Night Music. But it’s just recently that he has grasped the solo spotlight with Inappropriate Patti and the cabaret show Second-Rate Somebody, which sold out the New York hot spot 54 Below. He’s bringing the LuPoneapolloza to Provincetown this Labor Day weekend with a run at the Art House.
Hoover has been doing his LuPone impersonation, which focuses on the vocal prowess and speech patterns complimented by usually only a wig, for almost a decade now. The most important aspect of nailing the idiosyncracies that make a loving lampoon of LuPone work is to make sure to get the “splat” correct, that unique sound where her voice goes up into her nasal cavity, as well as to be “flannel mouthed,” the term LuPone herself uses to describe how she has words melodically flow together. That and camping up her penchant for yelling at people for taking pictures or using their phones in theaters, and an occasional arms up a la Eva Peron, and bam, there’s Inappropriate Patti. But there’s something else. While LuPone, of course, has a huge, diverse fan base, there is something about her special connection with gay men that even she has acknowledged. People the world over love her acting and singing, but what is the answer to the age-old question of what makes a true gay icon, and in addition, what makes LuPone one?
“When she acts, she’s fearless,” says Hoover. “I think gay men dream to be that fearless and vulnerable in life, especially when you spent so much time hiding who you really are. She’s just so fearless. Yes, there’s that singular voice. But how she just goes at life, not letting anyone push her around and just being so fearless. I think that’s it. That’s a big part of why gay men love her. It’s why I love her. Plus, there’s the glamour. And gay men do love a belter.”
The lovefest became real, and mutual, when Hoover worked a 14-hour day filming two episodes of American Horror Story: NYC with LuPone, in which she plays a lounge singer in a 1980s gay bathhouse and Hoover, the queen who is going to impersonate her in the same club. He initially was completely intimidated by the thought of working with her, but that soon gave way to affection and awe as she welcomed him in as an equal. And when the hours ticked by, and she was receiving most of the attention from the crew, she stopped all the work that was going on to make sure Hoover had a chair, as she pointed out, “he’s been in heels for hours.” LuPone invited him into her dressing room where they chatted between scenes, where she told stories and gave sincere inquiry into Hoover’s own life. And she confessed that she did indeed find his impersonation amusing. Hoover was in heaven.
“People say never meet your heroes,” says Hoover. “But if Patti is your hero, you definitely want to meet her.”
Inappropriate Patti’s Second-Rate Somebody is at the Art House, 214 Commercial St., Provincetown, Thursday, August 29 through Saturday, August 31 at 6:30 p.m. Tickets ($35/$45) are available at the box office or online at liveatthearthouse.com.
