Patti LuPone at Les Mouches (2008)

In 1980, while playing Eva Perón in Evita on Broadway, Patti LuPone did 27 Saturday-at-midnight concerts in a teensy Manhattan club. Until now, you couldn't get an official recording of Patti LuPone at les Mouches, and the gig grew legendary — especially for a worshipful gay subset of LuPone's fan base. So is this nicely packaged but sonically primitive CD up there with, say, Bette Midler at the Continental Baths? No way. LuPone defaults to clench-jawed belting mode and giggles ''Thanks Yous'' to manic excess. She's a justly deified vocalist, but she's done many other recordings that are vastly more affecting than this one. B–

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