-Our first guests tonight
are two Hollywood legends who are starring together
in "The Roommate." Performances begin
on August -- August 29th at the Booth Theatre
on Broadway. Please welcome to the show
Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone. [ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Welcome, you two.
-Hello. -I am so delighted to be
with you both. -We love you.
-Oh. I feel the same. Now, you two have known
each other for years. -Yes.
-How did you first meet? -Steve.
-Steve Sondheim. -What a great person
to introduce you. Stephen Sondheim.
-Yeah. -Did he feel like he knew
something about the two of you that you would get along? -It wasn't as formalized
as that. We went to a party
at Patti's house. Was that the first time? -It was
the New Year's Eve party. -The New Year's Eve party?
-Yeah. Oh, I wished I'd brought
that picture. -We're going 30 years ago.
-Okay. -And I went with Steve,
Steve's date. And it was Patti's home,
she and her husband. Was your baby even born yet? -Josh? Yeah. -I bet you throw a good
New Year's Eve party, Patti. -Excellent.
-It was. -It was most excellent.
-It was pretty good. -Yeah. And then Patti
was coming to my house. -Full moons parties.
-I gave full moon parties. -Full moon parties.
-Oh, you give full moon parties? -I did.
-Okay. Gotcha. -Yeah.
-That's very exciting. -I had a large pond
in the back of my house, one could say a lake, even.
-Okay. If you ever list it on Zillow,
say it's a lake. -It's a lake.
Seven acres. I don't know if that's a lake
or a pond. -That's a lake.
-That's a lake, yeah. -Yeah, and so we would wait
and we would have torches, and there would be food out
and stuff. And then when the moon rose over
the trees beyond the other side, it would hit the lake, and there
would be a blast of silver. Candles would be blown out. I saw you and Steve paddling
the canoe out beyond and beyond. -Yeah.
-And we had -- It was just every month I did it
in the summer on the full moon. -And, by the way, this is -- this sounds better than
any party I've ever been to. -Oh, it was great.
It was great. They were great. It was magical
because there were fireflies. It was the summer humidity. You know, it was just beautiful. It was just a --
You're outside. It's just -- It's, you know -- Summer's a great time
where we live. -Yes. This is fantastic. And now this play,
"The Roommate," it's just the two of you
onstage. So you're relying
on this years-long chemistry. Tell us about the play and tell us about
how rehearsals are going. -Rehearsals are long
and exhausting, as rehearsals will be. We have the wonderful
Jack O'Brien who's directing us. -Fantastic director.
-And we're discovering the play. And actually, we thought
that it would be easier for us because we are friends. And it turns out it might work
a little bit to our disadvantage because we're too familiar
with each other onstage, we're too sympathetic
to each other onstage. And Jack gave us that note.
-Today. -Yeah, but we can still
love each other and play these parts. -I have to be hard-hearted with
somebody I absolutely adore. -Yeah.
Well, I guess that's the thing. He has to remind you your
characters don't like each other as much as you like each other. -We're getting to know
each other in the play. -You had an actual roommate
of note recently -- Aubrey Plaza,
who's one of our favorites. -Yeah.
[ Cheers and applause ] -So Aubrey moved in --
stayed with you? -Yeah. Well, when we were
shooting "Agatha," she said that she had been
offered a play in New York at the Lucille Lortel downtown,
and I went, "Oh! Oh." And I thought -- She's
never been onstage before. And I thought, "Well,
it's a shocking experience." -In for a journey.
-Yes, exactly. And so I said, "Why don't you
just stay with me for a while so that I can be there when you're shocked out of your
gourd about what's happening?" And so she did,
and I took care of her. It's true.
-You made soup for her. -It's true I made soup.
It's true I did her laundry. -So this is you, like, relied on your years of Broadway
experience to say, "Come home to me
after you're onstage, and I will make
everything good." -Yeah, because
she was shocked a lot. -Well, it's very --
I mean, it's grueling. And you were saying backstage
you only have three weeks of rehearsal for this play
with only two people onstage. Obviously this is a lot
to learn. -And it should be said, Patti, who's been onstage
her whole life, said she's never had
a three-week rehearsal. -No.
-Yeah. -Money's tight now and stuff. -Yeah, it's tight all --
it's bad all over, you guys. -They wouldn't give us
five weeks, not even four. -You keep talking like this,
they're going to be like, "I saw you on Seth.
You only get two." [ Laughter ] Returning to Broadway,
obviously. I mean, again, you
familiarize yourself with it, but it's never easy. Do you have memories? One of my favorite things to ask
is worst audience memories over the course
of being onstage. -Yeah, I've got several. But actually,
my favorite was -- There's two of them,
but this is a two-part story. -Okay.
-So I was doing "Master Class." I replaced Zoe Caldwell,
and I'm -- it's the end of the first act, and the aria to "La sonnambula"
is playing. Or is it "La sonna--" Yeah. And I'm speaking about Ari
in the Greek accent. And I see someone house left
on the aisle get up and go up the aisle, and while I'm speaking
in the Greek accent, the mind says, "Well, lost one." He turned around. He came down the center aisle
screaming, "This is [bleep]
This is [bleep] [Bleep] you, Terrence McNally." And while I'm
in the Greek accent, I went,
"Don't shoot the messenger." And then he turned around
and he went up the aisle. And I think the audience thought
that was part of the show. Cut to -- And we were all going, "What
the [bleep] just happened?" And then in London
with same play, somebody in the gods -- They call the balcony
the gods over there. It's the same act. And I'm telling the soprano
how to perform, how to act "La sonnambula." And this guy in the gods goes, "Sing it properly,
sing it properly." And I went,
"This is a master class, and if you don't like it,
you can leave." And then I hear -- I hear... [ Cheers and applause ] -Don't mess with Patti. -But I hear
an American voice go, "If you don't shut up,
I'm going to strangle you." Cut to the bobbies came. They took the guy
to the police station. The next day we come
to the theater. We find out that Lenny Foglia,
the director, is the American voice. And the guy was wanted
for murder. -Really?
-But he had to see Maria Callas. -[ Laughs ] I mean, by the way, that's a great way
to advertise a show. It's so good,
even if you're on the lam. [ Laughter ] You -- But is it true? I mean, I'm sorry
to bring up what could be a difficult memory. Is it true
that you've twice been onstage and someone in the audience -- -Yes.
Heart attack. I don't know if they
actually died, but it happens. -Wow.
Do you think it was like that's how good you were?
-Ha! I don't mean to laugh.
-Oh, yes. What else? -You have to sign a release
to see Mia onstage. This is so exciting.
August 29th. And what a delight it is
to just be with both of you. And I cannot wait
to see you onstage together. -And you, too, Seth.
We adore you. Adore you. Don't we adore him? [ Cheers and applause ]
Yeah, yeah, yeah. -These two, everybody. There they are,
Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone. "The Roommate" begins August
29th at the Booth Theatre. We'll be right back
with Myha'la.