Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone Reveal Their Worst Audience Stories

-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.