Patti LuPone to play Northport’s Engeman Theater; tickets by lottery offered

Subscribers to the John W. Engeman Theater in Northport are about to play the lottery, only the prize isn’t a boatload of cash, but something just as valuable — two tickets to see hometown girl Patti LuPone in her first concert at the venue.

Anticipating strong demand for tickets to LuPone’s Jan. 23 show, “Don’t Monkey With Broadway,” the theater on Friday at noon sent out an email to its roughly 5,000 season ticket holders with a link and instructions on entering the lottery for tickets to the show, which will benefit Northport High School’s performing arts department. Sharing the stage with LuPone, who will put her spin on show tunes by Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim, Rodgers and Hart, and others, will be members of the Northport High School Choir.

“People keep coming up to me and saying you should have Patti LuPone play there,” says Kevin O’Neill, owner and managing director of the Engeman Theater. “There is such hometown pride for Patti LuPone, and we couldn’t be happier that she’s coming to play here.” O’Neill adds that LuPone was approached about performing at the Engeman’s opening in 2007, but her schedule prevented it.

O’Neill says a “percentage” of the theater’s 400 seats, which cost $125 apiece, will be set aside for subscribers, who will be selected by the high school choir members in a drawing on Wednesday. Sept. 21. The remaining tickets will be available to the public on Monday, Sept. 26.

In a statement given by LuPone, she paid tribute to her hometown and, in particular, to one of its most famous watering holes. “I’ve been dying for years to sing on Main Street, Northport, in close proximity to Gunther’s,” she said referring to Gunther’s Tap Room.