Patti lupone returning to company after missing performances due to non-covid-related illness

Patti LuPone is back on the Great White Way after a brief hiatus. PEOPLE confirms that the two-time Tony Award-winning actress, 72, will return for Saturday evening's performance of

Broadway's _Company_. Deadline previously reported that the actress would miss this weekend's performances due to a non-COVID-related illness. The outlet also noted that the

Broadway vet previously missed performances on Thursday and Friday evenings. Chris Harper, a producer on the show, tells PEOPLE that LuPone did not perform during the matinee on Saturday

afternoon. Opening night for the revival of the Stephen Sondheim and George Furth musical is still set for Thursday, Dec. 9. _Company_'s revival on Broadway comes about shortly after

creator Sondheim died late last month. He was 91. LuPone previously told PEOPLE that she lost a friend when the world lost Sondheim. "I've sung seven Sondheim roles," she

said. "He was a taskmaster, and his notes could be delivered harshly, but his approval was the ultimate affirmation of legitimacy in interpreting his work, which is peerless."

"There were times when I had to swallow my pride, harness my ego, endeavor to hear the note and apply it," LuPone continued. "He came backstage after one performance where he

had given me an admonishing note the evening before. 'Night and day,' he said. The highest compliment." "We both live in a small county in Connecticut, and we were

sometimes in the same social situations. One summer night Mia Farrow gave a Full Moon party, and I tipsily invited Steve to go for a paddle boat ride on her lake. Shocked that he accepted, I

became so nervous that my conversation would bore or annoy him, but I found, impossibly, that we communicated in a way that made me understand we could have a sweet connection independent

of our work together," she added. "We paddled the lake, or we sat floating in silence and we both saw the moon chattering away. At least that's how we described it. It was so

lovely to see Steve in these moments. Away from work." "But being in a rehearsal room with Steve, trying to achieve the complexities that he was striving for in his lyrics and

music was a Master Class in technique, focus, discipline, accuracy. One must stand taller," LuPone concluded. "I've lost a friend, but I've lost a great teacher as well.

Who now will make me better?"