When Patti LuPone launches into Stephen Sondheim's "Being Alive," you know you're in for a grand ride.

How many singers can perfect this ecstatic, swooping and soaring ode from the musical "Company" with the authority of Ms. LuPone? And with her ineffable blend of vocal plangency and dramatic force?

In her one-woman show "Matters of the Heart" at the Paramount Theatre, LuPone lets us know (in her first theatrical run here) that she's still a card-carrying member of that endangered class of bona fide, Broadway-bred showstoppers.

Now in her mid-50s, LuPone is still a petite powerhouse who can glam it up in a black evening dress — and sass it up with bawdy humor. And she retains full command of an elastic mezzo-soprano that can blast a big showtune out of the park, or sweetly murmur a lullaby.

Still known for originating the iconic lead roles in "Evita" on Broadway, "Sunset Boulevard" and "Les Miserables" in London, LuPone is still essentially a singing actor who makes a minidrama out of each tune.

You'd expect no less, perhaps, from a Tony Award-winner of LuPone's repute. But it's the song selections in "Matters of the Heart" that can be, er, surprising. LuPone singing the Beach Boys? LuPone covering Dan Fogelberg? And the Hollies?

With elegant backup from pianist Chris Fenwick and a string quartet, LuPone frames this touring revue as an homage to love songs. Since that category includes about 90 percent of all numbers recorded in the past 50 years, it allows her some very quirky choices.

The better ones include Fascinating Aida's peppy "My Shattered Illusions," a clever catalogue of dates-from-hell. And a whisper-to-a-scream rendition of "I Wanna Be Around," a vengeful Tony Bennett lament the Italian-American diva calls "the Sicilian national anthem."

And while nothing can replace those plush Beach Boy harmonies, LuPone puts heart and soul into Brian Wilson's poignant "God Only Knows."

But oh why, Patti, do Fogelberg's sappy "Same Old Lang Syne," and Joni Mitchell's nearly unsingable "Last Time I Saw Richard"? As for Gilbert O'Sullivan's woe-is-me pop hit, "Alone Again (Naturally)"? Along comes Debbie Downer ...

"Matters of the Heart" also gets dwarfed a bit in the cavernous (and only half-filled, on opening night) Paramount. One could wish for a cozier spot, with less boomy acoustics (though by the second set on Tuesday, the sound was nicely adjusted).

However, LuPone is such a great entertainer that she can make you feel, even from a distance, like she's singing straight into you. And when the song is Sondheim's "Being Alive" or "Not a Day Goes By," or the anguished "Easy to Be Hard" from "Hair," or Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" as crooned to a beloved child, or other highlights of this show ... well then. The diva is divine.

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com