Patti LuPone issued an apology to fellow Broadway actors Kecia Lewis and Audra McDonald over the weekend after her earlier feedback on each ladies drew heated backlash from the theater group.
The three-time Tony Award winner shared an announcement on her social media platforms Saturday through which she stated she was “deeply sorry” for the “demeaning and disrespectful” phrases she’d used, notably towards Lewis, in a controversial interview with The New Yorker revealed final week.
“I regret my flippant and emotional responses during this interview, which were inappropriate, and I am devastated that my behavior has offended others and has run counter to what we hold dear in this community,” she wrote. “I hope to have the chance to speak to Audra and Kecia personally to offer my sincere apologies.”
LuPone’s apology got here a day after the discharge of an open letter addressed to the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League calling for the “Agatha All Along” actor to be disinvited from this 12 months’s Tony Awards, set to happen June 8, over what the authors described as “a blatant act of racialized disrespect” towards Lewis and McDonald, who’re Black.
Luis Sinco by way of Getty Photographs
The letter had been signed by greater than 600 members of the Broadway group, together with Tony-winning actors James Monroe Iglehart and Maleah Joi Moon.
In her assertion, LuPone stated she agreed with the content material of the letter, noting: “From middle school drama clubs to professional stages, theatre has always been about lifting each other up and welcoming those who feel they don’t belong anywhere else.”
“I made a mistake, I take full responsibility for it, and I am committed to making this right,” she added. “Our entire theatre community deserves better.”
LuPone’s interview with The New Yorker had been meant to advertise her forthcoming look on the “Sex and the City” revival collection, “And Just Like That…,” which debuted its third season on Thursday.
Within the chat, LuPone was requested a few 2024 incident through which she’d complained about sound cues from the Alicia Keys musical “Hell’s Kitchen” being audible in a neighboring theater which housed “The Roommate,” her most up-to-date play. Across the identical time, a video through which LuPone blasted “Hell’s Kitchen,” which encompasses a predominantly Black solid, for being “too loud” went viral on TikTok.
Theo Wargo by way of Getty Photographs
Lewis, who gained a Tony final 12 months for her efficiency in “Hell’s Kitchen,” criticized LuPone’s actions on the time, calling them “racially microaggressive” and “rooted in privilege” in a prolonged Instagram video that McDonald responded to with supportive emojis.
When The New Yorker requested LuPone in regards to the debacle, she deemed Lewis a “bitch” and instructed the actor ― who has appeared in “Dreamgirls” and “Once on This Island,” amongst different hit musicals ― had no proper to name herself a Broadway “veteran.”
She provided the same rebuke when requested about McDonald’s assist of the video. “That’s typical of Audra. She’s not a friend,” she stated, whereas alluding to a “years-ago rift.”
In a teaser for her look on “CBS Mornings” to advertise her Tony-nominated efficiency in “Gypsy,” nonetheless, McDonald instructed that any form of rift LuPone felt was one-sided.
“I haven’t seen her in about 11 years just because we’ve been busy, just with life and stuff,” she stated within the interview, set to air in full subsequent week. “So I don’t know what rift she’s speaking about, however you’d need to ask her.
