Patti LuPone has left many within the theater group aghast after she took goal at fellow Broadway actors Kecia Lewis and Audra McDonald in an eyebrow-raising interview.
A 3-time Tony Award winner, LuPone spoke to The New Yorker this week prematurely of her visitor look on HBO Max’s third season of “And Just Like That…,” which premieres Thursday.
In her chat with journalist Michael Schulman, LuPone was requested a few 2024 incident by which she criticized the quantity of sound cues in Alicia Keys’ musical “Hell’s Kitchen,” which includes a predominately Black solid. On the time, LuPone was starring alongside Mia Farrow within the play “The Roommate” in a neighboring theater. She alleged that sure sounds in “Hell’s Kitchen” have been audible by way of the wall separating the 2 theaters.
The “Hell’s Kitchen” stage administration crew responded by adjusting the manufacturing’s quantity, after which LuPone despatched flowers. Lewis, a Black actor who gained a Tony for her portrayal of Miss Liza Jane in “Hell’s Kitchen,” went on to accuse LuPone of “bullying” and “racially microaggressive” habits in a prolonged Instagram video.
When requested by The New Yorker about Lewis’ remarks, LuPone didn’t maintain again.
“Here’s the problem. She calls herself a veteran? Let’s find out how many Broadway shows Kecia Lewis has done, because she doesn’t know what the fuck she’s talking about,” she mentioned. “She’s done seven. I’ve done thirty-one. Don’t call yourself a vet, bitch.”
Within the article, Schulman clarifies Lewis ― who has appeared in “Dreamgirls” and “Chicago,” amongst different musicals ― truly has 10 Broadway credit to LuPone’s 28. When advised McDonald, a six-time Tony winner, had responded to Lewis’ video with supportive emojis, LuPone provided the same rebuke.
“Exactly,” she mentioned. “And I thought, You should know better. That’s typical of Audra. She’s not a friend.”
LuPone didn’t delve into specifics of what The New Yorker described as her “long-ago rift” with McDonald, with whom she’s shared the stage on a number of events. Requested about McDonald’s Tony-nominated efficiency within the present revival of “Gypsy,” nonetheless, she reportedly stared in silence for 15 seconds earlier than turning to a window and saying with a sigh, “What a beautiful day.”
McDonald’s portrayal of Momma Rose in “Gypsy” marks the primary time the character has been performed by a Black actor on Broadway. LuPone starred as Momma Rose within the 2008 Broadway manufacturing, profitable a Tony Award.
Representatives for Lewis and McDonald didn’t instantly reply to HuffPost’s request for touch upon LuPone’s remarks.
Bruce Glikas by way of Getty Photographs
LuPone has been having fun with knowledgeable renaissance, profitable her third Tony in 2022 for the musical “Company” and receiving on-screen approval for “American Horror Story” and “Agatha All Along,” amongst different movies and TV sequence.
Alongside the best way, nonetheless, she’s repeatedly stoked controversy for her less-than-favorable assessments of Glenn Shut and Madonna, amongst different stars, as properly because the theater business as a complete.
Regardless of LuPone’s historical past of sharp-tongued commentary, her feedback on Lewis and McDonald have drawn a very frosty response.
“White privilege is the audacity to be quoted in a major publication flippantly discrediting our Black Broadway Queens ― while calling them a name you’d dare never to whisper to their face,” actor and playwright Douglas Lyons wrote Monday on X, previously Twitter. “I think Ms. Lupone is a remarkable talent, but 31 Broadway shows obviously doesn’t equal class.”
Theater blogger Chris Peterson felt equally, noting LuPone’s remarks “reinforce a dynamic that’s been harmful for a long time.”
“The saddest part is, Patti didn’t have to say any of this. And what’s worse — she wanted to,” he wrote.
Along with “And Just Like That…,” LuPone will subsequent be seen within the second season of the Apple TV+ sequence “Palm Royale.” She’s additionally slated to seem in “The Artist,” a murder-mystery sequence co-starring Hank Azaria and Zachary Quinto, later this 12 months.
