An open letter circulating on social media and sent to various news organizations, including Deadline, is calling on The Broadway League, The American Theatre Wing and “the greater theatre community” to demand “accountability, justice, and respect” in light of recent remarks made by Patti LuPone about fellow Broadway actors Kecia Lewis and Audra McDonald.
The letter, organized by a group called Theater for Change, has received more than 500 signatures from what the group says are members of the Broadway theater industry and community including performers and Tony Award winners Wendell Pierce, Maleah Joi Moon and James Monroe Iglehart.
Read the letter here.
“Recently, Patti LuPone made deeply inappropriate and unacceptable public comments about two of Broadway’s most respected and beloved artists: Kecia Lewis and Audra McDonald,” the letter states. “In a published interview with The New Yorker, she referred to Kecia Lewis — a Black woman and a 40-year veteran of the American stage — as a “b***.” This language is not only degrading and misogynistic — it is a blatant act of racialized disrespect. It constitutes bullying. It constitutes harassment. It is emblematic of the microaggressions and abuse that people in this industry have endured for far too long, too often without consequence.”
“Individuals,” the letter continues, “including Patti Lupone, who use their platform to publicly demean, harass, or disparage fellow artists — particularly with racial, gendered, or otherwise violent language —should not be welcomed at industry events, including the Tony Awards, fundraisers, and public programs.”
Deadline has reached out to The Broadway League, The American Theatre Wing and a representative for LuPone for comment and will update this post accordingly.
Contacted by Deadline at the email address that sent the open letter, an email response declined to name the letter’s organizers, adding that the group does not have a single spokesperson or point of contact, “as this effort was intentionally collaborative and decentralized.” The signatories, the person wrote, “include a wide range of professionals in the theater industry — from performers, stage managers, directors, writers, casting agents, and arts administrators.”
LuPone’s comments to The New Yorker stemmed from an incident last fall when she and Mia Farrow were starring in The Roommate at Broadway’s Booth Theatre. The Booth abuts the Shubert Theatre, where the Alicia Keys musical Hell’s Kitchen plays. LuPone complained to the Shubert Organization about the loud Hell’s Kitchen music that could be heard through a shared wall during her play.
When the problem was corrected, LuPone sent flowers to the theater.
Shortly thereafter, Lewis, a Tony-winning star of Hell’s Kitchen, took to Instagram to characterize LuPone’s complaints as “bullying.”
“They’re offensive, they are racially microaggressive, they’re rude, they’re rooted in privilege,” Lewis said, adding that referring to “a predominantly Black Broadway show as loud can unintentionally reinforce harmful stereotypes.”
McDonald, the star of the current revival of Gypsy and a multiple Tony Award winner, responded to Lewis’ IG video with heart and handclap emojis.
In the New Yorker profile, LuPone was asked about the incident and, with her characteristic candor and bluntness, said: “That’s typical of Audra. She’s not a friend.” LuPone didn’t provide details over a supposed rift in her one-time friendship with McDonald, who subsequently expressed surprise over the remarks.
Regarding Lewis, who had referred to LuPone in her Instagram video as a fellow theater veteran, LuPone told The New Yorker: “She’s done seven [Broadway shows]. I’ve done thirty-one. Don’t call yourself a vet, bitch.” (The New Yorker clarified that LuPone has actually done 28 shows to Lewis’ 10.)
After asking LuPone whether she had seen the current revival of Gypsy, The New Yorker writer Michael Schulman reports: “She stared at me, in silence, for fifteen seconds. Then she turned to the window and sighed, ‘What a beautiful day.’” LuPone won a 2008 Tony Award for her performance as Rose; McDonald is currently nominated for a Tony in the same role.
In her New Yorker interview, LuPone also had harsh comments about Donald Trump, Kevin Kline, Ron Duguay and Sarah Palin, and Glenn Close, who was hired by Andrew Lloyd Webber to replace LuPone in Sunset Boulevard prior to its arrival on Broadway in 1993. Years later, in 2011, LuPone and Close were seated next to each at the Kennedy Center. “She said, ‘I had nothing to do with it,’” LuPone told The New Yorker. “I wanted to go, ‘Bulls–t, bitch!’”
