Is Playbill a theatre magazine or political forum

To be fair, this is one of the biggest events and controversies we've seen in recent history involving basically the two most famous Broadway actors currently alive. I would fully expect this to be front page news on Playbill, which it is.

Also, the current article seems to be focussed on reporting what is happening - in my opinion fairly accurately - without taking sides so to speak. Correct me if I'm wrong.

https://playbill.com/article/over-500-broadway-artists-release-open-letter-reprimanding-patti-lupone

I'm more concerned about the 500 artists (+ other related personalities such as Donna Murphy who are involving themselves) trying to create a race war and cancel Patti, all because Patti didn't seem to like Audra's performance in Gypsy and because she was rude to someone that unfairly accused Patti of racism.

This is far beyond acceptable.

What we are seeing is a race war in the Broadway community, similar to the Great Comet incident but with far more publicity and toxicity. Despite the apparent 'support' the various people and associated virtue signallers are doing, I think it is obvious to anyone who isn't hysterical that this is too far and it's reflected in many of the comments of major outlets reporting on this. It is pretty accepted that Patti is a bitch but only an extremely loud hysterical group (larger than a minority but not the majority) seem to truly believe that Patti is a racist.

The 500 artists are the first and only people who have even started to use the term 'violence' - they use it 6 times in their open letter. This is a major unfortunate escalation because there is no violence happening and Patti's words are not violence, as much as people want to scream and shout about it.

Updated On: 5/31/25 at 09:09 AM

The Social Justice Left has really played themselves by using language that alienates the average person. Using "violence" in this way is a good example. Even when their cause is just, most people just roll their eyes. A "micro-aggression" just sounds like a dumb thing to get upset about.

Chance4042 said: "Now it a fight between the black community and the white community. Can we just stick to Broadway."

Grammar is a lost art.

As far as I’m aware it’s the broadway community vs. LuPone.

Mr. Wormwood said: "I'm not seeing a lot of opinions from them in their articles. It's a big theatre story right now and they are reporting it as such."

Yeah they are a famously neutral publication that. ALL the theatre sites mostly do softball journalism and summaries of a press release. The one time they did investigative reporting (the audience behavior/ushers story) it got taken down by the CEO and resulted in two years of that horrendous letter in the Playbill.

Their job is to report the news on Broadway. This is news.

Bwaygurl2 said: "A "micro-aggression" just sounds like a dumb thing to get upset about."

One or two microaggressions probably don't evoke a strong reaction. But it is worth remembering that some people exist within a community, an organization, and/or a system where they experience multiple microaggressions (almost) every single day. A commonly understood example is the kid who gets mocked daily at school and then one day snaps.

It's "death by a thousand cuts." At some point, the next microaggressions provokes a strong reaction, the release of pent-up frustration of daily slights.

As someone who hardly ever experiences anything close to comparable, I've learned to not dismiss others' reactions as overwrought or making a bit deal out of nothing.

Your mileage may vary.

Updated On: 5/31/25 at 12:10 PM

Chance4042 said: "Playbill seams to me no better than fox or cnn lately."

Considering CNN is airing Good Night, and Good Luck, I think there's actually more of a case for flipping the question.

Is CNN a place for political discussion or just legitimate theater?