LuPone on McDonald

[east side story]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 9:07am

From today’s piece on LuPone in The New Yorker:

”I mentioned that Audra McDonald—the Tony-decorated Broadway star—had given the video supportive emojis. “Exactly,” LuPone said. “And I thought, You should know better. That’s typical of Audra. She’s not a friend”—hard “D.” The two singers had some long-ago rift, LuPone said, but she didn’t want to elaborate. When I asked what she had thought of McDonald’s current production of “Gypsy,” she stared at me, in silence, for fifteen seconds. Then she turned to the window and sighed, “What a beautiful day.”

Updated On: 5/26/25 at 09:07 AM

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 9:12am

This really required its own thread? 

Here’s the link to the interview, since you forgot to provide that. If anything, the section right before it is what gets this board riled up in discussion. 

At her stage manager’s suggestion, LuPone called Robert Wankel, the head of the Shubert Organization, and asked him if he could fix the noise problem. Once it was taken care of, she sent thank-you flowers to the musical’s crew. She was surprised, then, when Kecia Lewis, an actress in “Hell’s Kitchen,” posted a video on Instagram, speaking as one “veteran” to another, and called LuPone’s actions “bullying,” “racially microaggressive,” and “rooted in privilege,” because she had labelled “a Black show loud.”

“Oh, my God,” LuPone said, balking, when I brought up the incident. “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 **** she’s talking about.” She Googled. “She’s done seven. I’ve done thirty-one. Don’t call yourself a vet, bitch.” (The correct numbers are actually ten and twenty-eight, but who’s counting?) She explained, of the noise problem, “This is not unusual on Broadway. This happens all the time when walls are shared.”

Updated On: 5/26/25 at 09:12 AM

[east side story]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 9:15am

GiantsInTheSky2 said: "This really required its own thread?"

Would you have preferred Audra’s Gypsy thread? Sunset BLVD? Have a beautiful day, dear.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 9:19am

What video is she referring to? 

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 9:22am

GiantsInTheSky2 said: "This really required its own thread?"

This really required its own post?

🙄

Updated On: 5/26/25 at 09:22 AM

[MB124]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 9:29am

Scarywarhol said: "What video is she referring to?"

The video Kecia Lewis posted after Patti complained about HK’s noise levels. 

[Bwaygurl2]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 9:38am

Patti never learned the phrase "no comment." This is shockingly frank even for her. I do think Lewis was ridiculous, though. 

[east side story]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 9:38am

GiantsInTheSky2 said: 

”Here’s the link to the interview,since you forgot to provide that. If anything, the section right before it is what gets this board riled up in discussion.”

Provided the link before you did, and still wishing you a wonderful day, Audra. 
 

[ljay889]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 9:38am

I knew there had to be a rift. If I’m remembering correctly Patti wasn’t happy Audra, Baranski, and Streep sang TLWL for the virtual 90th birthday concert for Sondheim, while she was the current Joanne in Company. 

It’s too bad, as they were quite close for decades. 

[SteveSanders]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 9:49am

A little grace can go a long way.

[Kad]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 9:51am

Patti’s gonna Patti. While I certainly don’t always agree with her or how she says things, I do appreciate her total bluntness and candor, particularly as Broadway has adopted an ever-thickening veneer of theatre camp, we’re-all-friends artifice that’s done nothing but flatten personalities into mascots and conceal a lot of drama and unseemly behavior. Patti doesn’t give a f*ck and has nothing to lose at this point by keeping her jagged edges. 

[Owen22]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 10:19am

Patti Lupone is like a living breathing Broadway World post. Unlike us, who mostly hide behind avatars, she says things out loud, in person. Things that polite society usually doesn't allow..  She's magnificent.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 10:43am

GiantsInTheSky2 said: "“Oh, my God,” LuPone said, balking, when I brought up the incident. “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 **** she’s talking about.” She Googled. “She’s done seven. I’ve done thirty-one. Don’t call yourself a vet, bitch.” (The correct numbers are actually ten and twenty-eight, but who’s counting?)"

I love Patti dearly but sometimes she just needs to shut up.

[east side story]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 10:54am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "I love Patti dearly but sometimes she just needs to shut up."

Love that her one no comment moment was re: the current revival of Gypsy. She ain’t wrong about that. 

 

[quizking101]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 11:01am

I wish there was a gift link so I could read the whole thing.

But judging by what I’m reading here, yeah, Patti is gonna Patti and you can take it or leave it.

I do think that her saying Kecia Lewis is not a Broadway veteran because she doesn’t have the same amount of credits as Patti is harshly condescending at the very least, especially considering the opportunities for black performers and certainly black performers of a certain age.

She actually has 11 Broadway credits to her name going back to the original Dreamgirls in 1981, as well as a CVS receipt-length list of regional and off-B credits. Plus, the woman her first Tony at 59 in a category with an unprecedented SEVEN nominees. 

[EthelMae]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 11:15am

Did Ms. LuPone see Ms. McDonald in Gypsy in order to make her “beautiful day” comment? I can’t believe she did because that would have made press. I have loved Ms. LuPone on stage, screen and TV for years but in this horrible climate we’re now living in, kindness would be a refreshing feeling towards others. 

Updated On: 5/26/25 at 11:15 AM

[Ptero2]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 11:22am

EthelMae said: "Did Ms. LuPone see Ms. McDonald in Gypsy in order to make her “beautiful day” comment?I can’t believe she did because that would have made press. I have loved Ms. LuPone on stage, screen and TV for years but in this horrible climate we’re now living in, kindness would be a refreshing feeling towards others."

Pretty sure she said she's seen everything this season because she's a Tony voter.

[ljay889]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 11:28am

Yep, she's been a Tony voter for quite a while. 

[EthelMae]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 11:31am

Thanks for the clarification. I still think one could keep certain things to themselves, but it’s all publicity, isn’t it?

Updated On: 5/26/25 at 11:31 AM

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 11:38am

Patti is never changing. Take it or leave it.

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 11:55am

EthelMae said: "Thanks for the clarification. I still think one could keep certain things to themselves, but it’s all publicity, isn’t it?"

She did keep it to herself. She was asked for a comment; she said nothing for 15 seconds and when the author apparently kept waiting, changed the subject. She could have said "No comment," but that probably would have been even more charged than literally giving none.

eta: I do think she comes across as gratuitously mean in a lot of the piece, but that's one instance where she does not.
 

Updated On: 5/26/25 at 11:55 AM

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 11:56am

quizking101 said: "I wish there was a gift link so I could read the whole thing."

Link

Updated On: 5/26/25 at 11:56 AM

[Bwaygurl2]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 12:31pm

"Sondheim liked getting stoned in her barn with her husband." WHICH COULD MEAN NOTHING. 

[DiscoCrows]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 12:36pm

“I washed my hands of a couple of people in the business.” One of them, I found out later, was a press agent who, after an offstage blowup, grabbed a bottle of champagne from his office and gave it to LuPone to make amends; he did not realize that the label read “Happy Opening, Sunset Boulevard.”

I mean this can’t possibly be ANYONE other than Rick Miramontez, right?

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 12:40pm

Audra is my favorite Rose and this is still kind of hilarious to me. We don't have many big Broadway personalities anymore, good or bad. What we do have is a crop of actors as narcissistic as any era's who nevertheless now feel compelled to convince us that they have a monopoly on the concept of empathy.