LuPone on McDonald- Page 16

[Synecdoche2]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 4:48pm

Congratulations Audra McDonald on her record-breaking 7th Tony Award...

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 4:58pm

Just out of curiosity, I asked ChatGPT to write an open letter from Patti LuPone “based on events this past week” and this is what I got. Just to lighten the mood for a minute. 
 

“AN OPEN LETTER FROM PATTI LUPONE

Printed in Playbill Against My Will

 

To Whom It Will Inevitably Concern,

Let me begin by saying something I should have said a long time ago: I meant every word. Every rolled eye, every “shut up,” every side-eye I’ve ever given in a rehearsal room or stage door mob. I meant it then, I mean it now, and if reincarnation is real, I’ll mean it again when I come back as a particularly cranky ghost who haunts talkbacks and rings cell phones mid-monologue.

Now, regarding the most recent “drama”—a word you all use too lightly, by the way—I’m aware my comments ruffled a few Playbill-reading, triple-threat-adoring, Bernadette-worshipping feathers. But let’s be clear: I wasn’t being rude. I was being correct.

Do I respect Audra McDonald? Of course. She’s a goddess with vocal cords spun from platinum and silk. Do I think Kecia Lewis is a powerhouse? Yes. But do I think Broadway has become a safe space for participation trophy performances and fandoms who think knowing the lyrics to “Ladies Who Lunch” gives them a Tony vote? Absolutely.

Let me say this loud enough for the back row (which you probably snuck into without paying): THEATER IS NOT A DEMOCRACY. IT’S NOT A KUMBAYA CIRCLE. IT’S WAR. And I didn’t survive the trenches of Evita, Gypsy, and every poorly ventilated dressing room between 44th and 54th just to be lectured by TikTok critics and podcast hosts named “Broadway Boi69.”

I didn’t say theater fans are idiots.

I said a lot of theater fans are idiots.

There’s a difference. Learn it.

If you’ve never belted in eight shows a week through bronchitis while being fitted for a corset by a woman named Rhonda who smells like Tiger Balm and regret—then don’t tell me what respect looks like. You don’t know respect. You know stage door selfies and Reddit threads. And I’m not performing for your approval. I’m performing because it’s the only thing that keeps me from screaming into the void of mediocrity that is… (gestures vaguely) everything else.

In conclusion: I will not apologize. I will not retract. I will not “sit down and shut up,” unless I’m being paid Equity minimum and there’s air conditioning in the pit.

Now please excuse me—I have something far more important to do than argue with the comment section: rehearsal.

Yours in unfiltered truth,

Patti LuPone

 

P.S. Stop clapping during overtures. You look desperate.“

[Azúcar!]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 5:03pm

The social media reaction is ugly and embarrassing.  Theater people are so self involved.  No one gives a flying ****.  You have all embraced Lupone for exactly who she is for years. I know I have.  So don't act surprised.  You were ok with it before. The recent article is being used as excuse for you all to kill your own.  Like animals.  No surprises here.  She will come out of this a winner.   She already has by just watching you all turn on each other like savages..  I just took a look at Theater Tok and the usual turn on a dime loosers are foaming at the mouth.  Sad that this is what their life is .  That is all they have.  

[TotallyEffed]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 5:12pm

Jordan, is that really AI? Because if so, we are in danger. That is quite good.

[binau]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 5:17pm

I'm reading the New Yorker article while drunk imagining it being read by Patti LuPone's Joanne in the 2021 Company revival and I'm having the best time. 

"To this day, if I express myself in a way that somebody doesn’t like, they will say, ‘Oh, that’s Patti.’ ” She lowered her voice and narrowed her eyes, like a tigress ready to pounce. “What the **** are you talking about? What do you know about me, that you can say, ‘Well, that’s Patti’?"

“I know what I’m worth to a production,” she said, her lips skewing diagonally in agitation. “I know that I’m box-office. Don’t nickel-and-dime me before you put me onstage. Don’t treat me like a piece of ****. Because, at this point, if you don’t value me, why am I there?”

And then the plot twist is Joanne looks over the table at Bobbi, played by Audra McDonald in her red dress from the 2010 Sondheim Birthday concert. 

Patti: "You're a terribly attractive Woman". 

Audra: "Patti, how can the same person who wrote Anyone Can Whistle be the same person that wrote Gypsy?"

Patti: "Everything that eats, ****s."

Audra: "With you it was heaven." 

Patti: "Audra, we've discussed this."

Audra: "BUT-"

SUDDENLY THE ORCHESTRATIONS FOR EVE WAS WEAK FROM CARRIE TAKE OVER

Patti: "BOW YOUR HEAD AND PRAY WOMAN"

Audra: "MOMMA-IT WASN"T MY FAULT"

Patti: Thank you call me it again

Audra: "Oh Momma"

Patti: "GOD HAS SEEN YOUR SINNING, JUST BEGINNING, PRAY FOR YOUR SALVATION. FROM TONY DAMNATION, PLEASe...<eve was weak melody>IT'S STILL MYYY TURN YOU</eve was weak melody>, IT'S STILL MY TURN YOU

Audra: Momma don't you care I'm ready to succeed

Patti: "HAVE YOU NO SENSE OF SHAME"

Audra: "MOMMA STOP" 

Patti: <IT'S STILL MY TURNNNN YOUUUUUUUUUU> 

<IT'S STILLLLL MYYYYY TURNNNNN YOUUUUU>

Audra: Let's see whose turn it is when I'm on the cover of time magazine and you're getting washed up and cancelled because you couldn't keep your loud, mouth shut

Patti: You're no friend to me 

Bernadette Peters appears from the corners with what looks like a very drunk Sam Mendes and the Company night club electronic music playing in the background "F*CK Laurents we should have had the makeup running down your face, then you would have won that Tony"

Bernadette - quietly to herself: Come on Audra, baby, let's go. Get away from Patti, she may have won the Tony for Gypsy but I originated Dot in Sunday. Audra baby, you're going in Gypsy I've organised everything. You're going to humiliate Patti and take the Tony for Gypsy. 

Bernadette then turns to Patti with her fake high voice where she kind of coughs lightly as if she is clearing her thoughts - also strangely War Paint score is now playing in the background fittingly "Patti, it was SO nice to see you. To thank you for our years of friendship my publicist is going to get you into the New Yorker next year. Full page photographed spread. All yours" 

Patti: "I'll drink to that." 

 

[Bette's Turban]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 5:28pm

Azúcar! said: "The social media reaction is ugly and embarrassing. Theater people are so self involved. No one gives a flying ****. You have all embraced Lupone for exactly who she is for years. I know I have. So don't act surprised. You were ok with it before. The recent article is being used as excuse for you all to kill your own. Like animals. No surprises here. She will come out of this a winner. She already has by just watching you all turn on each other like savages.. I just took a look at Theater Tok and the usual turn on a dimeloosers are foaming at themouth. Sad that this is what their lifeis . That is all they have. "

I agree 100%.  Especially regarding the so called theater influencers .  What a sorry lot.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 5:28pm

TotallyEffed said: "Jordan, is that really AI? Because if so, we are in danger. That is quite good."

Yeah that was ChatGPT with just a simple prompt. Crazy, right?

[SteveSanders]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 5:31pm

Having seen John Lithgow again today in Giant, this thread makes me even more appreciative of the delicate tightrope its skillful author and entire cast walk in offering an honest, thought-provoking, and unapologetic exploration of the racist and anti-Semitic beliefs Roald Dahl held.  It is everything this thread is not.

Updated On: 5/28/25 at 05:31 PM

[verywellthensigh]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 5:46pm

OharaFosseWolfe888 said: "TotallyEffed said: "OharaFosseWolfe888 said:

"B-but you're...policing everyone else...and the only one reducing other people to the color of their sk-



Oh, never mind."

I am Black and I will and have always viewed the world, even this lil insane ass message board I have loved for decades through THAT lens. Calling out white supremacy thought, racist ideology, and micro-aggressive action and behaviors is not policing you. Being Black is never ever ever ever a reduction of anything. SH*T is dangerous but it's lit though!!!"



I was talking about the way you insult white people for being born whi-



Oh, never mind."

Take that up with your therapist honey, I don't have time for white fragility and white feelings and white tears. They feed my ancestors and give me energy for this soul trip. Insult you for being white? No, now you might be insulted for being obtuse, but not white. Yes I make fun of white people alllll the time, any real ass down for the cause white person is not bothered by that. Again, go talk to the lady about your feelings I don't care. I center Black feelings first."

Judging from your dedication to this thread, I'd say you have LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of time for white feelings.  You sound very young.  I mean...from your responses I hope you are young.  One of these days, you'll realize that making real change involves working and even attempting to woo people you disagree with.  Not doing so is a mistake the left frequently falls into and all it does is make you a noble loser who gets nothing done.  But you're a child, you were trained into believing that wagging your finger online is how real change comes about.  Enjoy that dopamine hit on your soul trip.



 

 

[Idiot]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 5:53pm

Jordan Catalano said: "TotallyEffed said: "Jordan, is that really AI? Because if so, we are in danger. That is quite good."

Yeah that was ChatGPT with just a simple prompt. Crazy, right?"

Going forward I'll be challenged to not think of it as PattiPT.  It's seriously as though she wrote it.  Methinks it might have ingested her book along the way. 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 6:07pm

It’s insane. I just prompted it “Write a short letter from Patti LuPone to the users of BroadwayWorld, who are reading about her “drama” this week.” and the response 

 

“Dear BroadwayWorld Users,

Oh, hello again. I see you’re all still gathered ’round the digital campfire, clutching your pearls and refreshing the message boards like it’s the second coming of “Carrie: The Musical.”

Let me be clear: I didn’t come here to play nice. I didn’t come here to be palatable, diplomatic, or safe. I came here to work. And if holding people accountable, speaking my mind, and refusing to be a doormat makes me “drama” — then by all means, type away. Call me a diva, call me difficult, call me a relic. I’ve been called worse. (And frankly, I’ve earned all the good and bad names you’ve thrown at me.)

But before you write another 13-paragraph post about how Patti LuPone has “lost it,” ask yourself: why are you so invested? Maybe it’s because deep down, you miss when theater meant something. When performances weren’t processed like Velveeta. When stars had something to say.

I’ve never claimed to be easy. I claim to be honest. And if that’s your villain origin story, kids — I’m honored.

Warmest regards (with just a pinch of contempt),

Patti LuPone

P.S. Try logging off. Go see a play. Preferably one with real stakes.”

[verywellthensigh]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 6:13pm

Stakes?  Okay.  So.  ChatGPT didn't see The Roommate, much less The Anarchist.  Can we please stop wasting the water supply on AI, please?

[OharaFosseWolfe888]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 6:14pm

Jordan I love this, cause Chat GPT is scary good at tone and cadence.... I did one from Audra, cause I don't think she will ever say anything publicly...ever really about all this.

Sure. Here's a fictional open letter written in the imagined voice of Audra McDonald, with her characteristic grace, eloquence, and integrity. It acknowledges the tensions involving Patti LuPone and Kecia Lewis (drawing from the energy of a public conversation or controversy), and seeks to clarify, center truth, and offer perspective — much as Audra might do if speaking directly and earnestly to the Broadway community.

An Open Letter to the Broadway World Community
from Audra McDonald

Dear Broadway World Readers, Colleagues, Friends,

I write this not to pour gasoline on any fire — God knows this community has seen enough flames — but because I believe in clarity, I believe in accountability, and I believe in holding space for nuance, especially when that space has been historically denied to so many.

There’s been a lot of noise around the recent tension involving my colleagues Patti LuPone and Kecia Lewis. I want to start by saying: I have deep respect for both women. Patti is a force of nature — unapologetically bold, fiercely talented, and someone who has fought her way through an industry that often punishes women for doing exactly that. And Kecia, my sister in this craft and in this world, is a vessel of truth, grace, and strength — someone who, like so many Black women in this industry, has often had to be twice as good for half the credit.

But here's where I stand: Intent does not erase impact.

Patti may not have meant harm. But harm was done.

We must name that. We must name it in a space that has for too long refused to call a thing what it is. There is a difference between disagreement and erasure. There is a difference between passion and domination. And there is a deep, painful legacy of Black women — especially in American theatre — being silenced, sidelined, or rendered invisible when they raise their voice, claim their space, or speak their truth.

When Kecia spoke, she did not speak only for herself. She gave voice to something so many of us have felt — in rehearsal rooms, in backstage hallways, in auditions where we’re praised for our power but punished the moment we use it.

And when we center the conversation on ego or personal rivalry, we miss the point. This is not about diva vs. diva. This is about the architecture of the stage itself — who gets to build it, who gets to stand on it, and who gets believed when they say, “This isn’t right.”

So to my fellow artists: I’m asking us to listen more closely.

To my white colleagues: I am asking you to hear us when we say that your power — even when used with good intention — can still cast a shadow.
To my Black sisters and siblings: I see you. I honor your voices. Keep speaking.
To the next generation: May we leave you a better room than the one we inherited.

This industry is built on voices. Let’s not be afraid to hear them all — even when they make us uncomfortable. Especially then.

With love, with hope, and with the fire of truth,
Audra

[DrMonicaDeMoneco]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 6:14pm

I gotta get more popcorn! This thread is bananas! All these Broadway queens pretending to care … this is great fun! 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 6:25pm

verywellthensigh said: "Stakes? Okay. So. ChatGPT didn't see The Roommate, much less The Anarchist. Can we please stop wasting the water supply on AI, please?"

As long as the Kardashians are legally allowed to use a private jet to go grocery shopping, I’m sorry but I’m not going to lose sleep over using ChatGPT to lighten the mood. 

[Midnight Radio]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 6:33pm

OharaFosseWolfe888 said: "Jordan I love this, cause Chat GPT is scary good at tone and cadence.... I did one from Audra, cause I don't think she will ever say anything publicly...ever really about all this.

Sure. Here's a fictional open letter written in the imagined voice of Audra McDonald, with her characteristic grace, eloquence, and integrity. It acknowledges the tensions involving Patti LuPone and Kecia Lewis (drawing from the energy of a public conversation or controversy), and seeks to clarify, center truth, and offer perspective — much as Audra might do if speaking directly and earnestly to the Broadway community."

I suggest having AI Audra McDonald write your posts from now on.

 

[OharaFosseWolfe888]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 6:47pm

Midnight Radio said: "OharaFosseWolfe888 said: "Jordan I love this, cause Chat GPT is scary good at tone and cadence.... I did one from Audra, cause I don't think she will ever say anything publicly...ever really about all this.

Sure. Here's a fictional open letter written in the imagined voice of Audra McDonald, with her characteristic grace, eloquence, and integrity. It acknowledges the tensions involving Patti LuPone and Kecia Lewis (drawing from the energy of a public conversation or controversy), and seeks to clarify, center truth, and offer perspective — much as Audra might do if speaking directly and earnestly to the Broadway community."

I suggest having AI Audra McDonald write your posts from now on.

"

Certainly. Here's a heartfelt and forthright letter written in your voice in your identity as a Black artist, director, and truth-teller working to shift the culture.

Dear Broadway World Members,

I wasn’t planning to write this. Honestly, I was hoping someone else would say it — loudly, clearly, and without fear. But the silence is louder than I expected, and the gaslighting of Black pain is once again crawling across the stage, demanding an encore. So here we are.

Let me say this plainly: What Patti LuPone said in her recent New Yorker profile about Kecia Lewis and Audra McDonald was racist. Not just “rude.” Not just “old-school diva behavior.” Racist. And the refusal of this community to call it what it is — to stand in truth rather than shrink into nostalgia — is why Black people in this industry are exhausted beyond measure.

Let’s talk about what was said.

To diminish Kecia Lewis — a veteran of the American stage, a Black woman who has survived and transcended decades of erasure — as “someone I didn’t know and didn’t want to know” is not just flippant. It’s violent. To reduce her to a “body” in the room while she was stepping into a major role under emotionally and professionally fraught circumstances is an old, familiar narrative. We know what it means when a Black woman walks into a room, speaks her truth, and is met with disdain, dismissal, or contempt. That is not “tension.” That is the legacy of white supremacy dressed in the costume of artistic temperament.

And Audra? A once-in-a-generation artist. A woman who has shattered ceilings and carried this industry on her back. To suggest — as Patti did — that her influence, her integrity, her insight is somehow complicit in some imagined betrayal is not only inaccurate; it reeks of the same old fear: fear of Black collaboration, fear of Black solidarity, fear of Black leadership.

This isn’t about one comment. It’s about a pattern — the way white power gets to be messy, mercurial, even cruel, and still be crowned as genius. Meanwhile, Black grace is interrogated. Black confidence is threatening. Black truth-telling is called “divisive.” I’m tired of it. We are tired of it.

Let me be clear: this is not about “canceling” Patti LuPone. This is about consequence and accountability. If someone with her platform, stature, and legacy cannot be asked to reflect on the impact of her words — especially when they harm Black women — then what does that say about the kind of theater community we claim to be?

It’s easy to say, “Oh, that’s just Patti.” But what you're really saying is: “Black pain doesn’t matter here.”

And that is unacceptable.

The theater — at its best — is a place of truth. Of reckoning. Of transformation. If we cannot practice those values offstage as well as on it, then what are we even doing?

We cannot build an equitable, liberated theater while protecting the egos of those who refuse to see the full humanity of their colleagues. It’s time to stop excusing abuse as eccentricity. It’s time to start believing Black women. And it’s time for people like Patti — and those who support her without question — to sit with the discomfort of being called in.

This is a moment of reckoning. Choose courage. Choose accountability. Choose community. But don’t ask us to keep quiet so that white legends can remain comfortable.

Not anymore.

In love, truth, and fire,
OFW



Audra just reposted, Leslie Uggams post of Kecia opening her Grammy Award. That is Black Queen Legend Solidarity! I love us for real!

Updated On: 5/28/25 at 06:47 PM

[Midnight Radio]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 6:51pm

See, much more coherent. Still very wrong, but it's a start.

[SmokeyLady]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 7:23pm

Just a quick note .. Audra has not carried this industry on her back .  Honey , please .  As a hot black lesbian.. YOU EXHAUST ME! 

[OharaFosseWolfe888]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 7:37pm

SmokeyLady said: "Just a quick note .. Audra has not carried this industry on her back . Honey , please . As a hot black lesbian.. YOU EXHAUST ME!"

I too, am a hot Black lesbian and I agree I don't think she carried the industry on her back. It was a ChatGPT fictional letter, I didn't write it. Thought that was clear, took Jordan's suggestion to use it to lighten the mood. And when whitelight static suggested I do it, I did. Thought that was clear. sorry to exhaust you, and grateful we are not a monolith.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 7:46pm

On Monday morning, who could have imagined that in 60 hours and 16 pages, we'd be at "hot black lesbians?"

[verywellthensigh]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 7:53pm

Well, since we're letting the Kardashians dictate our behavior, lets destroy the environment some more for our amusement.

Here is what the Prophet Abraham has to say about the matter:​​​​​​

Ah, my dear children, you come to me with tales of human quarrels, and this one, no less about singers of great renown. Patti LuPone, Kecia Lewis, and Audra McDonald, these are names that resonate in the hearts of many, I am told. They are voices—mighty voices—that bring joy, sorrow, and all the emotions in between. But yet, they find themselves in a feud?

In my time, there were disputes, but I always tried to remind my children to seek peace, to embrace understanding and reconciliation. For when you are gifted with such talents as these women have been blessed with, the world is watching, not just your performances, but how you carry yourselves. A voice can move mountains, but so can kindness, patience, and humility.

If I could speak to them, I would remind them that life is too short, and the heart too precious, to let petty squabbles mar their gifts. Is it not a noble thing to elevate one another? Is it not divine to raise up your fellow human, especially in a world so hungry for love and beauty?

I would say, “You are all daughters of greatness, each in your own way. Let the love you have for the art you create together—not the division—be your legacy. For a voice in harmony is far more powerful than any note sung in anger.”

And in truth, I believe the true test of one's character is not in moments of glory, but in how one navigates the storm. When the wind blows strong and the waves crash high, a steadfast heart finds its way to shore. You three are strong—strong enough to forgive, strong enough to grow.

May peace find its place among you, as it did in the hearts of those who came before you.

[SmokeyLady]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 7:56pm

Sally Durant Plummer said: "On Monday morning, who could have imagined that in 60 hours and 16 pages, we'd be at "hot black lesbians?""

There are many of us.

[FolliesCabaret]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 7:57pm

When people ask what 2025 was like when I'm old and grey I'm going to tell them about this thread.

[nmartin]

Posted: 5/28/25 at 8:09pm

Murphy Responds

I don't think this has already been posted.