LuPone on McDonald- Page 5

[ljay889]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 8:35pm

Jordan Catalano said: "I never knew they disliked each other. Curious if that started around the time they did “Passion” together."

They performed together several times after Passion, including their Grammy winning Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. 
I’m guessing the fallout happened in the mid 2010’s. 

[blaxx]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 8:35pm

Georgeanddot2 said: "They know it's not actually racist. They just like to do mental backflips until it is. There is a huge amount of racism in the broadwaycommunity, but telling Hell's Kitchen to turn their sound down because it was bleeding into the theatre next door is not racist, OBVIOUSLY."

Ok, but how many credits does a Black performer need to be a veteran?

[ACL2006]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 8:41pm

Patti always seems to stir the pot every 6 months or so when she needs attention. She can go away permanently now. She's done with Broadway and doesn't appear to have any other gigs lined up. Enjoy your retirement you salty bitch!

[Georgeanddot2]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 8:42pm

blaxx said: "Georgeanddot2 said: "They know it's not actually racist. They just like to do mental backflips until it is. There is a huge amount of racism in the broadwaycommunity, but telling Hell's Kitchen to turn their sound down because it was bleeding into the theatre next door is not racist, OBVIOUSLY."

Ok, but how many credits does a Black performer need to be a veteran?"

28.

[kdogg36]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 8:46pm

"You don't get to applaud her and scream "Go, diva" when she snatches a cell phone or screams at an old man who can't wear a mask properly, and then vilify her when she shades divas you love."

Of course you can do that. You can admire someone's frankness in addressing baloney and still criticize that same frankness when it's misdirected. I really have no idea what point that person was trying to make.

[Edited to clarify that these were not the words of poster AC126748.]

Updated On: 5/27/25 at 08:46 PM

[morosco]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 9:02pm

Ain't you tired, Mrs. Patti?

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 9:21pm

I find it hilarious that at the center of all this mishigas is a subpar production of Gypsy featuring a hardworking but ultimately just fine Audra McDonald. Whoever said "bad art is a great deal worse than no art at all" clearly never read BroadwayWorld.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 9:36pm

Sally Durant Plummer said: "I find it hilarious that at the center of all this mishigas is a subpar production of Gypsy featuring a hardworking but ultimately just fine Audra McDonald. Whoever said "bad art is a great deal worse than no art at all" clearly never read BroadwayWorld."

The mishigas isn’t the production of Gypsy!, it’s the disgraceful and embarrassing behavior of LuPone. 

[kdogg36]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 9:48pm

I know there's a lot to chew on in this article, but this is another passage that stood out to me:

After her dubbing session, LuPone collected her crocodile purse and got into an S.U.V. on Eighth Avenue. As it lurched past the theatre district, she explained why she is, at least for now, done with Broadway. “I’m so angry at whoever choked the stem right in the middle by making Times Square a pedestrian mall,” she said. When she was starring in “Company,”LuPone would carry a bullhorn and yell at pedestrians from her car window. “It’s impossible for us to get to work,” she told me. “And I said that years ago. So I start work angry. I can’t get to my theatre, because of the traffic pattern, because of the arrogance of the people in the streets. It’s a road. Get out of the street.”

So she's screaming at people who are walking in a pedestrian mall because she doesn't think it should be a pedestrian mall? If I'm reading this right, then I'm fully sympathetic with the poster above who suggested there may be a cognitive issue.

Even if this has been selectively edited, and she's ranting against pedestrians occupying bonafide streets, it's still rather unhinged. I know first-hand that Manhattan is a driving challenge, but I don't think there's any consensus that pedestrians are preventing Broadway actors from getting to work on time.

[Ensemble1698878795]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 9:50pm

Georgeanddot2 said: "They know it's not actually racist. They just like to do mental backflips until it is. There is a huge amount of racism in the broadwaycommunity, but telling Hell's Kitchen to turn their sound down because it was bleeding into the theatre next door is not racist, OBVIOUSLY."

Cool, so let’s “say”’ the volume incident wasn’t racism. So, what is her calling a Black woman and Tony winner a bitch, then? Brunch? You wanna do mental backflips to defend that too? Whiteness privilege is showing itself and you can deny it all you want. The industry, white people included, think poorly of her behavior and she’s tarnishing her own legacy. She’s officially our Broadway Karen! YAAY. 

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 9:58pm

Ensemble1698878795 said: “So, what is her calling a Black woman and Tony winner a bitch, then?”

I mean, after Hillbilly Elegy, I called Glenn Close a lot worse.

[abcd12]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 10:10pm

Ensemble1698878795 said: "Georgeanddot2 said: "They know it's not actually racist. They just like to do mental backflips until it is. There is a huge amount of racism in the broadwaycommunity, but telling Hell's Kitchen to turn their sound down because it was bleeding into the theatre next door is not racist, OBVIOUSLY."

Cool, so let’s “say”’ the volume incident wasn’t racism. So, what is her calling a Black woman and Tony winner a bitch, then? Brunch? You wanna do mental backflips to defend that too? Whiteness privilegeis showing itself and you can deny it all you want. The industry, white people included, think poorly of her behavior and she’s tarnishing her own legacy. She’s officially our Broadway Karen! YAAY."

Right. “The industry.” I’m sure she’ll never work again. Get a grip. 

[FolliesCabaret]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 10:20pm

Calling somebody a bitch is not, in any way, racist. Let's start there.

[kdogg36]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 10:21pm

Ensemble1698878795 said: "She’s officially our Broadway Karen! YAAY."

Yikes. You're using the given name of many fine people, including two of my good friends, as a slur? Shame on you. Do better.

Updated On: 5/26/25 at 10:21 PM

[smidge2]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 10:26pm

Even if you don’t believe it is racist, her inability to comprehend why Kecia has less Broadway credits than her is certainly incredibly stupid. 

[Georgeanddot2]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 10:26pm

Ensemble1698878795 said: "Georgeanddot2 said: "They know it's not actually racist. They just like to do mental backflips until it is. There is a huge amount of racism in the broadwaycommunity, but telling Hell's Kitchen to turn their sound down because it was bleeding into the theatre next door is not racist, OBVIOUSLY."

Cool, so let’s “say”’ the volume incident wasn’t racism. So, what is her calling a Black woman and Tony winner a bitch, then? Brunch? You wanna do mental backflips to defend that too? Whiteness privilegeis showing itself and you can deny it all you want. The industry, white people included, think poorly of her behavior and she’s tarnishing her own legacy. She’s officially our Broadway Karen! YAAY."

I think Patti called her a bitch because she's crazy not because she's racist.

[abcd12]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 10:26pm

She also said the Kennedy Center “should get blown up.”

Should she be placed on a no-fly list now?

Off to Guantanamo with you, diva! 

[BroadwayBen]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 10:33pm

It's just really sad, and however anyone wants to "spin" It -- and god knows they're trying on this board -- these are ugly comments, in print calling a Broadway colleague a "bitch" and being so incredibly rude to another for their performance.   Ironically, she's acting exactly like the man she professes to hate the most -- Trump.  Spewing mean comments without thought or meaning or measure of their consequence.   I don't care how talented she is.  This isn't needed or warranted, and she owes both women an apology.  

[Huss417]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 10:44pm

BroadwayBen said: "It's just really sad, and however anyone wants to "spin" It -- and god knows they're trying on this board -- these are ugly comments, in print calling a Broadway colleague a "bitch" and being so incredibly rude to another for their performance. Ironically, she's acting exactly like the man she professes to hate the most -- Trump. Spewingmean comments without thought or meaning or measure of their consequence. I don't care how talented she is. This isn't needed or warranted, and she owes both women an apology."

But it’s ok for Lewis to suggest in some way LuPone is racist?

[theblackumbrella]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 10:52pm

I’m just bummed because it would’ve been really beautiful to have Tyne, Bernadette, & Patti (maybe with Imelda and Bette) introduce Audra’s performance at the Tony’s.

Also wish the article would’ve asked her about “Old Friends” along with the Sondheim Q. Even if it’s just asking about Lea singing Gypsy. 

Finally - not that friendships or relationships can’t be fraught, but the way she talks about Sondheim is so inconsistent. After he died she says “who will make me better?” on Colbert but also failed to thank him in her Tony speech for Joanne.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 10:53pm

Patti speaks pretty highly of Audra in her memoir, so this fall out happened sometime after 2011.

[BroadwayGirl107]

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

Oh god what a headache this thread is!

I think some of you don’t understand that just because an action isn’t explicitly “racist” (LuPone’s actions don’t seem to be) doesn’t mean that those words or actions are not motivated by racial undertones and bias…which is a form of racism. 
 

To be clear: as I said further up in the thread, I’m a LuPone fan. I think her Rose might be the greatest performance I’ve ever seen & I was generally on her side in the whole Hell’s Kitchen volume debacle (some shows are too loud. It’s a community and that show is playing next to a small play house. Just adjust so everyone can enjoy their show without hearing a bass one through the wall).

 

That being said, this profile does make Patti look, at best, woefully ignorant of racial inequality in the theater by calling a black woman with more Broadway credits than most could ever dream of “not a veteran” and harboring bitterness toward a black woman who has been one of the only people in theater history to outshine LuPone’s legend and did so in the constant face of a racially biased industry. 

 

So…yeah. I mean, I’m as sick as anyone of the laziness of calling anything racist as a form of taking moral high ground. But this profile does harmfully feed into the racially unjust landscape and therefore is a kind of racism, whether that’s LuPone actual sentiment toward race or not.

Damn, y’all, weren’t we supposed to have some sort of reckoning in 2020 about these things? 
 


 

 

[Ensemble1698878795]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 11:09pm

Huss417 said: "BroadwayBen said: "It's just really sad, and however anyone wants to "spin" It -- and god knows they're trying on this board -- these are ugly comments, in print calling a Broadway colleague a "bitch" and being so incredibly rude to another for their performance. Ironically, she's acting exactly like the man she professes to hate the most -- Trump. Spewingmean comments without thought or meaning or measure of their consequence. I don't care how talented she is. This isn't needed or warranted, and she owes both women an apology."

But it’s ok for Lewis to suggest in some way LuPone is racist?"

Because she is. 

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 11:11pm

BroadwayBen said: "It's just really sad, and however anyone wants to "spin" It -- and god knows they're trying on this board -- these are ugly comments, in print calling a Broadway colleague a "bitch" and being so incredibly rude to another for their performance."

Saying nothing about Audra's performance is "so incredibly rude"? In a profile where she goes scorched earth on everyone under the sun? If she wanted to be rude she certainly could have been, as she was toward everything else. Are Audra's stans really that delicate?

[Ensemble1698878795]

Posted: 5/26/25 at 11:12pm

FolliesCabaret said: "Calling somebody a bitch is not, in any way, racist. Let's start there."

Sounds about white to me. Let's end there.