Patti LuPone called a privileged, racially microaggressive bully by Hell's Kitchen cast member

[binau]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 3:11am

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Tony-Winner-Kecia-Lewis-Calls-Out-Patti-LuPone-For-Calling-HELLS-KITCHEN-Too-Loud-20241102

Apparently her giving flowers to the Hell's Kitchen team is also bullying.

Look, Patti LuPone can be a bit of an ass but it's obvious what is going on here - she is a cranky old woman starring in a quiet play that is sharing a wall with what I assume to be a heavy amplified production. I guarantee that if AMERICAN IDIOT was there it would get the same treatment. Why do we have to bring race into everything all the time? 

 

[RJ14]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 3:17am

that's a reach...

[MasterThespian 2]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 5:08am

Seems like a stretch. But she is a cranky, overbearing pain in the a$$, so who knows? 

[Strange Lupone]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 6:07am

You know who Kecia reminds me of here? Patti Lupone.

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 6:08am

They should both go touch grass.

[Bwaygurl2]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 8:05am

I can see where Lewis may have felt put out when she got to work and found a sound cue had changed and then found out it was because of an actor who is in a completely different show! 

But to call it a racial micro aggression just seems silly. And if cameras weren't everywhere no one would even know Patti called Hell's Kitchen too loud. And we all know she would have complained about a white show as well. 

It seemed like Patti tried to handle this discretely as best she knew how. Lewis seems to want to blow this up and she seems quite pleased with herself as well. 

[mshalo18]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 8:44am

Good luck to Maleah Joi Moon after she shared Kecia’s video. She’s far too early in her career to get involved in any controversy. 

[Jarethan]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 8:59am

mshalo18 said: "Good luck to Maleah Joi Moon after she shared Kecia’s video. She’s far too early in her career to get involved in any controversy."

Maybe Lewis should have kept her mouth shut and seen The Roommate before making this about race.  Patti’s point was a reasonable one, based on some performances I have seen, where volume and bass from an adjoining theatre really were distractions to the show I was at.  Seems to me that, in this era of higher volumes — think Tommy, American Idiot, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Moulin Rouge, and others (coupled with theatre prices), more should be done to better soundproof theatres.  Ironically, most of the top-of-my-head examples were not of shows with adjoining theatres, but I do remember being next to BBAJ and having that volume / bass filter into the Golden, and there have definitely been other times.

This is a theatre-owner and maybe theatre production issue (Tommy hurt my ears), not an issue about race.

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 9:05am

Patti can certainly be an jerk (see: Mary Beth Peil's recounting of Patti's behavior during Women on the Verge), but nothing in Kecia Lewis's story makes it sound like Patti did anything wrong. It hardly seems like a coincidence that Lewis pulled this right when Patti's getting so much press recently due to the success of Agatha All Along. She wanted attention, so she decided to latch on to someone who's already in the press to boost her own name.

Anybody with any common sense sees exactly what you're doing, Ms. Lewis. How sad for you.

Updated On: 11/3/24 at 09:05 AM

[Kad]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 9:10am

Words like “bullying” and “microaggression” have been so embraced by people on social media that they have become unmoored from their meanings. Bullying is defined as repeated, intentionally injurious acts of aggressive intimidation or harassment against an individual that usually cannot adequately defend themselves. People freely use “bullying” on social media (and here on BWW) to describe behavior that they perceive as being disrespectful or unkind. It’s not the same thing- and when something like bullying is a real world problem that has led to  dire circumstances for vulnerable people, I wish people would stop freely tossing it around to justify their grievances like Lewis has done here. 

Updated On: 11/3/24 at 09:10 AM

[Dolly80]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 9:14am

What a complete load of nonsense. Hope Patti calls her out 

Updated On: 11/3/24 at 09:14 AM

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 9:33am

"Race card" is never a good phrase to use, no matter the context.

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 9:41am

Jay Lerner-Z said: ""Race card" is never a good phrase to use, no matter the context."

I mean, i think its used to differentiate between actual instances of racism, and desperate accusations like this one

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 10:10am

Racism? No.

Patti acting like the entitled out of touch awful human she is? Yes.

[CoffeeBreak]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 10:30am

Will there be a rush or lottery for the rumble in Shubert Alley?

[quizking101]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 10:31am

Kate Shindle posted under Kecia’s video that, from a technical aspect, the change of a sound cue can potentially cause singers and performers to vocally injure themselves as a compensatory act for however the cue was changed, especially after a show has settled into a longstanding pattern.

I do think Patti tried to handle it quietly, but the flippant hot mic stage door comment was not a fine moment for her because, even if it wasn’t borne of bad intent, it still has an impact.

The bothersome question that I don’t think anyone is asking though is why someone would bring an HK Playbill to have Patti sign in the first place? You didn’t see her show, and the two shows let out at very different times, so I’m wondering how this came to be possible. (Not trying to start any conspiracy theories - it just all seems weird to me)

[CreatureKitchen]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 10:33am

I mean, you can argue Patti was out of touch by handling this herself rather than going through more proper channels. But, it seems she had a reasonable request, asked politely, and followed up with flowers.

Kecia might have been able to resolve this productively if she’d approached the issue privately. But by making it a public call out, she’s pretty much guaranteed that Patti just won’t respond, or that she’ll respond defensively. 

[BETTY22]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 10:35am

Kecia’s video is very powerful. And good for Maleah Joi Moon sharing it.

I hope Alicia Key's shares it toooooooooooo

[GottaGetAGimmick420]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 10:37am

quizking101 said: "Kate Shindle posted under Kecia’s video that, from a technical aspect, the change of a sound cue can potentially cause singers and performers to vocally injure themselves as a compensatory act for however the cue was changed, especially after a show has settled into a longstanding pattern.

I do think Patti tried to handle it quietly, but the flippant hot mic stage door comment was not a fine moment for her because, even if it wasn’t borne of bad intent, it still has an impact.

The bothersome question that I don’t think anyone is asking though is why someone would bring an HK Playbill to have Patti sign in the first place? You didn’t see her show, and the two shows let out at very different times, so I’m wondering how this came to be possible. (Not trying to start any conspiracy theories - it just all seems weird to me)"

Am I the only one that additionally think its a bad look for Kate Shindle to be chiming in? She may no longer be president, but she still holds an equity position. Oh to be a fly on the wall on Monday in these producing/GM meetings... 

[Jumpin_J]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 10:46am

Many Broadway shows are excessively loud today. Patti should know since her Lincoln Center production of "Anything Goes" in the 1980's was one of the first Broadway musicals to use mics because they put the ship's band on stage and she had to sing over them. Musicals have been mic'ed up ever since. Many of the legends in musicals never used mics. Heck, opera singers can still hit the back row of a 3000 seat hall. But sound levels are getting out of hand. I thought "Six" was so loud that I had to use ear plugs. It's like the subway busker who thinks louder equals better. But more specifically, as an artist, Kecia should be more aware of her surroundings. Not only does it make it more difficult to focus in a two person play for the actors, but does she think it's fair for the paying audience to be equally as distracted? I doubt if the circumstances were reversed that she'd be okay with the interruptions. For her to play the race card on top of everything else is a woefully poor decision. Volume doesn't have anything to do with race. Loud is loud, and I'd be perfectly okay with new rules limiting how loud a show can be for the safety of actors and audience members too.

[Dancingthrulife2]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 11:05am

Noise is nuisance. If Patti does not complain it would well become a prescriptive easement after a certain period of time and she would have no legal standing to complain.

It's very standard from a legal perspective. How is any of this "racially microaggressive"?

[morosco]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 11:07am

 Many of the legends in musicals never used mics.

Not one of those legends would be able to project over modern orchestrations of most of today's musicals.

[Madeline'sTwistedNeck]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 11:14am

If she actually wanted to have a discussion about this she would have just walked to the theater next door and talked to Patti. Posting a video on social media with a very condescending tone and accusing someone else of bullying and microagression is not only classless but also extremelly attention seeking. Kecia Lewis is a pro and has been in the industry for a very long time, she would know very well how to handle this properly if she actually wanted to. This just screams attention seeking since Patti LuPone has been talked about in a great light after the successful run of Agatha All Along. I also find it very strange a lot of young people in the industry jumping at the change of spewing hate at Patti on Lewis's comment section when they barely have made it to the ensamble of a broadway show and openly talking trash about established people in the industry hardly opens up doors for up and coming young artists. Updated On: 11/3/24 at 11:14 AM

[Dolly80]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 11:48am

Ooh I bet Patti is fuming today!

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 11/3/24 at 12:02pm

Neither of these women seem to have addressed this issue through the proper channels, but one of them did so privately and with a little more tact than a social media post publicly shaming the other and demanding an apology. The issue here is volume and most shows today are too loud.