Patti LuPone drags EVERYTHING in The New Yorker: Trump, Audra, pedestrians, hockey teams, a raccoon, HELL'S KITCHEN

In the meantime, the battles were unrelenting. She had told me, about co-starring with Mia Farrow in the two-woman play “The Roommate” last fall, “There was a little bit of bullshit that went down, and then 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.” “The Roommate” shared a wall with a neighboring show, “Hell’s Kitchen,” the Alicia Keys musical, and sound would bleed through. 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 fuck 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.”

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.”

It was. In Central Park, New Yorkers were strolling among the apple blossoms. “Oh, people sitting by themselves, lonely as hell,” LuPone observed, peering from her window. “HA! Just lonely as hell out there.” She was ready for a nap. As I walked out, she announced, “I, my dahling, am taking to my bed.”

Is she ever happy?

Bye bitch!

Let me know when Cynthia Erivo is done with Broadway and almost everything else.

So now we gotta find out what the rift was that happened between the two years ago that she won’t mention!

1) Audra became friends with Glenn Close

2) Audra told Bernadette she was the better Rose

3) Audra told Betty Buckley she preferred her version of Meadowlark

4) Audra told Mandy that his applause rightfully was stronger during Evita bows

I REALLy need this today. Thanks, OP and especially, thanks Patti! You never disappoint.

"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.'"

This is the best thing ever written in the history of the world.

Does this mean she doesn't want to do a show on East 4th Street anymore?

LOVE this interview but could anyone elaborate on whatever was being said about Patti and Mia Farrow and THE ROOMMATE?

This evil cunt with her 60 IQ.

Team Lupone.

Like Elaine Stritch, she is going to wear out her welcome before shuffling off. The memory of her bullshit will be much less amusing than it is now.

Team Patti here. Nothing more to add.

I’m with her on the Kecia Lewis thing. Making it a race thing is disgusting and so indicative of our annoying times. Glad she didn’t back down. Plus Hells Kitchen is a fairly dreadful show.

She loses me on the Audra thing. Whatever their personal beef, I thought Audra was amazing on that stage. Even if you are less impressed, it’s hard to see how that performance could earn such a dismissive reaction.

Patti heckling children riding the zamboni between periods at a Rangers game had me howling. Flawless character work. No notes.

R14 I was cracking up as well. Patti gave those kids and Kecia Lewis the public trashing they deserved.

I didn't interpret the Audra response as "dismissive" but as Patti, for once in her life, knowing it best not to comment.

I've locked up at least one vote!

I’m glad this hideous old woman is a thing in New York and achieved some degree of fame. But does she or any New York based media source realize that absolutely no one outside that city and who isn’t into Broadway shows have no idea who she is? She’s just the big deal some of you are convinced she is. She’s not the big deal SHE thinks she is. But I suppose in New York, her obnoxious behavior is intriguing and salacious news. By the way, isn’t she like late 70s or something? Isn’t she way too old to be so nasty and catty?

I like to think of her as the Great White Way's befana, the village hag in black rewarding the good, punishing the bad, and demanding offerings.

R18 is Stephen Sondheim, who told her to her face during an interview that she wasn’t famous and only people in the theatre knew who she was.

Did she blast Corky too?

She’s not MAGA but she’s got Trump’s temperament.

R18 she’s a heroine to the Down’s Syndrome community.

I love Patti! The Hell's Kitchen kerfuffle and pulling the race card is indeed absurd.

I mean, Patti was, is and will always be a cunt. But she doesn't pretend otherwise.

She immerses herself in the cuntitude. She is authentically cunty, always. Good for her.

I was feeling charitable that day and didn’t address her diction.

Her cuntiness is hilarious…from afar.

I am not normally a fan of the Elaine Stritch school of monstre sacré who just steamrolled everyone. Lupone 's targets are her peers and equals who can give as good as they get. #teampatti on this one.

“Lupone 's targets are her peers”

And also children on a Zamboni

Another sign of how far The New Yorker has gone downhill under David Remnick. This belongs in People magazine.

Patti is too insecure to ever praise McDonald's performance as Momma Rose.

She's an odd woman. She thinks her bitchiness is always deeply amusing. Sometimes it is, but sometimes she's just hateful.

“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 fuck she’s talking about.” She Googled. “She’s done seven. I’ve done thirty-one. Don’t call yourself a vet, bitch.”

I fucking adore LuPone.

I’m sorry Patti Lupone was right. The noise issue had nothing to do with race until Kecia Lewis made it about race. It’s absurd. The noise issue shouldn’t have been resolved because Hell’s Kitchen cast is majority black and pc optics of it all? It’s kinda dangerous what she did because the reaction was successful.

Kecia Lewis is why Trump won a second term.

R25 100%! I love that she embraces her cuntiness. She has no shame in it and I applaud her!

Plus she can laugh at herself and has never pretended to be anything but a handful.

Saw her in concert at the Lyric in Chicago a few months ago. Absolutely stellar performance and she truly connects with the audience. Never seen her phone it in….unlike many other stars.

Re: Audra in Gypsy…I saw it in March. I thought she was great but the gal who played Gypsy outshone her. Still, great job by Audra and she made even rough parts of her aging voice work for Rose.

How ironic she loathes Trujmp so much when both of them are all about airing grievances and playing the victim.

"Don’t call yourself a vet, bitch" -- that quote is going to cause a LOT of problems. Dumb Patti, really dumb.

She such a fucking grouch. She hates everything and everyone. She’s better than all of it!

No wonder she doesn’t have any friends

I’m pretty certain someone who’s done 7 Bway shows can be called a veteran

[Quote] "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.'"

She’s jealous Audra found more in the role than she did

Does Patti really want to go into Gypsy? Because it took how many directors and productions pre-Broadway run for her to get that by the numbers performance she gave just right? I remember the threads posted on here at the time, and how people were not impressed.

[quote]Patti is too insecure to ever praise McDonald's performance as Momma Rose.

Audra is beloved and well liked in the industry as well. It took Patti numerous tries to get a second Tony (which she of course bitched about on stage when she got it) Patti needs to tred lightly on this one.

The one name that didn't come up in that interview was Bernadette Peters yet I suspect she is the reason for much of Patti's unhappiness.

She does hate everyone, and it's hilarious. I love that she can look out on a sunny day with people enjoying it and strolling through a beautiful park and her first thought is "what a buncha lonely losers!"

I bet Sondheim gave Patti’s husband blow jobs when they were smoking pot together out in the barn. And Sondheim swallowed.

She is Stritch, but as someone on social media said, the difference between the two is that Stritch never had the contempt for her audience that Patti Lu has for hers.

Upon her parents divorce, a twelve year old Patti telling her saddened brother, “honey, we’re free to pursue show business now!” 😂😂😂

I had a dream. It’s all about you….Bobby!

Matron r18 needs her meds! Change her diaper too - she stinks.

[quote]Stritch never had the contempt for her audience that Patti Lu has for hers.

How does Patti have contempt for her audiences, r45? She shows up and she delivers.

plenty of lonely people, Pats sounds like 1 of them.

r25 The problem is she twins her cuntiness with a thin skin. Anyone who treats her as less than a queen results in her crying about being a victim. If you want to give it, you should be able to take it.

Another problem is her cuntiness is all she has.

I felt bad for her in the roommate. Not only was it a mediocre play poorly directed (with the dumbest set ever) but the night I saw it, there were patches of queens throughout the theater who were treating it like a night at Marie's Crisis.

I’m happy to say I’ve never helped out a single penny into this cunt’s pocket.

This bitch just doesn't give a fuck. It's as awesome as it is annoying. I can't think of a movie star counterpart who is this aggressively outwardly cunt-filled. All the difficult cunts in film play as though they are sweet as pie.

[quote]Another problem is her cuntiness is all she has.

She seems to have no problem getting work, r50.

The bit with the sherry was telling. So she's been drinking sherry for 40 years, and yet doesn't know where it is and isn't served in NYC? Does anyone really believe she let the journalist take her to a restaurant she's never been to before? So I suspect she orders it as an affectation, and when told they don't serve it, she can start complaining.

Also, the absolutely witless way she crammed in a "does anyone still wear a hat".

Patti LuPone is so exhausting and unpleasant.

She should just go away. Now.

[quote]Patti LuPone is so exhausting and unpleasant.

And yet here you are, r56.

Could you imagine being the New Yorker staffer charged with calling up seventy-year-old retired NHL players to repeat Patti’s shit-talking about them and asking if they had any comment?

I bet Andy Cohen jerked off after reading this.

I’m going to enjoy this dried up cunt’s impending backlash. It’s a long time coming.

Yes, I'm here to turn off the lights and throw everyone out!

Do you remember the first time she threw a fit due to a camera flash while she was on stage? My friend was there that night and stated there were signs backstage notifying the cast that a photographer would be in the audience that night.

I’m not sure if it was the photographer or if he/she used a flash, but thought that bit of gossip was pertinent to this story.

[quote] The problem is she twins her cuntiness with a thin skin. Anyone who treats her as less than a queen results in her crying about being a victim. If you want to give it, you should be able to take it.

My guess is that likely she has a Cluster B personality disorder, probably BPD.

She takes every possible career setback as a personal slight and never forgets to hold a bitter grudge against whomever to her mind caused it.

I can't imagine what she's like as a mother.

Back in 2019, Patti told Miss Lindz to “come out”. Miss Lindz still refuses, yet everyone knows.

Who was the Eve Harrington in Evita?

[quote]Close took a seat next to LuPone. “She said, ‘I had nothing to do with it,’ ” LuPone recalled. “I wanted to go, ‘Bullshit, bitch!’ ”

I do think ALW fucked her over in Sunset, just like he fucked Faye over, but what could Glenn have possibly done to piss her off? I remember the gossip that Patti wanted Close barred from seeing her finish up Sunset in the UK, because she was afraid Close would take notes and use them in her interpretation.

If anything, she should be pissed at Barbra. It was Barbra's versions of the Sunset songs that were playing on the theater lines to get tickets to the Lupone show.

R63 but is she autistic?

Patti Lupone is a breath of fresh air in this overly pc world in certain fabrics of American society.

…says the DL version of nasty Patti

I don’t really understand Broadway vocals but I think Patti is noisy and shrill. And the same white gays who find Patti LaBelle and black vocal runs unnecessary and showy are the same one who will listen to Patti LuPone shatter everyone’s eardrums.

Nasty Patti would be a good bluesky handle for her.

She’s now 76 and has never given a fuck and never will. Cluster B? Maybe. Who cares. She’s old and she’s pissed off and you’re going to know about it.

[quote] Who was the Eve Harrington in Evita?

They said it was her original matinee replacement, which was Terri Klausner.

A year or so after the Sunset debacle, Patti came to perform at Davies Symphony Hall in SF. The day prior to the concert, I attended an "intimate audience with Patti LuPone" event held for some local musical theater society. Anyways, the interviewer brought up Sunset and at that point I don't think she had talked publicly about it much so her feelings about it were still pretty raw. She barely got through her answer before breaking out into a tearful rage and referring to Glenn as a backstabbing cunt. Needless to say, it was awkward but even 30 years later, I can still vividly recall her face as she said it.

[quote]I don’t really understand Broadway vocals but I think Patti is noisy and shrill.

You might want to have your hearing checked, r69.

children on a Zamboni: insufferable CUNTS

Mamet: “I never knew words til Mamet”

People with BPD or who display BPD characteristics at various stages in life didn’t happen in a vacuum.

Unlike sociopaths, they weren’t born that way. They are the inverse of a sociopath. Their neurotic behavior is a symptom of pain, usually intentional, caused by some sociopath or sociopaths.

The second part of your hearing test R69.

1992 - Sondheim celebration - Carnegie Hall

Big Penis Dysphoria? Is that her issue?

I saw Patti in "Sunset" in London. It wasn't her part. She's a force of nature on stage, and Norma was supposed to be faded, lost, desperate. It wasn't a good fit, even though she sang the shit out of it. Out of all of them Buckley was the best.

[quote]It wasn't her part

It really wasn't.

[quote]even though she sang the shit out of it

Indeed

[quote]Out of all of them Buckley was the best.

Indeed

Oh Patti, if you ever want that fourth Tony, perhaps I'll give you one of mine.

On loan—cash deposit required.

[quote]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.”

This is objectively hilarious. She's like a John Waters character.

More like a Wes Craven

To R67, I totally fucking agree with you in the phrase "overly PC world in certain parts of American society".

There was "no reason" Kecia Lewis should have played the black card, but she did! She thought the "old white lady" would cave& give in. That is not going to happen with LuPone.

Paul Wontorek, who has interviewed Patti many times and always came across as a super fan just shit on her on Instagram by posting “veterans” Audra and Kecia.

Yikes…when you lose Paul from Broadway.com…it’s bad.

Just when you’ve had sufficient, another bigoted comment from the DL peanut gallery

[quote] Paul Wontorek, who has interviewed Patti many times and always came across as a super fan just shit on her on Instagram by posting “veterans” Audra and Kecia.

Patti, only you would ever think calling those two honored pros "veterans" is somehow "shitting on you."

Get your act together.

[Quote] Another sign of how far The New Yorker has gone downhill under David Remnick. This belongs in People magazine.

The New Yorker magazine is the perfect place for a profile of a Broadway legend. LuPone is not really known outside of NY.

She is an awful and an awfully entertaining woman.

New Yorker has been doing profiles like this for almost 100 years.

I seem to remember Patti missing the next performance of "Company" on a Tuesday, after her Tony win on a Sunday. Jennifer Simard went on for her. Who is now doing the same thing a few times a week in "Death Becomes Her". Except Jennifer isn't winning a Tony.

R90 Right as if any star or television flavor of the month’s publicist would ever let them speak off the cuff like this in People fucking Magazine.

Am I looking better now?

What does People have to do with it?

R94-Follow the thread, son.

It was a joke about a song, daughter.

What is her husband Matthew Johnston's story? Saint? Sinner? Equally abrasive? They've been married a very long time.

And, what, if anything, is the story with him and Stephen Sondheim? Or, is that someone's wet dream?

She claimed she accepted Glenn’s apology when it happened in 2010 but I’m not surprised it didn’t stick.

She has a habit of going after women who possess dignity, because she knows she can be nasty and they will not return fire. Glenn Close, Bernadette Peters, Joanna Gleason, Audra McDonald.

^ And Madonna???

Has she ever tried to fuck w/Meryl? I bet not, she knows Mer would tear her to fucking shreds.

Kelcia took something that happens frequently in theaters and turned it into a persecution of race. Which was ridiculous. And she is not on the level of a Lupone or McDonald. Broadway veteran who was largely a minor/replacement/fourth tier supporting player.

Lupone knew she was being used for publicity and a career boost. She responded accordingly.

I thought her particularly bitchy when she was -for the umpteenth time-going over the whole Sunset Blvd debacle. She made a point of pronouncing Petula Clark petch Ala ...which few people have done since 1965. The bitch never forgets. I doubt she's a very happy human being.

R100 😂

Is there a new THEATRE GOSSIP thread or are we just going to stay here. The last one was all about Patti anyway

Here, r105

R101 She spoke kindly of Meryl in her book. Meryl attended the Sydmonton performance of “Sunset” and complimented Patti afterwards.

[quote]Meryl attended the Sydmonton performance of “Sunset” and complimented Patti afterwards.

I will never apologise for this: I fucking love Patti LuPone. She's hell on wheels.

I agree, R39. Seven is enough to qualify her as a Broadway veteran (even if some of them had her as "ensemble" or "various," etc.).

Oh please, R110, Sherie Rene Whatshername has been in at least that many and I would call her a Broadway Dishonorable Discharge, at best.

The problem is that Kecia tried to put herself on the same level as Lupone.

Aside from the Alicia Keys musical, her resume is dubious at best.

She did? How?

Patti made the comparison ….

I think Patti would make a great killer-of-the-week on “Elsbeth” next season. She could’ve played Nathan Lane’s angry audience member quite well.

BPD : Bernadette Peters Disorder, natch.

She’s an extraordinary talent, still. But a white woman shitting on not one but two of her black peers is never a good look.

She shouldn't feel competitive with Bernadette, they're two different products. Patti isn't a Dot or a Mabel and Bernadette isn't an Eva Peron or a Reno Sweeney. Patti isn't an Annie Oakley...and neither was Bernadette. That role ideally should have gone to Betty Lynn years earlier. She had the right voice and could handle both sides of Annie's persona believably. Oh well.

And then calling one of them a bitch is very uncouth.

She's 76, r118, why should she give a crap about couth?

It's been said on here a couple of times but if you really think Patti LuPone is not known outside of New York, you really are an idiot.

She isn’t known outside of New York. Sorry. She’s a regional talent only. A few guest appearances in Ryan Murphy trash heap does not make one a recognizable star.

Shut up, Patti LuPone! Shut your brassy, magnificent trap! I don't want to hear you sing!

A Law & Order on set memory (I worked as crew): LuPone whined to the prop gal “Do I really need a briefcase? Won’t my handbag suffice?” Prop gal replied “You’re playing an attorney heading into court. You’re going in with that briefcase.” And she didn’t wait for a response from LuPone, she had other principal actors to prop up, haha.

Was she being funny or being a bitch?

James Cameron should cast Patti in his next movie. That’d generate some fun news articles.

Patti LuPone and Betty Buckley: Diva Roadtrip

It’s the two of them, an old VW Bug, a box of 8 tracks, two huge hoagies longer than the car is wide. They drive from NYC to Roanoke, Virginia to stage a show in an old barn on a Superfund site.

R126, get Tonya Pinkins and Alice Ripley (group texting the fifteen year old non-binaries she has competing to be her newest bestie/submissive) in the backseat and you’ve got what Bravo can use as the newest iteration of Real Housewives of New York.

[quote] So now we gotta find out what the rift was that happened between the two years ago that she won’t mention!

What, but also when.

The Housewives always have a cast of at least 5-6 lunatics, so we need two more crazy/difficult bitches in the cast.

Who else should join Betty, Patti, Tonya, and Alice? Maybe Nathan Lane? One of their theme parties should be Elaine Stritch themed, so we can see these bitches screaming at each other in a man’s shirt, black tights and a beret, while holding a Costco-sized bottle of hard liquor in their hands.

She is a Marvel series co-star, lest we forget

R11, The Prophetess.

Pfft.

R129, I nominate Karen Olivo (more one-sided feuding with an unseen Audra McDonald and highly likely to storm off set during the reunion with threats that she’s moving to Idaho forever to teach college) and Karen Ziemba as the nice-but-too-excited-to-be-there friend of the housewives that they all make fun of for having weird boobs.

r129, she has gone on record as saying she is a not a fan of the Real Housewives series.

R133 to be fair, she’s on record as saying she is not a fan of anyone.

[quote] so we need two more crazy/difficult bitches in the cast.

Here's one:

Of course I ADORE Patti, but this stuff makes me sad. Partly because she makes it difficult to defend her. And partly because it's just sad that someone SO talented is seemingly so miserable.

Hi kids!

Did someone say my name?

This belongs in the Library of Datalounge for generations to enjoy.

What is the Dewey Decimal number for "cunt memoir"?

Maybe she doesn't like Audra's performance. She is allowed to and Audra can take it. Is Audra at home weeping on her pile of Tony's. She didn't insult assail Kecia's talent. Patti is classy. Patti knows how to stay in her weight class!! Brava!

Laura Osnes? pfft, R135. If you’re going to make me work with some crackpot anti-vax ingenue entering her “I’ve written a letter to daddy” era let it be Chad Kimball. HA!

With impeccable timing, Audra is on the cover of the new issue of Time, headlined "Broadway's Greatest". Something else for Patti to hate!

Wow I wonder what happened between Patti and Audra. Years ago I saw them perform together at the Hollywood Bowl and they were so chummy.

Then I saw Patti drag Audra's performance (with Meryl) of Ladies Who Lunch on that COVID Sondheim tribute. (Well, she was critical of the conception not specifically of Audra in it.)

There's something clearly wrong with this woman to be that bitter and angry for that long...to every one, and every thing. Bitter bitch 'til the end.

[quote] The problem is she twins her cuntiness with a thin skin. Anyone who treats her as less than a queen results in her crying about being a victim. If you want to give it, you should be able to take it.

BINGO.

I'd be impressed that Audra's publicist got her on the cover of Time during the final week of Tony voting but then I remembered it's 2025 and no one actually reads magazines.

As for that header, even nice stars like Bernie are probably rolling their eyes over that nonsense.

I can't imagine the faces that Nathan and Patti are making.

Audra and Patti are both fabulous

Sadly, I really need the goods (that aren't generated by Google AI) about Farrow and O'Brien coping with LuPone drama on "The Roommate." Michael Schulman needed to ply her with more than one bottle of sherry to get that shit on the record.

Patti singing the National Anthem before a game of her beloved NY Rangers in 1980.

The announcer says she won the Emmy for Evita.

Pffffffftt, r143.

I *almost * feel bad for Patti on this. For years she has been celebrated for being outspoken and “yes, queen” in everything and I really don’t think she had any idea this would be any different, but she is hated right now on the theatre boards/twitter/reddit because of the Kecia thing.

If I was her publicist, I would book her on The View or something quickly to do damage control.

I fear she will turn out like Roseanne Barr in a year. Feels betrayed by everyone and falls for right wing grifters.

Another Broadway veteran with a Time cover.

I like Patti but...yeah, this was pretty dumb. Entertaining, but dumb. Even if she mea culpas, (and she won't) she isn't getting booked for anything for a long time.

Kecia was a bitch...stirring up shit when there wasn't any reason to but Patti going after her so bluntly is just going to get her raked over the coals. Because if a white person goes after ANY person of color for ANY reason and even if it's not anything to do with race and even it's snapping back at something the person of color said, you're going to get sent to the office and labeled racist.

There's a running theme in Patti's antics, and that she tends to throw hissy fits when anyone pulls focus away from her. The men taking photos or texting in the audience; the theater next door making too much noise while she's performing; even in this profile story, the girls at the next table who are talking too loudly.

She is the STAR, at all times, and she wants you to remember that.

Attention must be paid.

Patti's problem is that she longs for the old view.

“Because if a white person goes after ANY person of color for ANY reason and even if it's not anything to do with race and even it's snapping back at something the person of color said, you're going to get sent to the office and labeled racist.”

How dare those uppity folks push back!

[Quote] It's been said on here a couple of times but if you really think Patti LuPone is not known outside of New York, you really are an idiot.

She's known outside of New York wherever there are gays of a certain age but most people don't know who she. is.

Off-stage I hate her, but on-stage, I'm madly in love with her!

Kecia actually played this expertly. No one knew who she was. One complaint about Lupone and she knew Patti would never let go

[Quote] Maybe she doesn't like Audra's performance. She is allowed to and Audra can take it.

But she made it a dramatic moment where Lupone was trying to show it was so bad it can’t be commented on and that she knows best.

Basically being her cunty self when she knows Audra’s Rose blows hers away.

That wasn't Milner's line, r157.

Fixed it for you R157

Off-stage I hate her, but on-stage, I'm madly in love with her!

-Lyon Burke

Thank you, r161.

R156 "She's known outside of New York wherever there are gays of a certain age but most people don't know who she is."

Even fewer for shit stirrer, Ms.Kecia Lewis. Way fewer.

[quote]Kecia actually played this expertly. No one knew who she was.

And no one still knows. Her comments towards Audra are the ones that are generating the headlines.

I've never heard of Patti and Audra feuding until now. They had always appeared in public as friends. The cynic in me wonders if this isn't some carefully planned PR tactic by a friend to try and boost Audra's profile before Tony time. And Audra just happens to land the Time magazine cover at the same time? It's interesting, that's all I have to say.

We know who Patti hates, because she's made that perfectly clear for years now. Why is this the first time we're hearing about a dustup with Audra?

So what?

For R 163^

Ugh I'm seeing the social media reaction. Very bad news. Damit- I just want Patti's legacy to be preserved. No way will she get a Kennedy Center Honor now.

[Quote] The cynic in me wonders if this isn't some carefully planned PR tactic by a friend to try and boost Audra's profile before Tony time. And Audra just happens to land the Time magazine cover at the same time?

Of course it is. This is also a smart way to publicize Gypsy—when the Tonys are about to happen

Calling Kecia and Glenn bitches was bad enough, but dissing Audra was just plain stupid.

Is it as brutal as we hoped?

[quote] Damit- I just want Patti's legacy to be preserved. No way will she get a Kennedy Center Honor now.

She says in the profile that she wants to see the Kennedy Center blown up.

[Quote] No way will she get a Kennedy Center Honor now.

She’d have to get in line behind Liza

Patti dragged the Kennedy Center too, anyway. She won’t care.

I started dating a musical theater guy in the early 2000s who would spend a week in New York every spring and a week in London every fall. He packed in as many (new) shows as he could. In Spring 2008, I had to present at a conference in NYC and he chose to plan his trip during my conference (probably, in retrospect, to avoid paying for a hotel). He “surprised” me with tickets to Gypsy. Patty Lupone was starring.

The show was enjoyable enough, but musical theater wasn’t my thing. The boyfriend bought some sort of small poster signed by the cast to benefit an AIDS charity then made me wait with him outside the stage door. He wanted Lupone to sign the back, too. We waited a bit until she emerged, when he produced a Sharpie and started talking with her. She obliged and exchanged pleasantries with him. I just stood there looking around and our eyes met and she barked, “Well, do you want me to sign something for you or not?” I guess I’d heard about stage doors but I think I just though it was for people to take pictures or cheer.

I must’ve given her an unknowing, inexperienced look. She snatched the Playbill from my hand and signed it hastily and shoved it back at me. I looked at the Playbill when we got back to our room. She wrote, “Pay attention,” and autographed it. WTF? So I agree that she’s not as famous as she thinks she is. But the interaction was not cunty IMO, just weird.

R167-Not a problem. By the time Trump leaves office, she'll be dead.

Are you kidding? Trump runs the Kennedy Center honors now, and Broadway is about the only artistic endeavor he's ever heard of; plus, she's now made critical comments about a couple of black women. *Of course* she'll be getting an honor - if she's willing to take it.

There’s no way in hell that Patti would ever get a Kennedy Center Honor with Trump as President. Especially as he seems to be more consistently interested in Kennedy Center than he is in the Middle East.

I am saddened to think we’ll likely never get the see Patti shrugging disdainfully on a loge balcony while Sutton Foster essays Buenos Aires while grinning like a camp counsellor.

Wow...that's a bizarre conspiracy theory, Nicole. To make it happen, the editors of The New Yorker and Time would need to have been in collusion, and somehow, someway, they had to make certain that Patti said something awful about Audra. Yeah, sure...That's a thing

The author notes she told a couple of women to quiet down at a restaurant because she was "trying to have a conversation here." Apparently her ranting and raving at the NHL game was fine however. Clearly, Patti is the only one allowed to get loud in public.

What was the "something awful" that Patti said about Audra? She didn't even criticize her performance. She said pretty much nothing in fact.

[Quote] What was the "something awful" that Patti said about Audra? She didn't even criticize her performance. She said pretty much nothing in fact.

It was done to signify something awful. Re-read the sentence about how she responded to the question about Audra’s Rose

R174 Actually, it was hilarious.

Why didn't you just say, "I'm with him!"?

I can't wait for the next time Patti walks on a stage and someone BOOs...You know it's gonna happen. A lot of people are reacting negatively to this, and there will be shit flung...

Can’t Ryan Murphy whip up a Broadway equivalent of Hacks starring LuPone for Hulu/FX?

I’d love to see that pilot The Perfect Year which Kathryn Bigelow directed. You know, the one with LuPone playing a Susan Stroman-type director with Norbert Leo Butz as a gay Broadway songwriter who also happens to be a meth addict? It’s languishing in HBO’s vault of unsold pilots along with Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper and Dianne Wiest in The Corrections (directed by Noah Baum ach) and Spring/Fall, the high fashion melodrama starring Sigourney Weaver and Tea Leoni,

Many Black Broadway stars are coming to Audra's and Kecia's defense on social media. It's not looking good for ole Patti.

GOOD!

Really, R180? They saved that beat for the end of the article, making it crystal clear that LuPone was giving a very icy "no comment" about her onetime "friend"'s performance. She knows better.

Patti needs to publicly apologize to both. She acted atrociously and those comments were awful. She's acting like the man she hates most.

You mean ALW, R181?

Another thing she has in common with Trump-she never apologizes.

She's also probably still pissed off Mia got a nomination and she didn't. Mia doesn't have a prayer of winning, but it would be fabulous if she did and then she didn't thank Patti.

[quote] Patti needs to publicly apologize to both.

Yeah, like that's going to happen!

I agree with this: "The saddest part is, Patti didn’t have to say any of this. And what’s worse — she wanted to. She wanted to drag Kecia. She wanted to dismiss Audra. She wanted the world to know that in the church of LuPone, there’s only one preacher at the pulpit."

When Madonna was rehearsing Speed The Plow at Lincoln Center didn’t Patti put up a sign which read something like “There’s only room for ONE Italian-American diva in this theater compkex”? What a piece of work.

I don't know about you but all the other threads in my Thread Watcher are dead tonight except this one and Theatre Gossip #591.

Girls, girls...

The lucky bitch pulled Kevin Kline?

Her third year, three “advanced” students joined the class. One was Kevin Kline. “I took an instant dislike to him,” LuPone recalled. “He looked like Pinocchio to me. He had skinny legs, and he was tall, and I didn’t really see the handsomeness.” That changed one day in art-appreciation class, when they sat together in the back and started “feeling each other up,” LuPone said. Their turbulent on-and-off relationship lasted seven years. “He was a Lothario,” she recalled. “It was a painful relationship. I was his girlfriend when he wanted me to be his girlfriend, but, if there was somebody else, he would break up with me and go out with that person. And I, for some reason, stuck it out—until I couldn’t stick it out anymore.” Kline remembered the relationship as “fraught.” “We fought all the time,” he told me. “In the company, we were known as the Strindbergs.”

Join the club!

[quote] Hell's Kitchen star Kecia Lewis is speaking out after fellow Broadway star Patti LuPone went viral online for calling the musical "too loud." On Saturday, Nov. 2, Lewis, 59, shared a lengthy video on her Instagram account addressed to LuPone, 75, asking for her to apologize for the comments she made to a fan in a since-deleted video (which was viewed by PEOPLE) about Hell's Kitchen's sound cues being too loud.[bold]In her open letter, Lewis called Lupone's comments "offensive," "racially microaggressive," "rude" and "rooted in privilege." [/bold]

Good Lord.

"racially microaggressive"??

"rooted in privilege"??

^^^^Instagram Cunt-playing her black card^^^^

Don't cross Patti, she's Sicilian.

Patti called the head of the Shubert organization about a noise complaint. You don't see that as using her privilege?

Sorry, she sings like a barking dog.

Bring Back Mary Martin...

Bring Back Birdie...

[quote] Patti called the head of the Shubert organization about a noise complaint. You don't see that as using her privilege?

I don't see what's wrong with it... nor would I had Audra McDonald called the same person over a noise complaint.

And I certainly don't see it as a "racial microaggression"--that's bullshit.

[quote]And I certainly don't see it as a "racial microaggression"--that's bullshit.

You don't see it as a racial microaggression, I don't see it as a racial microaggression, but she does, and she has a right to her feelings without being told she's wrong or the reason why Trump was elected. It's silly.

[quote] she has a right to her feelings without being told she's wrong

More bullshit.

Once she called it a racial microaggression she was asking for some pushback.

Why is she always so nasty? What an unhappy woman.

Patti LuPone has long built her brand on being Broadway’s no-nonsense, truth-telling, don’t-you-dare-use-your-phone--in-the-front-row diva. And listen, there’s a place for candor. There’s even a place for a little theatrical flair offstage. But in 2025, there’s also a line. And in her recent New Yorker profile that would make any publicist bang their head on their desk, Patti didn’t just cross that line. She gleefully stomped all over it.

NYTimes

^^^ correction from On Stage blog not he Times

r195

R97 that poster who said that Patti's husband got head from Sondheim after he insulted Patti about not being a national star was obviously joking.

She and G should star in “Whatever Happened to Bavy Jane” the musical.

With Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi as alternates.

I doubt anyone really cares what Patti LuPone says. They should just ignore her.

When she does these things, she makes a spectacle of herself. Everyone already knows what an egotist she is.

What does WSC stand for, in relation to Kline?

The only thing Patti said about Audra was, "She's not a frien-DAH!" Her silence in response to the question about Audra's Gypsy performance was hardly kind, but you can't quote what someone doesn't say.

I find all this pearl clutching over Patti's remarks rather comical, considering we all say much more horrible things about public figures here on a daily basis. Let a cunt be a cunt.

214

R164 No. I thought it was odd during lockdown when Patti was critical of the song Audra participated in for the Sondheim tribute- I realized then there must be some bad blood.

All the talent in the word, and she's just not a happy person. Such a bummer.

R177 you provided a smile in these sad LuPone days.

I remember when Jimmy Stewart visited Howard McGillian backstage at Anything Goes. It's said that Patti FUMED at not being the center of attention in the moment. The next day Lincoln Center instituted a new policy against such visits to the Viv Beaumont.

I knew a guy in the orchestra of Anything Goes. He said Patti had a pretty sizable coke habit, and would regularly flash them!

What a broad!

I think this time she really needs to some soul searching and apologize.

I have to assume Patti was doing coke during the Les Mouches days

You can always tell the people who’ve never known Italian-American women and clutch their pearls. Honey, this is how they talk. There’s no filter. It’s the same with Madonna. They’ll tell you exactly how they feel and will also be your best friend. They don’t do WASP culture.

[quote] I think this time she really needs to some soul searching and apologize.

Don’t hold your breath.

[quote]I find all this pearl clutching over Patti's remarks rather comical, considering we all say much more horrible things about public figures here on a daily basis

We're posting anonymously, she's a celebrity. Trying to suggest the two are comparable is moronic. On top of which, any DLer who cunted like she does but then acted thin-skinned when someone cunted back at them would not be tolerated

[quote] In her open letter, Lewis called Lupone's comments "offensive," "racially microaggressive," "rude" and "rooted in privilege."

THIS is the reason why people like Trump are elected into office.

Jesus. Everyone complains that the media is not authentic. Then Patti comes along, says what she wants unfiltered, and the boards are full of Patti hate. It doesn't matter that she is right. Fake, insincere kindness uber alles. This is why they win. No one says what they really think on the left. They say what will go over well and not get them in trouble. On the right they don't care WHAT Trump's message is; they care that he is unfiltered because they are sick of hearing it. "Oh, I just love everyone and want everyone to get a chance to play Rose." It's dehumanizing to be told you have to fake kindness all the time. Patti 2028.

Are you saying civility is overrated?

[quote] She’s an extraordinary talent, still. But a white woman shitting on not one but two of her black peers is never a good look.

Thank you for showing your stupid racist ass. You only see them as skin color.

R225, the ivory tower elite will never get it. You’re wasting your time.

[quote] Ugh I'm seeing the social media reaction. Very bad news.

Time for you to go out and touch some grass. Only the fringe are on social media.

[quote]Time for you to go out and touch some grass

Says the person who's posted six times in this thread in twenty minutes

Bitch!!!^^^^

We have to move past this flawed (and frankly racist) idea that you cannot criticize black people without it being racist.

I think she’s tremendous

[quote]If anything, she should be pissed at Barbra. It was Barbra's versions of the Sunset songs that were playing on the theater lines to get tickets to the Lupone show.

She was - read her memoir. She claimed Barbra did this to the premiere of 'CATS' , too, as she released the single in the UK before it hit the stage and did the same thing months later in the USA.

She also said (falsely) that Barbra recorded "Argentina" before it premiered on B'way and almost released it on her album. Not true at all - Barbra publicly said he hated the song and has never sung it.

r234 What song is "Argentina"? A New Argentina or What's New BA?

As a (former) performer I absolutely understand LuPone and agree with her completely. As a patron of the arts I also would be annoyed to have my concentration on the show I'm watching interrupted by sound bleeding from another show (even if I were inclined to watch both shows, each in turn).

And, I also understand that Lewis is speaking about a completely different issue all together. I see these comments as comparing apples and avocados--they are both fruits but so completely different that it actually hard to understand that there is any similarity at all--LuPone is speaking technically and Lewis is on guard (and/or aggrieved) against a social assault.

[quote] We have to move past this flawed (and frankly racist) idea that you cannot criticize black people without it being racist.

IN GENERAL what we need to do is somehow find a way to have empathy for the needs and positions of other people and address the root issues.

The Broadway community writ large is known for inclusion and so, while LuPone is known for her bluntness and candor, that in and of itself becomes a new and invasive threat to the community (which explains the overwhelming negative response to this interview that is swelling).

r236, 👋🏻

The sad thing is this will force her to basically retreat from everything. Broadway, concerts, interviews. If she'd just issue an apology and make some calls it could be ok.

I hate the idea that we've basically seen the last of her.

R234 she was for sure angry at ALW for allowing Barbra to release the songs before she did.

You're wrong about Don't Cry for Me Argentina. Barbra famously hated the song (and the entire concept of Evita.) I don't recall Patti mentioning anything like that in her book. And if she had, an editor/fact checker would've nixed it.

Patti's praise of Nicole's performance in Sunset Blvd. was a ploy to prevent Audra from winning another Tony. It reminds me of Joan Crawford's scheme to prevent Bette Davis from winning the Oscar for Baby Jane.

R240 there may be a element of that to it. But I've seen video of Patti watching the performance absolutely memorized. Imagine the brave sou who, a few seats away, dared to take out his phone to film her.

I think she genuinely loved the performance.

Great article...love her!

Great putdown of Ron Duguay. Good comeback from him. I too would love to see a naked hockey game. And she has a good take on football players in their tight spandex and dreadlocks.

Look, if Patti had said those things at a private party, or in a private conversation, you'd roll your eyes and walk away, but no big deal. Just sort of gross. But this was The New Yorker. She knew thousands would read these words. She was sending her ugliness far and wide, and it aimed at two esteemed Broadway colleagues, and that's just shitty. And it's just like Trump. They are narcissists who don't care, and love to create problems and controversy so they get even more attention. This "let Patti be Patti" crap is a vapid and stupid way of framing someone doing something unnecessary and nasty. In the final years of Stritch -- when there were no real actual stories to report -- she would continue to do interviews just to say mean things and the press would use this because the ugliness brought attention. (Remember when The Times went to Michigan to do a 'let's check in with Elaine' piece? ). This piece is particularly awful because Audra doesn't deserve this public treatment (no matter what her private beef is), and Kecia has serious Broadway creds and shouldn't be called a bitch in print for all of New York to read. I find it interesting that Mia Farrow and Jack O'Brien or anyone, really aren't jumping to her defense. Everyone thinks she is an awful person. By the end of "The Roommate" she and Farrow weren't speaking, and the producers had given up on her screeds.

She's certainly show business!

From show business to no business

It’s like she just can’t let other people have their moment.

Please, I’m sure Patti watched Nicole S. in Sunset and thought, “Damn. If only they’d let me stand there in a black slip all night back in the day, this role would still be mine!”

And she’d be right.

I don’t think Patti will retreat from this per se, but I do think she won’t do press for a while.

I chuckle that it is The New Yorker that brought this on. Notorious fact checkers they…she can hardly say she was misquoted.

It’s basically a transcript of her id.

Okay, R243, you argue well. Kecia Lewis is not in the same league as LuPone, and her accusations of LuPone being "racially microaggressive" and she was "rooted in privilege" was a more than a bit much.

The article portrays Patti LuPone as Margo Channing come to life. She's now a successful Broadway actress who is still consumed with self doubt. So, she assumes this nasty persona to guard her vulnerabilities. The raw, Italian American girl with the big nose from Northport lashes out at the prettier, Juilliard trained Audra MacDonald or the WASPy, more Hollywood successful Glenn Close.

The article also plays into sexist tropes...women no matter how successful will always only be jealous of other women's success. Barry Diller wrote some pretty snarky remarks about others in his memoir. He comes across as a tough cookie, overcoming failures. LuPone's a tough cookie, too, who's overcome failures. She just drops more F bombs than he does.

"Her third year, three 'advanced' students joined the class. One was Kevin Kline. 'I took an instant dislike to him'..."

Bitch, please. There wasn't a straight woman alive who took an "instant dislike" to Kevin Kline back in the day. And that was just the problem-- for you.

R250 pleeze!

Audra is from, of all the hells on earth, FRESNO.

Glenn was raised in a cult.

P.S. the “article” is almost all her own words—she chose to bash other women…don’t put that on the magazine.

Where were all these outraged people when she was trashing Glenn in the media all of these years? When Audra was palling around with Patti, did she give a thought to how Glenn felt being blamed for something she never did?

And I’m sure all of this sudden love for Kecia will no doubt lead to her getting a starring role in her own production for once, since she’s clearly a beloved veteran…..

Sure of it. Just wait……..

Thanks for that photo, r210. I had forgotten how handsome Kevin Kline was when he was young.

I also had forgotten how tall he was--I checked, and he was 6'2". (I'm sure he's less now that he's an old man.)

The only thing missing from this story is an anecdote of Patti asking someone for a fountain pen but insisting that it not be one of those lousy Ballpoints.

[quote]It reminds me of Joan Crawford's scheme to prevent Bette Davis from winning the Oscar for Baby Jane.

Miss Crawford wants me to remind you that she has nothing to do with this mess and to keep her name out of it.

Lewis appears to have something of a victim complex but then again so does LuPone, albeit drom a totally different place. Fascinating.

Sicilian women don't apologize. They nurse vendettas.

DL fave Donna Murphy commented on Paul’s instagram and was decidedly on Audra and Kecia’s side.

R260 I'm sure Patti hates her too for she always claimed Passion was intended for her.

She entered the "GET OFF MY LAWN!" phase years ago.

R259 She’s openly admitted she enjoys holding grudges. Considered them “fun”.

my favorite part of the New Yorker profile:

[quote] The press couldn’t get enough of Broadway’s breakout star mingling with New York’s home team, and rumors spread that LuPone was dating the Rangers’ curly-haired Adonis Ron Duguay. LuPone says they were just acquaintances. (She did date an Edmonton Oiler who broke her heart.) But she remembers berating Duguay when he went to “Evita” and spent part of the show flirting with his agent at the bar. He’s now dating Sarah Palin. “They’re perfect for each other,” LuPone told me. “They’re two of the stupidest human beings on the face of the earth.” Then she paused. “How do you say stupid without saying stupid? He’s a box of bricks.” (“Wow, that’s hurtful,” Duguay said, when I reached him by phone, adding, “I can’t imagine living my life being so hateful that way.”)

And as I posted above, r264, this from the man dating Sarah Palin.

Someone actually thinks that Trump would recognize Patti at the Kennedy Center? I don't think he ever will, after the clip below. He holds grudges even longer than Patti.

Ron Dugay has aged quite well. Patti, on the other hand ....

Will this lead to a campaign to “cancel” Patti? Not that she’d probably give a shit.

Patti was hot when she was younger. Her topless scene in Summer of Sam is quite something. You just wanted to suck on those tits.

The woman who loves to hold a grudge and you think she wouldn't care about being cancelled?

Matt's the lucky guy who gets to rub his face in Patti's luscious tits.

R269 I think the thread is dead now

[quote]r267 = Ron Dugay has aged quite well. Patti, on the other hand ....

...never dated Sarah Palin.

Or did she?🤔

Hi dolls, the one thing they’ll never cancel is dez titties. Ya burnt, Ziemba? HA!

We all know Trump's tastes are 100% shitty and stupid. For the next few years I assume people won't want to be "honored" by any organization controlled by him or his cult members.

We all know Trump's tastes are 100% shitty and stupid.

Look there—there’s Patti!

Posted without comment.

r277 thinks the White House needs more gold.

She’s no Jerry R279.

Why the hell was she hanging out with Dylan Mulvaney?

To gain make-up and hair tips, r281.

The microaggression mob are having a field day.

In addition to loving Evita and Les Miz, Trump is obsessed with the movie Sunset Blvd., so clearly he and Patti are drawn to the same material.

Given the troll that he is, I can imagine Trump 2.0's first line-up of Kennedy Center honorees being Patti, Bernadette, Madonna, Glenn, and Kevin Kline.

[R174], if you would not describe THAT interaction as cunty, the mind boggles as to what sort of interaction you WOULD describe that way.

He will rename it as the Andrew Lloyd Webber Center.

[quote]We all know Trump's tastes are 100% shitty and stupid.

Which he shares with 99.9% of Americans.

Jezebel?!

[quote]We're posting anonymously, she's a celebrity. Trying to suggest the two are comparable is moronic.

And suggesting that they are not is hypocritical. We're all taking great delight in this whole situation. Don't blame Patti if you can't own your own negativity.

Patti's specialty is macro-aggressions.

[quote] The microaggression mob are having a field day.

Which might be terrifying for Patti if this were still 2017.

But it's not. No one takes that term seriously anymore, not even where I work (in higher education).

LOL r190

^^^ Oops, meant r290

It works on both replies….so you know.

Has either Kecia or Audra commented at all?

…each defers to Susan Dey

If she attacked two white women in the article, would there be the same reaction? Most of the comments I see online are mostly about “Disrespectin’ Black Excellence!!!”

I wish Patti could be a kindly elder stateswoman of the theater like Helen Hayes. Instead she's Helen Lawson.

She literally (and inevitably) calls Glenn Close a bitch in the article, too, R297.

Some random (presumably white) opera singers catch strays just for being fat! 😂

Patti and Kecia should do a duet of “Hit Me” from “Death Becomes Her”

R300 or “Ebony and Ivory”

R297 funny, eh. Sometimes the truth hurts.

When the Kecia Lewis vs. Patti LuPone incident happened, I was flabbergasted that, in the days and weeks following, Patti made no comment on what Lewis's rash charge of racism. At that point, of course, Patti had mouthed off about countless aggressions and perceived aggressions against her. So I guessed that her advisers -- if such people still exist -- and probably also the producers of THE ROOMMATE had begged her not to respond, because they knew whatever she might say would be VERY strong. And indeed, now that the response has finally come, it has turned out to be very much as I had imagined it.

This microagression nonsense was a red flag to me the first time I heard about it. No one has time to deal with this bullshit and constantly having the feeling like they're at a never-ending DEI sensitivity training. People just want to live and work in peace, not walk on eggshells all the time.

“ as I had imagined it...”

And, there you go!

I would never want to know Patti Lupone personally but her cuntitude is hilarious, from afar.

R304 There’s no going back, I’m afraid. I’m not really sure which is worse or more detrimental: accusing someone of bad intentions over perceived slights and putting it out there for all to see, KNOWING that said person will never be able to push back or dispute “your truth”, or Patti’s visceral (and understandable tbh) reaction to that. As much as a cunt Patti is, I’m gonna say the former.

With Patti, it’s ALL detrimental.

Actually, the more that I think about it, I understand Patti’s “Audra should have known better”, and “she’s not a friend” comments. If Audra were Patti’s friend, wouldn’t she have replied to Kecia saying “I know you were upset, but Patti is my friend and I’ve known her for years, and I can confirm she’s NOT racist”., instead of applauding Kecia’s rash statement? So I can see where Patti was coming from.

R309 you will, unfortunately, not win a Nobel Prize this year. So sorry …

On the Merv Griffen Show 1980- she was almost kind of pretty back then. Also on the show Stockard Channing and Ethel Merman.

[quote]she was almost kind of pretty back then

Not "almost", r311, she *was* pretty.

Scott Rudin has reached out, so I heard from a friend inside Patti’s camp. He wants her to get mad & get even by signing for his latest:

KAREN! The Musical

Audra needs to beat her old white ass.

She's a type. A Long Island type. A lot of showbiz ladies grew up within a five-mile radius and they all have similarities -- they can be, um, brash: Mariah Carey, Pat Benatar, Rosie O'Donnell, Joan Jett and Edie Falco come to mind. Both my folks taught in that school where her father was the principal. They called him the Little Dictator. Don't think the apple fell far from that tree, but I love Patti because she was nice to me once, a skinny, gay kid with pimples and low self-esteem.

R266, everybody in Trump’s cabinet has a clip like that.

When Audra accepts her Tony she should say, “SUCK IT, PATTI!”

Are we sure Audra is going to beat Nicole?

R315. Lawnguyland vs. San Joaquin Valley? Oy!

At this point, I’m hoping Nicole will win. Maybe she’ll fall ill the day of the Tony’s and Patti will accept in her honor.

r318. yes.

Which got better reviews — SB or Gypsy?

Latter.

It doesn't matter, r322, in both cashes the lead actress is the sole reason for their productions.

^cases

But only Audra will get a 7th Tony

Inevitably, the New York times has picked up on this.

Patti LuPone and Audra McDonald are two of the biggest Broadway stars of recent decades. So when LuPone pointedly referred to McDonald as “not a friend” in a new interview with The New Yorker, it caused quite a stir.

LuPone made the comment when she was asked about some supportive emojis McDonald added last November to a social media post by another Broadway star, Kecia Lewis. Lewis had accused LuPone of being “racially microaggressive” after she objected to the sound levels at her Broadway show.

Here’s what we know. It began with a Broadway noise dispute.

When LuPone was on Broadway last year, starring with Mia Farrow in a play called “The Roommate,” she grew concerned about sounds audible from the Alicia Keys musical playing next door, “Hell’s Kitchen.” Noise is a frequent phenomenon on Broadway, and is especially noticeable at plays, where the sound levels tend to be lower than at musicals. LuPone said that she asked for help from the Shubert Organization, which operates the theaters, and that it was taken care of.

Kecia Lewis, who won a Tony Award for playing a piano teacher in “Hell’s Kitchen,” posted an Instagram video in November criticizing LuPone’s actions. In what she called an “open letter” about LuPone’s complaints about the musical’s noise levels, she said, “These actions, in my opinion, are bullying, they’re offensive, they are racially microaggressive, they’re rude, they’re rooted in privilege.”

She added: “Referring to a predominantly Black Broadway show as loud can unintentionally reinforce harmful stereotypes.”

What does that have to do with McDonald?

McDonald, a founding member of Black Theater United, a coalition formed to combat racism in the theater world, added supportive emojis to Lewis’s Instagram post. While comments on the post appear to have been removed, People magazine reported at the time that McDonald “simply commented with a series of emojis, writing: ‘❤️❤️👏🏾👏🏾’. ”

Are these comments out of character for LuPone?

Not really. She’s famous for her cutting remarks, which some view as refreshing candor, and others view as rude.

McDonald has a different public persona — steely, careful, diplomatic.

Both women are much-honored performers. McDonald, with six Tony Awards, has won more competitive Tony Awards than any other performer in Broadway history. She is a Tony nominee again this year for “Gypsy.” LuPone has won three Tony Awards. (cont.)

(cont.) How are people reacting to LuPone’s comments?

Not well. Multiple performers posted comments on social media expressing solidarity with Lewis and McDonald. The Tony winner Alex Newell posted, “To me what it all boils down to is the erasure of legacy,” and asking, “Y’all don’t think calling a fellow actress a bitch in major print isn’t like, crazy?” And the Tony winner Adrienne Warren expressed support for Lewis and McDonald, posting, “So many of us wouldn’t have dared to try if it weren’t for you.”

[quote]You're wrong about Don't Cry for Me Argentina. Barbra famously hated the song (and the entire concept of Evita.) I don't recall Patti mentioning anything like that in her book. And if she had, an editor/fact checker would've nixed it.

Cool your tits and read my post again, or for the first time. I said "She also said (falsely) that Barbra recorded "Argentina" before it premiered on B'way and almost released it on her album. Not true at all - Barbra publicly said he hated the song and has never sung it."

Yes, she most certainly did say this in her memoir - and Streisand fans went crazy trying to find the 'vaulted recording' of DCFMA Lupone insisted she recorded before Lupone recorded the cast album. There were so many discussions about this on Streisand forums, theater forums, ALW forums - you name it. Ardent fans and Streisand 'spokespeople' assured everyone there was no truth to what Lupone had written - Streisand hated the song, didn't like the musical, and never recorded anything from it. To this day, nothing has been discovered in 'her vaults'.

For her memoir, Lupone didn't have to have any fact-checkers (you don't have to have them when publishing a memoir, but you do have to have when publishing an autobiography - and there's a huge difference between the two). Lupone wrote 'what she remembered' - facts be damned !

Patti will never fully come back from this.

I should add, those who really wanted to believe a recording did exist made the connection that Streisand would've recorded this in the summer of 1979, when she was recording her 'Wet' album, and a ttle with 'tears in it would have fit on the album (so they believe 'it makes sense'). They've been hoping for a remastered / expanded release of the 'Wet' album since Lupone's memoir was released. in hopes that the non-existant SCFMA recording will be included.

Can you imagine being Patti's agent or manager?

They must have an ulcer the size of your fist.

And, what about her family?

Does her son call her up and say, "Ma...you gotta stop screwing the pooch with these interviews..."

r331 Is that really the best angle he could find?

She'll never get that Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover now.

How do you think Patti is reacting to this chaos. I picture her team freaking out while she remains alternately unbothered and defiant.

This article is tame. Y’all are too damn soft.

What chaos, r336?

Nicole can’t even sing. She’s a MAGA trash fairground stripper.

I don't think her team is freaked out. She'll face no repercussions. She dramatically quit Equity and then did an Equity play with Mia Farrow.

r336 Adding Michael Schulman to her list of enemies

Americans don’t care about Broadway.

I bet back in the day Patti would light candles in her boudoir and settle down to her cherished VHS tape of Slapshot And when Michael Ontkean skated onto the ice rink wearing nothing but a jockstrap she flicked her clit to such a frenzy that when she came she let out a cry louder than a fishwife in Canarsie’s. Who, of course, is all she has ever been suitable casting for.

Oh my aching sides r343!

[quote] Patti will never fully come back from this.

Madonna never came back either. She’s a sad legacy act like Janet.

[quote] The Tony winner Alex Newell posted, “To me what it all boils down to is the erasure of legacy,” and asking, “Y’all don’t think calling a fellow actress a bitch in major print isn’t like, crazy?”

Fuck, what a pearl clutcher! No, sorry, the rest of the world is not traumatized by Patti LuPone being her bitch self and calling out other bitches for being bitches. Nobody is going to pass out on the fainting couch just because somebody you like is called a bitch.

Newell’s a they/them, what else did you expect?

Alex fatass Newell is another one who needs to be sectioned.

The big mistake Patti made was to say of Kecia Lewis, "Don’t call yourself a vet, bitch" to the writer. Now, it's almost certain the writer was gay and Patti was queening it up with him, because she loves gay men being naughty (just watch her interact with Andy Cohen in her appearances on "WWHL"), and so she almost certainly meant "bitch" in the informal gay slang sense (e.g. Rodiney Sanitago saying "Bitch please!" on reality television). It wasn't the same as angrily saying of Lewis, "She's a bitch!" But even so, Patti should know to be more professional in an interview, and so this is what she's really going to be attacked for: you just can't talk that way, even lightly, about other women in an interview. This is what she was stupid to have said.

The other things she's getting attacked for are in contrast ludicrous of the attackers. To suggest Lupone has to be respectful towards Audra McDonald's performance is ridiculous: she did not actually bad-mouth it but kept silent, and even if that silence spoke volumes, no one is ever required to like a performance if they don't like it. And Lewis's performative outrage in the letter that Lupone's comments were "racially microaggressive" and "rooted in privilege" just does not play well in this current political climate.

So I'm kind of curious to see what happens. If this stays within the theater community, it will be hard on Patti, but if this blows up more, then the Trumpian electorate fed up with DEI will become outraged much, much more at Kecia Lewis's comments and also at the theater world for the backlash against Lupone.

Now all that being said, she was generally pretty stupid in the whole interview. If she wanted to snark (via silence) over how someone played the part of Evita after her, i think most people would give her that right, since she owns the role. But Patti does not own the role of Momma Rose: she was not the first to portray it, nor is she almost anyone's choice as the greatest Momma Rose of all time (that would be Merman, Lansbury, or Tyne Daly). And she was undoubtedly trying to be funny when calling the pedestrians in the park "losers" for walking by themselves, but that just comes across as idiotically mean when you're an adult--it's middle-school mean-girl humor.

I don't think she's going to repent of what she said, but people will think less of her for this interview. But if the theater world keeps playing this up as a source of outage, I predict backlash against the backlash.

It seems you have to catch her when she’s really tired for her to give a “mellow” interview. She was interviewed for a podcast about “Sunset Boulevard” a few years ago and was far more measured on the subject than she usually is. She sounded more sad and reflective than angry.

“Y’all don’t think calling a fellow actress a bitch in major print isn’t like crazy?”

Yes. Patti is crazy. A crazy, thin-skinned gorgon with a victim complex the size of Long Island. The woman feels personally persecuted by the realities of pedestrian traffic. She blamed the occult powers of the twin cities of Minneapolis-Saint Paul for her badly received Rosalind in As You Like It. I believe the phrase is “sis, we been knew.”

She’s also an undeniable star and a fucking riot from 150 feet away.

And as a big Audra McDonald fan, it’d only make me adore her more if she was cunty enough to have dunked on Patti a few times!

I think she's tremendous.

For Audra and Will —and Gypsy

Patti can flick her bean for her brother or gay Kevin

She's been far worse to Glenn then she has to either Audra or Kecia. She called Glenn a bitch as well in this interview, and nobody seems to care. And she's basically accused Glenn of trying to destroy her career, which is pretty awful accusations to make.

I'm not surprised at Patti, but this whole thing makes me think a little less of Audra, and Donna Murphy. Both of whom have been around for decades and are well aware of Patti's shit. Where have their mouths been when Patti was going off on other actresses or more importantly, supporting players and theater staff? Audra was too busy singing with Patti and starring in shows with her to notice?

[quote] She's been far worse to Glenn then she has to either Audra or Kecia. She called Glenn a bitch as well in this interview, and nobody seems to care.

Maybe if they could only remember who Glenn was...

Yea— that’s logical: disdain for the Broadway stars who DID NOT bitch.

WTF R355

Why do posters like r347 create strawmen to argue with rather than actually argue what was said? Newell said it was crazy that LuPone called Lewis a bitch. Nothing about traumatising, or it causing people to faint.

CBS suits are getting very excited about these bitches being locked in the Big Brother house for a very special Broadway Big Brother edition. But who else to get in there along with Patti, Kecia, Glenn and Audra?

But first….

It's worse than Gaza and Ukraine combined.

R358 next time use a z and not an s.

Do better.

Nicole will most likely win the Tony anyway. Audra already holds the record for most Tonys. And no one is going to be beating that anytime soon. Plus, Gypsy has been done umpteen times already. Does Audra add anything that new to the shoe?

Nicole, on the other hand, is a bright new star with a promising future on Broadway. The theater is in desperate need of them. And it will bring more attention to a show that many have agreed is quite good.

R330 Patti did NOT claim that Barbra recorded Don't Cry For Me Argentina.

Sorry. NEVER happened.

I agree that it was inappropriate for Patti to call Ms. Lewis a bitch.

Because what Lewis is is a racist cunt of the ilk of proud stage women with their hateful, confused brains of coloratura who think that being loud and proud makes them better than their shitty lowness.

Cunt.

[quote]Does Audra add anything that new to the shoe?

Oh, [italic]hon...[/italic]

[quote] She's been far worse to Glenn then she has to either Audra

Oh, dear.

America doesn’t do Tony Awards or Broadway or any of that lame outdated bullshit. That industry is hanging on by a thread. No one cares about any of this except some ancient homosexuals or woke hags looking to complain. LuPone is known while these others are nobody to the general public.

R364 What a lack of self-awareness. You're not even worth the energy your mother should have used to swallow.

R350, get a fucking blog. Jesus.

I am dying at Shoshana Bean’s Instagram story in which she weighs in by proclaiming that “Black women’s mere existence should be honored and revered as a miracle” 😂

Even the Reddit kids are like “too much, lady!”

By the way, I’m sure Black women everywhere would happily accept Shoshana Bean no longer releasing corny R&B albums as a good first step in thanking them for their miraculous existence.

"brains of coloratura"???

Shoshana Bean is taking Ellen Pompeo's crown for most insufferable, performative white woman

[quote] Because what Lewis is is a racist cunt of the ilk of proud stage women with their hateful, confused brains of coloratura who think that being loud and proud makes them better than their shitty lowness.

Can someone please decipher this drivel for me?

[quote] Newell said it was crazy that LuPone called Lewis a bitch.

And that was moronic, pearl clutching, fainting couch horseshit. Oh, and MARY! to the point of being crazy.

Cole Escola liked Paul’s post.

Matt Doyle as well.

So it seems like the young gays who know Patti well…have turned also.

Who is Paul?

R376 he’s the editor and host of Broadway.com

elaine stritch bestie hunter ryan herdlicka is also now over pattilu

[quote] Who is Paul?

Someone you're not supposed to marry today.

Patti is an ally a thousand times over than Kecia Lewis. Patti is not afraid to call out fake racist accusations and step up and defend anyone subject to racism. Standing with Patti is not hard at all.

Patti would have marched at Selma… if only there hadn’t been so many pedestrians. Some of us have to get to work! Get out of the street!

They should have Kecia and Audra present together at the Tonys and pretend neither know why they're paired together.

[quote]If I was her publicist, I would book her on The View or something quickly to do damage control.

Yes, that's a splendid idea - let Sunny and Whoopi teach her about racism and microagression, and white divas coming from a place of privilege. What could possibly go wrong on live TV ?

Though I wouldn't mind seeing Sunny swallow her chin should Patti defend herself with :

"If Melba Moore and Phylicia Rashad were starring in 'The Roomate', and Rashad did exactly what I did about the volume coming from next door, do you think Miss Lewis would complain about it on social media ?"

R378 I love that he posted we should be over Patti LuPone “long ago” and yet his best friend forever Elaine Stritch was far meaner to everyone, drunk or not.

I'm feeling triggered. I hope I'm able to suppress these urges until November.

This whole thing was inevitable. When she was called out for being homophobic for telling Miss Lindz to come out of the closet, she simply left Twitter.

Of course she's not racist. But she should be smart enough to know that calling a black production "loud" was a landmine that she was lucky to survive the first time. For her to BRING IT BACK and exacerbate the situation is a major unforced error.

I think she's pretty much done for, the sad part is that all of this will be a big part of her obituary when she leaves us.

I still think she's the most electric performer I've been seen on a Broadway stage.

The whole thing is an unforced error. Why the New Yorker profile anyway? She’s not in anything to promote except a guest spot on And Just Like That.

I think she could have survived saying her friendship with Audra ended. She couldn’t survive black twitter, calling Kecia a bitch who’s not a veteran.

From 2007-2022, she was pretty much the reigning queen of Broadway. Now she’s Roseanne Barr

I think she'll be fine. The country is in a different mood these days, not eager to descend into hysterics about "microagressions" and nonsense for the hell of it. We're actually worried about impending fascism and other real issues. This will pass quickly as very mild tempest in a very small teacup.

She never played Electra—not good enough

R388 but her "community" is smaller than America and still very much in cancel mode.

Oh God, it's all such a drag. I fucking LOVE Patti. When I tell you what I've gone through to see her over the years... oy.

R362, Nicole us a Trumper who proudly votes against you.

Patti is probably either drunk or night right now. Or both.

She’d be three sheets to the fucking wind, R392, if only anyone in this goddamn city served sherry anymore!

[quote]But she should be smart enough to know that calling a black production "loud" was a landmine that she was lucky to survive the first time.

What an incredibly stupid statement. HELL'S KITCHEN is overamplified because it's overamplified, not because it's a "black production." LOTS of Broadway musicals these days are way overamplified. As I said when this whole conflict first came up, does anyone honestly think Patti would not have complained about the sound bleed if her show had been playing next door to THE WHO'S TOMMY, which was not a "black production" by any stretch of the imagination?

Team LuPone all the way!

If “well, we cancelled Patti LuPone” is the main thing that the American theatre community can point to in terms of what they did in the face of all the shit that is going down right, all I can say is that Todd Chrisley will be the 2026 Tony Awards host that they deserve.

R394 hey dummy. I specifically said Patti wasn't racist. But, particularly after the actress made her first public statement, it was foolhardy for Patti not to just leave it alone. All of this is 100% true

So, R397, you acknowledge that Patti is not racist, yet you think she should have simply "left alone" a completely unfair charge of racism? What kind of world would that lead to?

[quote]I'm not surprised at Patti, but this whole thing makes me think a little less of Audra

Audra has done nothing except append a few emojis to a social media post. She has not made a comment and probably won't make one, but will likely save Patti's ass by handling it professionally. Patti has every right to not like Audra's performance, but this comes across like Cruella attacking Bambi. If she had kept this about Kecia, this story would have died a quiet death. Kecia was clout chasing, and Patti fell into the trap.

r381, hats off. I literally laughed out loud.

I don't think Patti had many illusions she was going back to work on Broadway anyway. If she goes back to work again, it would be in a concert format, and I don't think the sort of B&T crowds that have flocked to see her in the past care much about what Cole Escola and Paul at Broadway World have to tweet (much less Shoshana Bean!).

Nor can I imagine her concerts would be picketed. What would the picket signs even look like?: "How Dare Patti Remain Silent in the Face of Audra's Undeniable Talent!" "Patti's Actions are Rooted in Privilege!"

Patti's producing and writing friends in LA like Ryan Murphy are unlikely to abandon her because of this bizarre sudden flurry of Broadway wokeness.