THEATRE GOSSIP #591: The Patti vs. Audra Edition

The previous thread, which ended without so much as a "BAJOUR!"

I am so glad not to see that picture of Audra that was at the top of the last thread.

I am absolutely positive she is wonderful in the role, but the picture is not.

R1 the sign of a juicy thread ;)

*2* GIRLS *2*

What’s weird is they did:

Sweeney Todd

Passion

Sunday In the Park With George

Anyone Can Whistle

Mahogany

And dozens of concerts together

And now they are sworn enemies!

What happened???

The Cuntess with the Mostes'

I hope Patti presents Best Actress in a Musical on June 8th.

Mahagonny!

r5 With Patti does anything have to have happened? She seems the type to wake up in a mood and decide random people are now her mortal enemies. If there was any real basis to it she would've told everyone already.

[quote]The previous thread, which ended without so much as a "BAJOUR!"

Here, r1.

If you can't end a thread with Bajour, it seems only right to begin a thread with Bajour.

Your welcome, r12.

^ You're

The outrage over Patti's "frank" remarks on here is amusing since she sounds EXACTLY like EVERY thread on here.

She is the Empress Goddess of DataLounge!!!

This thread will never get going while the Patti LuPone drags EVERYTHING..... thread is still active.

That thread will be a DL classic for the ages.

Is the "outrage" in the room with us now?

If I see one more fucking Just in Time ad on Youtube...

I'm seeing tons of ads for the Stranger Things play.

It looks fun!

As anyone on here actually seen it?

That's the weird thing about the theater threads...not much actual talk about individual shows and how they were. Unless it's Gypsy or Follies or Dolly or some dumb "controversy".

[quote]That thread will be a DL classic for the ages.

How, r16? It's just the same ol' ragging on Patti. It's Patti. Where's the novelty?

I’m going to see Floyd Collins on Saturday. We will dine first at The Leopard at des Artistes. It could be a spendthrift’s bacchanal. But I am on Ozempic, so it’ll be a glass of wine and 2 appetizers.

That’s your idea of fine dining?! Good luck.

R22, I’d prefer McDonalds actually.

Floyd Collins is two hours and 35 minutes including an intermission? Fuck that.

Audra was excellent in that production of Mahagonny. Sexy as hell.

She was certainly statuesque, r25.

La Stratas

Speaking of Stratas, does anyone remember the Live from the Met presentation of Lulu (no, not that Lulu) where Stratas was taken ill and Julia Migenes subbed for her with very little rehearsal. Julia was fabulous and my little gay heart was positively fluttering.

Mary Beth Peil dishes Patti LuPone (WOMEN ON THE VERGE)

From the interview collection HERE'S TO THE LADIES (whose predecessor volume found Patti LuPone calling Sherie René Scott "a travesty of a leading lady"):

-- Danny Burstein was outside. I could hear Patti singing some of Sherie René Scott's music. I said, “What happened?” Danny looked at me and said, “Patti had some ideas.”

-- I remember just sort of watching how both Yazbek and Bart — it's not that she was dictating things or telling them what to do, but they were checking with her, sometimes in obvious ways, sometimes in more passive-aggressive ways.

-- [Sherie] never felt listened to or heard from early on.

-- And then, little by little, we all start to feel not heard.

-- Bart knows that I do hold him accountable. For the mood in the room, for allowing that rift between Patti and Sherie to happen . . . He saw it happen, he watched it happen, and Sherie was the most vulnerable one.

-- I learned to love Sherie. I tried to love Patti. I would watch her sit with some of the kids in the wings when Sherie was onstage and she would be saying not good things about Sherie’s performance . . . It was like she was enlisting the kids to agree with her. I didn’t ever get to know Patti and kind of stayed out of her way.

-- The production would always have been in trouble, but with Patti’s support, and had Sherie been supported by the director, she would have soared, I have no doubt.

[quote] There was a Mahogany musical? With Audra? AND Patti??

Mahagonny is an opera.

Didn't Migenes do the Rags recording?

[QUOTE] Me and my husband saw the premiere of this play at Shadowlands Ensemble a few summers ago (we have a summer place nearby and subscribe)

Oh, dear. Is there a Summer Adult Learning Center nearby as well?

Audra is on the cover of the new issue of Time. Unlike Patti, she looks good in her photo

I wonder if the "Art" revival will have an intermission to facilitate more booze sales and a snack time for Corden..

r9=Rose Nylund

Funny - I always wondered whatever happened to the proposed Broadway musical 'Mahogany' (based on the 1975 Diana Ross film) which Lionel Richie was going to 'exec produce' (meaning 'finance' and write most of the new music) and his adopted daughter Nicole was to star in and design her own costumes. It sounded like a big push to make her a Broadway star.

It was bounced around 15+ years ago, and then.....nothing. Maybe they all realized that an actress who looked like she had a light suntan wouldn't be taken seriously as a dark-skinned character named 'Mahogany' ? (Though the movie could very well be easily turned into a B'way musical).

Berry Gordy was a fool for firing Tony Richardson and directing Mahogany himself. It would have been a much better movie.

R37 I'll admit - it was tough to sit through when I finally watched it in the 80s on HBO.

And the soundtrack would have been so much better if they included all the songs originally written for the movie by Micahel Masser and recorded by Ross, instead of replacing them with 'instrumental' music. (Most of the songs ended up on her 1976 album and her 'To Love Again' album in 1981). Originally, the ballad 'To Love Again' was written as the 'love theme' to the movie, and to be released as the single. Then Gordy came across 'Do You Know Where You're Going To ?' (already recorded and released in 1973 by Thelma Houston). He thought that would be a better song for the movie, so he had Ross record that. (He had to fight with the Academy - and probably pay a few people off- for them to include it as a qualified nominee at the 48th Academy Awards for 'Best Original Song' since it was already 2 years old, already recorded and released, and was not original / written for the movie. Don't know how Gordy did it - but he somehow did.

About ten years ago, Hip-O Select was supposed to have re-mastered the original album and re-release it in its 'expanded' edition, complete with all the Masser songs included. Then Masser passed away unexpectedly, and they had trouble settling with his estate (so it was said on a Motown message board). Nothing has been done with it since (and I don't believe the soundtrack was ever released on CD here in the US).

Can you imagine being Audra and Kecia tonight?

Audra, Kecia and Patty circa 1977

Young Bill Boggs was so damn cute!

I wanted Bill to sing “Younger Than Springtime” to Mary, Lillian & Helen.

Patti is over...

Such a class act, our Patti.

I wondered what was going to happen with The Astor Place Theater...

The Astor Place Theater should have sufficient seating for a Janet Jackson concert.

Cumming soon to Asstor Place Theater: DAWSON’S 50 LOAD WEEKEND, THE MUSICAL!

I never thought commercial off-Broadway theatre would make a comeback but glad to see it seems to be happening now.

If only we could return to off-Broadway prices.

It only works because actors like John Krazinski don't really need the money, so they'll work for "pennies" compared to Hollywood money, but only for a limited time. I don't see the days returning to long-running off-Broadway plays.

But why must off-Broadway plays run endlessly? I'd rather see more great new plays produced that can make a decent profit and move on to the next great new play. Some may need stars to sell them but some won't.

I think Broadway would be in a better state if there somehow was limit imposed on how long a show could run. The same show clogging up a valuable Broadway theater for 10+ years is not a healthy state of business or art.

And to add to my comment:

Of course, not every new play off-Broadway will be a hit. But I'd rather see more produced. I can remember the old days in the late 70s/early 80s when off-Broadway companies like MTC, Playwrights Horizons, The Public and the WPA (RIP) would each produce as many as 10 shows each season. Some were bombs and some were successes. But it gave so many more artists, young and old, a place to be seen and heard, even if only for a few months.

And Circle Rep!

I know that costs have gone way up, but the companies R52 mentions do so many far fewer productions each season, yet the pay to their executives are extremely higher proportionately then "back in the day" and rarely seem to take much of a hit. The non-profit-industrial-complex needs to be ripped apart (like so much else in this fucking country).

Of all people they chose Montego Glover?

Tonya Pinkins

Patina Miller

Heather Headley

La Chanze

Sharon D. Clarke

Hell, even Queen Latifah for one week!

On another pressing topic: was it a SCANDAL when Nancy Dussault was nominated for a Tony for beloved flop Bajour, but her higher-billed co-star Chita Rivera was not?

Lillias White circa her Tony win for The Life would have been perfect for Rose in Gypsy.

Montego Glover will star as “Rose” in Gypsy for 8 performances from Monday, June 30 through Sunday, July 6, 2025 while Audra McDonald is on vacation.

r55: How do you know they didn't offer Rose to all of those other actresses and they each passed?

We can't always get what we want.

To really piss off LuPone, they really should have gotten Kecia Lewis

R54 and that is the reason why I stopped giving money to BAM, MET, Playwrights and so many cultural organizations. Once you see what the board makes, you realize that it is ridiculous. I know that they work hard but their salaries are completely out of synch with the rest of the world.

The board doesn’t make money, dimwit. It is the senior artistic person and the senior admin who rake in the cash.

Exactly, the board is raising the money to pay these ridiculous salaries AND continue to allow it.

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

RIP Taina.

[quote]Oh, dear. Is there a Summer Adult Learning Center nearby as well?

I deserve this cunty response. I posted under the influence of a bright Pinot Grigio and didn't check for grammar and spelling, fully aware the DL does not have an edit feature.

My karma for being exactly the sort of cunt you seem to be.

I'll look around for an adult learning center that caters to or tolerates the needs of Cunts

[quote]I'll look around for an adult learning center that caters to or tolerates the needs of Cunts

oh. dear. "caters too"

I really do need that adult learning center

Nine

I've been seeing a shit ton of YouTube ads lately for MJ.

Over the years, I've developed a strong antipathy towards Patti LuPone for her rampant ego, selfishness, and constant raging over one thing or another, not to mention her public trashing of SO MANY people she has worked with and her insistence on portraying herself as a victim, no matter what the situation. BUT I will say that I'm partly in her corner regarding the Kecia Lewis affair, only because Lewis's charge that racism was somehow involved in Patti's complaints over the sound bleed from HELL'S KITCHEN was so rash and outrageous and totally unfounded.

R63 the board is simply a rubber stamp.

Patti thinks she’s Bette Davis.

Not exactly…

I always get Taina Elg mixed up with Big Tiny Little.

You would, r73.

I always got her mixed up with Tiny Tim

And with Tiny Meat

I’m completely on the side of anyone accused of “micro aggressions.”

The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny is a satirical Brecht-Weill show about an American Gold Rush town where the only crime is being poor.

No grosses yet?

[quote]I’m completely on the side of anyone accused of “micro aggressions.”

really. what ever happened to "sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me" Anyway, the term "passive aggressive" has been around for decades and i'ts perfectly serviceable to describe any hidden form of aggression.. Just call it out or let it go, but attributing motivation of racial bias to every moment in which you feel uncomfortable isn't helping anyone AND it's frequently white folks who are yapping about micro aggressions anwyay.

Not saying that there aren't institutional biases that should be addressed but if you attached an accusation of racial or gender bias to every instance where you do not get your own way, you are leveraging power and claiming privilege.

Deal with behavior and leave motivation out of it. otherwise, toughen up princess!

R79 you don’t say—

[quote]Not saying that there aren't institutional biases that should be addressed but if you attached an accusation of racial or gender bias to every instance where you do not get your own way, you are leveraging power and claiming privilege.

And also, of course, there's the "boy who cried wolf" effect.

Taina Elg, 95, died about seven months after her "Les Girls" co-star Mitzi Gaynor, who was 93.

[quote](Tuesday, May 27, 2025) Tony Award nominee Montego Glover (Memphis, Into the Woods) will star as "Rose" in six-time Tony Award winner George C. Wolfe's critically acclaimed production of GYPSY, which is currently nominated for five Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Musical. Montego Glover will play 8 performances from Monday, June 30 through Sunday, July 6, 2025, at the Majestic Theatre (245 West 44th Street) while Audra McDonald is on vacation.

Hopefully Sir Ian doesn't fall off the stage again

If Audra doesn't win the Tony, I wonder if she'll return to the role when her vacation is over ?

Don't you all think that Audra has suddenly become the fave to win that Tony now?

No, R87, because she keeps missing performances. My first guess for the winner is Jasmine Amy Rogers, my second guess is Nicole Scherzinger.

Still appreciating Patti for saying she hates that mother fucker (Trump)

[88] That was rude.

I'm so curious about the origin story behind the Patti vs. Audra feud. Though, given that it's Patti, Audra may have had no idea they were even feuding. It's easy to get a laugh out of Patti's endlessly catty comments (and, I frequently do!), but... the cumulative effect of that LONG New Yorker profile is actually kind of exhausting and sad. Is there ANYONE she doesn't have a grievance with?

Patti is unquestionably one of the biggest Broadway stars of all time and beloved by so many, but she... has some kind of inferiority complex and, seemingly, a complete lack of self-awareness. She said she was done with Broadway. Well, whether or not she was crying wolf, I fear that article may have solidified the end of her career in NY. Good thing she keeps getting all those film and TV gigs.

I'm just gonna admit I'm insanely jealous of Paul Wontorek's hair. I'm a decade younger than him and I wish I still had hair that thick and lush. I guess the face makes up for it.

Amazing what 'Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific' shampoo will do

But what does Patti think about Paul's hair?

Not a Patti fan but she and Christine were great in War Paint. How they came up with those performances in one of those so bad musicals with anyone else you would have gone postal is amazing.

r95: I've always loved Patti's line "It is dangerous to wound the enemy. The blow must be FATAL!"

It sounds like it was cribbed from Maria Montez in COBRA WOMAN.

The next project in the Ryan Murphy's "Feud" series: "Feud: Patti vs. Audra". There will be guest appearances by ALW and Glenn Close.

Then again, that may be too limiting...it's gotta be "Feud: Patti Lupone vs. Broadway". Or "Patti Lupone vs. the rest of the World."

We don't know her.

It's too bad SNL is done for the season because Patti would have made a fabulous guest host and might have found a way through the monologue and sketches to apologize or kid herself enough to bring in some much needed sympathy. Haven't other troubled celebs done that in the past?

Oh wait, she's nowhere near famous enough to host SNL. Never mind.

Sure, Jan.

That would have been the lowest of low-rated shows.

Chess is official with Lea Michele and Aaron Tveit

Wayman is jerking off as we speak....

I like the Mountain Duet from Chess.

They’d do well to do incredible stagings of the songs and not focus too much time on the book or trying to make sense of it.

Chess has defied such directors as Michael Bennett, Trevor Nunn, and Des McAnuff. Who really thinks Michael Mayer is the one to solve its issues?

Kenny Leon declined.

I wouldn’t try to resolve any issues with Chess. Just stage the fuck out of it like Harold Prince did with Evita.

Julie Benko IS Thursday night Florence. You know Lea will not sing 8 shows a week.

^ the role of Thursday night Florence has already been accepted by Kecia Lewis!

Mayer is directing. It's going to be a train wreck.

I think Jasmine doesn't have a prayer of winning for a show that is so bad.

Audra’s chances for another Tony has definitely increased this week. Would love to see her win now! Also rooting for Nicole.

[quote]Amazing what 'Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific' shampoo will do

Do they make a "Gee Your Pussy Smells Terrific"?

r111: I'm Team Patti, but I think now Audra is a lock. Even though Patti's comment was rather delicious, it also increased Audras chances tremendously.

It would be even MORE delicious if Audra thanked Patti in her acceptance speech, a la Julie Andrews thanking Jack Warner in her "Mary Poppins" speech.

Golden Globes honey, not at the Oscars…meaningless

As soon as they announce the Thursday night Florence, that's when I'll get tickets.

Thursday night Florence is Beanie, of course.

She'll be doing "25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" underground.

This version of CHESS, directed by Michael Mayer, was done at the Kennedy Center a few years back, and the new book by Danny Strong was maybe only very marginally better than that awful book Richard Nelson wrote for the Broadway premiere production. The KC show starred Raul Esparza, Ramin Karimloo, and.....Karen Olivo!

R116 Nicholas looks like the the pre-trans version of the DisneyWorld restaurant troll

How many GYPSY performances has Audra been absent from?

Chess is already a disaster. Why is the guy from Barbados playing the Russian? Are they using the same casting director who cast Funny Girl?

[quote]How many GYPSY performances has Audra been absent from?

Don't know. Don't care.

Hilty, Simard and Williams all out of DBH today. Again. Is the show that demanding? Why don't they just make it official and cut them back to 6 or 7 shows a week because that's all they show up for anyway.

[quote]Why is the guy from Barbados playing the Russian?

Maybe he could be Cuban in this version.

Evita is a show that shouldn't work but just does.

Minus Patti

Grosses are out. Tick tock Boop, Real Women Have Curves, Dead Outlaw, Floyd Collins, Smash.

You know who else was named Patricia Ann?

Take a guess.

Hey, Bitch! My name is Patti! I'm named after a famous Opera star, Adelina Patti, who I'm distantly related to. So fuck off!

Sure, Jan. Now your Spanish?!

LOL...audiences really do not give a shit about Audra in Gypsy.

It was a holiday weekend and almost every show had a decent uptick in sales.

Gypsy's uptick: 0.13%

[quote]How many GYPSY performances has Audra been absent from?

To find the answer to your question, all you have to do is comb through hundreds and hundreds of DL "Theatre Gossip" posts.

I asked ChatGPT: "how many performances in gypsy has audra mcdonald missed"

ChatGPT's answer: "As of May 2025, Audra McDonald has missed at least one performance of Gypsy on Broadway. On February 19, 2025, she was absent for both the matinee and evening performances. Her standby, Tryphena Wade, stepped in as Mama Rose, making her debut in the role on February 18 and performing again on the 19th. Playbill+5BroadwayWorld+5New York Post+5

Additionally, during the 2024 holiday week, the production canceled seven consecutive performances between December 23 and December 28 due to widespread illness within the company, including McDonald. She confirmed her own illness on social media during that time. CBS News+1People.com+1

While there have been reports of last-minute cancellations and understudy performances, specific details about each instance are limited. It's important to note that McDonald has faced personal challenges, including attending a family memorial service, which may have contributed to her absences.

Overall, McDonald's commitment to the role has been evident, and any absences have been due to unforeseen circumstances. Fans and theatergoers continue to support her and the production. New York Post+3Broadway News+3"

Hey r127, you forgot The Last 5 Years!

[quote]Overall, McDonald's commitment to the role has been evident, and any absences have been due to unforeseen circumstances. Fans and theatergoers continue to support her and the production. New York Post+3Broadway News+3"

Well, I'm sure SOME "fans and theatergoers continue to support her and the production." But then there are all those people who are NOT buying tickets, maybe at least partly because she has had a significant number of unscheduled absences during the first six months of the show's run. For the record, I believe that number was up to six the last time we attempted to clock it, and then there was another unscheduled absence last week.

Audra missed three shows last week.

So this is just a part-time gig for Audra ? She chose this instead of driving for UberEats a couple of nights a week ?

No offense to Montego Glover but do producers really think she's going to sell out the show when even Audra can't. They're investing money in rehearsals, costumes and wigs when they could have just put Tryphena on for the week. Unless Montego starts subbing for Audra once or twice a week after her vacation.

Are Tony voters still attending shows this week? Seems the DBH and Gypsy gals would want to be there. Or is voting already over?

[quote]Are Tony voters still attending shows this week? Seems the DBH and Gypsy gals would want to be there. Or is voting already over?

I don't believe the voting is already over. Yes, one would think these part-time performers would want to up their attendance during the voting period, but I guess not.

Nicole doesn't have a chance. She's thin in the part, she sings like a fucking Barking Dog, and Audra is magnificent in her part. And Nicole wore a Maga hat.

The Tony voting isn't over because certain shows have had to reschedule voters attending several times due to missing stars.

[quote]No offense to Montego Glover but do producers really think she's going to sell out the show when even Audra can't. They're investing money in rehearsals, costumes and wigs when they could have just put Tryphena on for the week. Unless Montego starts subbing for Audra once or twice a week after her vacation.

Honey, use a little imagination, this is a lower cost way to test out the viability of continuing the production after Audra departs. They don't commit to anything beyond Montego being a week-long vacation cover. If box office goes down dramatically that week, it positions Audra as a viable box office draw (relatively speaking) and it lets them make the final decision on closing the production with Audra.

I actually agree with you. I'd be shocked if Montego (who is very talented, no doubt) sets the box office on fire. Hell, I'd be surprised if Heather Hedley (who it was rumored producers were pursuing as well as possible post-Audra Rose) would have sold enough tickets. Unfortunately, I think it would have to be MUCH bigger name -- an actress with a film/tv or music following.

Back in the old days they would have called up Liza...or Raquel...or Debbie.

True, R144, but replacement stars of that caliber (talent + box office draw) who are, primarily, live/theatre performers are rarer and rarer these days. There are, undoubtedly, talented Black actresses who could do very well in this role (and probably sing it more naturally than Audra), but finding one who is a bigger box office draw? That seem a tall order.

[quote]So this is just a part-time gig for Audra ? She chose this instead of driving for UberEats a couple of nights a week ?

She had to. The chance of Patti LuPone's car running her down was too great in the other model.

Yes, r145, and when Yul went on vacation they replaced Anna with a star, not the king.

R147 - If I'm not mistaken, dear Angela's short run in The King & I was a box office failure. At that point, they might as well have just changed to the title of the show to Yul & I. He was the draw to that property, no doubt.

And, yes, Angela deserved better. But this business is cruel and fickle. Even to legends like Angie.

She only did it during Yul's vacation, r148. That's all she was booked for.

Queen Latifah would have raised ticket sales. But, she's apparently not interested in doing live theater.

Who are they kidding? Audra can't get attendance above 75% and she's "beloved" and Broadway's GOAT.

That no one flocks to see after the first week of opening...

Even if it wins a Tony or two, it ain't gonna break out as some huge hit.

It's gonna be lucky to limp to Audra's vacay.

R149 - I'm aware. But there was someone who worked on that particular run of King & I who posted a lengthy (and fascinating) remembrance of his time working there on the fabulous "Broadway Remembered" Facebook group. He posted that Angela was, sadly, playing to half-empty (and worse) houses during her run because, seemingly, Yul was the draw and, somehow, she was not enough of a draw without him being there. I'm sure that would have changed post-Sweeney (and Murder She Wrote), of course, but, we'll never know. I recall the poster noting that, despite the rows of empty seats, Angela remained a class act backstage and gave a beautiful performance on stage.

When a Broadway production casts a famous white diva as Deena Jones in a DREAMGIRLS revival and the people cheer, I'll stop mentioning the hypocrisy of a black actress playing Rose Hovick, a character based on an actual real person, unlike Deena Jones who legally is not Diana Ross!

It goes both ways or none. I think it's fine if Patti thinks it is really bizarre bad casting choice, especially since Audra, a very fine performer, is completely wrong vocally for the role.

Sigh. If anyone needs directions to the "f/f" button or the "ignore" button for R152, do let us know.

Ryan Murphy could have a ball with this.

I still think if you're a big star and a big expensive musical is depending on your presence missing performances for your father in law's memorial service is a pretty lame excuse no matter how much you loved him.

Now Verden missing her mother's funeral because she had a matinee was absurd which even she admitted in a what was I thinking way.

[quote]Audra can't get attendance above 75% and she's "beloved" and Broadway's GOAT. That no one flocks to see after the first week of opening...

But it's impossible to tell if people stop flocking to see her after the first few weeks because (a) she's just not that big a star in the eyes of the general public, or (b) word gets out that she's missing a lot of performances, as per usual.

You can sigh until you die, R153, but R152 is entitled to both of the opinions they expressed, and I'm sure many people share them.

Did they ask Patti to cover the role of 'Rose' while Audra's on vacation ? Bernadette ? Tyne Daly ?

Wasn't good ol' reliable Debbie Allen available ? Didn't Jasmine Guy have room on her calendar that week ? How about that old chestnut Whoopi Goldberg - she could do the show or a week while sleeping in her chair at 'The View'.

Surprise! Huffpost calls Patti's actions " racial microaggression."

[quote]Monica Cwynar, a licensed clinical social worker with Thriveworks who specializes in trauma and coping skills, told HuffPost that the situation surrounding LuPone and Lewis serves as a reminder that “we as a society have a lot of work to do.” She said that Lewis’ statement that LuPone’s actions and remarks about “Hell’s Kitchen” being “too loud” were examples of microaggressions “rings true.”

r159 specifically included "licensed clinical social worker with Thriveworks who specializes in trauma and coping skills" for the purposes of diminishing the comments of said licensed clinical social worker.