Patti LuPone slammed fellow Broadway actress Audra McDonald, saying they aren’t friends and then shaded her critically acclaimed performance in “Gypsy.”
The outspoken performer revealed in a New Yorker profile Monday that she’s been in a longtime feud with McDonald.
Though LuPone confirmed they’ve been in a years-long rift, she declined to give anymore details.
“She’s not a friend,” LuPone, 76, sniffed.
The New Yorker reporter then asked what the “Agatha All Along” actress thought about McDonald’s performance in “Gypsy,” a role LuPone also once played.
LuPone stayed silent for fifteen seconds and then turned to a window and remarked, “What a beautiful day.”
McDonald, 54, is nominated for a Tony this year for her role as Mama Rose in “Gypsy.” The “Private Practice” alum is the most Tony-nominated performer in Broadway history, with six wins, while LuPone has won three.
The Broadway stars previously appeared in the 2000 New York Philharmonic’s concert version of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and the 2007 LA Opera production of “Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny,” though it’s unclear when their beef began.
Reps for McDonald and LuPone did not return our request for comment.
LuPone also took aim at Broadway actress Kecia Lewis in the profile.
Last year, LuPone was in a feud with Lewis, who was starring in “Hell’s Kitchen” when the “American Horror Story” actress was appearing in “The Roommate” at the theater next door.
At her stage manager’s suggestion, LuPone contacted the head of the Shubert Organization, to complain that the music next door was too loud.
Afterward, in a video posted online, Lewis, 59, called LuPone’s actions “bullying” and “rooted in privilege,” because she had labeled “a black show loud.”
McDonald, 54, responded to the video at the time with supportive emojis, greatly displeasing the “Evita” star.
When Schulman mentioned this during her New Yorker profile, LuPone said, “Exactly. And I thought, ‘You should know better.’ That’s typical of Audra.”
LuPone criticized Lewis for calling herself a Broadway “veteran.”
“Let’s find out how many Broadway shows Kecia Lewis has done, because she doesn’t know what the f–k she’s talking about,” she exclaimed. “She’s done seven. I’ve done 31. Don’t call yourself a vet, bitch!”
Lewis, who won the Tony Award last year for her role in “Hell’s Kitchen,” has 10 Broadway credits, including the original Broadway company of “Dreamgirls.”
The interview has provoked a flurry of opinions on social media.
“That Patti Lupone article just screams jealousy to me,” read one comment, while another called LuPone “tactless and tone deaf.”
Emmy nominee Douglas Lyons referenced LuPone’s Broadway credits, writing: “31 Broadway shows obviously doesn’t equal class.”
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