Patti LuPone, a three-time Tony-winning actress, has for years been known, and generally celebrated, as one of the most outspoken performers on Broadway. Her reprimands of poorly behaved audience members have made her a folk hero of sorts in the theater business, and her grudges and grievances have had a certain real-talk charm.
But this week she crossed a line for many in the theater community with her criticism of two fellow Tony-winning performers in an interview with The New Yorker.
LuPone responded sharply when asked about responses to her concern that noise from the Alicia Keys jukebox musical, “Hell’s Kitchen,” was bleeding into the theater where LuPone was performing in a two-woman play, “The Roommate.”
The criticism — LuPone referred to Kecia Lewis, who plays a piano teacher in “Hell’s Kitchen,” with the word “bitch” and described Audra McDonald, Broadway’s most-honored performer, as “not a friend” — prompted a backlash from many of LuPone’s colleagues, and on Saturday she issued a 163-word statement responding to the furor.
“I am deeply sorry for the words I used during The New Yorker interview, particularly about Kecia Lewis, which were demeaning and disrespectful,” she wrote in a statement posted on Instagram and Facebook. “I regret my flippant and emotional responses during this interview, which were inappropriate, and I am devastated that my behavior has offended others and has run counter to what we hold dear in this community. I hope to have the chance to speak to Audra and Kecia personally to offer my sincere apologies.”
LuPone’s offending comments came while discussing an incident last year when she had become concerned about distracting noise levels inside the theater, the Booth, where she was performing. (This is a frequent phenomenon on Broadway, where noise from the streets, and sometimes from adjoining theaters, can be audible.)
LuPone sought help by asking the Shubert Organization, which operates the theaters where both “Hell’s Kitchen” and “The Roommate” were running, and the issue was apparently addressed when the musical made some adjustments. But after LuPone sent flowers of thanks to the sound crew at “Hell’s Kitchen” and was videotaped describing “Hell’s Kitchen” as “loud” while declining to sign a Playbill from that show, Lewis posted a video calling LuPone’s actions “racially microaggressive.” McDonald posted supportive emojis to the video.
Asked about the criticism by the New Yorker reporter, LuPone diminished Lewis’s experience (“Don’t call yourself a vet, bitch,” she was quoted as saying) and said McDonald “should know better.” (She also said that she and McDonald, once friends, had had a rift. Asked about that by “CBS Mornings” this week, McDonald said, “If there’s a rift between us, I don’t know what it is.”)
The language about Lewis and McDonald was not the only example of LuPone’s impolitic speech in the interview. She also referred to Glenn Close, who replaced her in “Sunset Boulevard,” with the word “bitch,” and she said that the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, now run by appointees of President Trump, “should get blown up.”
LuPone acknowledged that apologizing was an unusual move for her — she has previously reveled in her devil-may-care candor. “For as long as I have worked in the theater, I have spoken my mind and never apologized,” she wrote in the statement. “That is changing today.”
Her apology appears to have been prompted in part by an open letter criticizing her conduct that circulated late this week. “No artist, producer, director or leader — regardless of legacy or celebrity — should be allowed to weaponize their platform to belittle, threaten or devalue others without consequence,” the letter said.
LuPone did not dispute that.
“I wholeheartedly agree with everything that was written in the open letter shared yesterday,” she wrote in her statement. “From middle school drama clubs to professional stages, theater has always been about lifting each other up and welcoming those who feel they don’t belong anywhere else.
“I made a mistake, I take full responsibility for it, and I am committed to making this right. Our entire theater community deserves better.”
Michael Paulson is the theater reporter for The Times.
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