Part of true divahood is being a bit nasty with little remorse, and Patti LuPone is one of the only true divas we have left. The Broadway legend was the subject of a New Yorker profile published Monday (written by Michael Schulman, of Jeremy Strong profile fame), and she did not hold back: She thinks the Trump-controlled Kennedy Center “should get blown up,” she hates that people can walk around in Times Square, and she does not care for her fellow stage titan Audra McDonald, a revelation that is currently rocking the Marie’s Crisis community.
LuPone discussed an incident that took place last year when she was starring in The Roommate on Broadway and sharing a wall with the theater housing Hell’s Kitchen, the Alicia Keys musical. Sound was bleeding in from next door, so LuPone made a call to the head of the Shubert Organization and the issue was resolved. Then, Hell’s Kitchen actor Kecia Lewis posted a video to Instagram in which she called LuPone’s complaints “bullying.”
“They’re offensive, they are racially microaggressive, they’re rude, they’re rooted in privilege,” Lewis said. “And these actions also lack a sense of community and leadership for someone as yourself, who has been in the business as long as you have.” McDonald appeared in the comments with what Schulman referred to as “supportive emojis.” When he brought this up to Lupone, she went off on both Lewis and McDonald.
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After a snarling takedown of Lewis, in which LuPone called her a “bitch” who “doesn’t know what the fuck she’s talking about,” McDonald’s emoji comment was unspared. “I thought, You should know better,” LuPone said. “That’s typical of Audra. She’s not a friend,” LuPone said, mentioning that she and McDonald also had a rift years ago. Apparently, that’s the one gripe she didn’t want to discuss on the record.
LuPone did, however, share a very mean opinion (or lack thereof) about McDonald’s current production of Gypsy. When Schulman asked what she thought of McDonald’s turn as Momma Rose, a role that won LuPone a Tony in 2008, she went quiet. Schulman wrote that LuPone stared at him “in silence, for 15 seconds” before turning to a window, sighing, and proclaiming, “What a beautiful day.” Devastating.
Her opinions on Gypsy aside, LuPone needs to find a way back to McDonald within the next five years. Stephen Sondheim’s 100th-birthday concert will be held in 2030, and we need our legends to at least semi-peacefully sit next to each other in complementary red dresses.
