Patti LuPone has apologized for her controversial remarks relating to fellow Broadway giants Audra McDonald and Kecia Lewis.
On Saturday, Might 31, the 76-year-old Broadway actress apologized after she obtained backlash, together with an open letter by greater than 500 throughout the Broadway neighborhood condemning her, for her latest remarks in an interview in The New Yorker that focused McDonald and Lewis.
“For so long as I’ve labored within the theatre, I’ve spoken my thoughts and by no means apologized. That’s altering right now,” LuPone started in a prolonged publish on Instagram. “I’m deeply sorry for the phrases I used throughout “The New Yorker” interview, notably about Kecia Lewis, which had been demeaning and disrespectful.”
“I remorse my flippant and emotional responses throughout this interview, which had been inappropriate, and I’m devastated that my conduct has offended others and has run counter to what we maintain expensive on this neighborhood,” she continued. “I hope to have the prospect to talk to Audra and Kecia personally to supply my honest apologies.”
LuPone added that she “wholeheartedly” agreed with all the things within the open letter asking that she be held accountable and disinvited from the 78th Tony Awards on Sunday, June 8.
“From center faculty drama golf equipment to skilled phases, theatre has at all times been about lifting one another up and welcoming those that really feel they don’t belong wherever else,” she concluded. “I made a mistake, I take full accountability for it, and I’m dedicated to creating this proper. Our whole theatre neighborhood deserves higher.”
Final week, The New Yorker printed an interview with LuPone by which she known as Lewis a “b—” and referred to McDonald as “not a good friend.” She made the feedback when she was requested concerning the controversy round an incident in 2024 by which she complained concerning the noise degree of Alicia Keys’ musical “Hell’s Kitchen,” which starred Lewis on the time. On the time, Lewis had known as out LuPone’s complaints as “racially microaggressive” and “bullying.”
When LuPone was requested about McDonald’s history-making and Tony-nominated efficiency as Rose within the musical “Gypsy,” she reportedly turned to the window earlier than altering the topic to the climate. McDonald’s present run as Rose marks the primary time a Black actress has stepped into the function on Broadway, and her latest Greatest Actress nomination made her eleventh, making her the most-nominated performer within the awards’ historical past. LuPone performed Rose on Broadway in 2008 and took dwelling the Tony that yr.
Following the incendiary interview, McDonald addressed the feedback whereas in dialog with Gayle King for an upcoming spot on “CBS Mornings.”
“If there’s a rift between us, I don’t know what it’s,” McDonald mentioned. “That’s one thing you’d need to ask Patti about,” the six-time Tony winner added. “You understand, I haven’t seen her in about 11 years, simply because we’ve been busy simply with life. So I don’t know what rift she’s speaking about, however you’d need to ask her.”
