Following Patti LuPone‘s current remarks disparaging fellow Broadway actresses Audra McDonald and Kecia Lewis, greater than 500 members of the Broadway neighborhood have signed an open letter calling out the musical theater legend for “bullying” and “harassment.”
Within the message revealed Friday (Might 30) — only a few days after a New Yorker piece quoted LuPone as saying that McDonald was “not a pal” whereas calling Cole a “bi—” for labeling herself a stage “veteran” — the signatories wrote that the Agatha All Alongside star’s feedback had been “degrading and misogynistic,” in addition to a “blatant act of racialized disrespect.” Individuals who signed the letter embody Courtney Love, in addition to Tony winners James Monroe Iglehart, Maleah Joi Moon and Wendell Pierce.
“It constitutes bullying,” the letter continues. “It constitutes harassment. It’s emblematic of the microaggressions and abuse that folks on this trade have endured for much too lengthy, too usually with out consequence.”
Although the signatories instantly urged the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League to disinvite LuPone from the 2025 Tony Awards — in addition to different “trade occasions” equivalent to “fundraisers and public applications” — in addition they insisted that their message was about “a couple of individual.”
“It’s a few tradition. A sample. A persistent failure to carry individuals accountable for violent, disrespectful, or dangerous conduct — particularly when they’re highly effective or well-known,” the letter reads. “This isn’t about differing opinions. It’s about public actions that demean, intimidate, or perpetuate violence in opposition to fellow artists. It’s in regards to the normalization of hurt in an trade that too usually protects status over individuals.”
Billboard has reached out to LuPone’s rep for remark.
The letter provides to the web backlash LuPone has been dealing with since her New Yorker profile went reside Monday. Within the piece, LuPone mirrored on how she as soon as requested Shubert Group head Robert Wankel to step in after sound from the Alicia Keys-created musical Hell’s Kitchen, through which Lewis starred, could possibly be heard throughout LuPone’s performances of The Roommate subsequent door on Broadway. Shortly after LuPone’s criticism, Lewis posted an Instagram video labeling the icon’s actions as “bullying,” “racially microaggressive” and “rooted in privilege” for calling “a Black present loud.”
“She calls herself a veteran? Let’s learn the way many Broadway exhibits Kecia Lewis has performed, as a result of she doesn’t know what the f— she’s speaking about,” LuPone informed The New Yorker of the scenario. “Don’t name your self a vet, bi—.”
As for McDonald, LuPone took concern with the Non-public Follow star displaying assist for Lewis within the feedback of stated Instagram video. “I assumed, It is best to know higher,” LuPone informed the publication, noting that there had been an undisclosed “rift” between the 2 actresses. “That’s typical of Audra. She’s not a pal.”
McDonald later responded in an interview with Gayle King, saying she had no thought what “rift” LuPone was referring to.
However whereas the feedback could possibly be thought to be typical for the famously forthright LuPone, the members of the Broadway neighborhood who signed Friday’s open letter thinks she crossed a line. “To publicly assault a girl who has contributed to this artwork kind with such excellence, management, and style … isn’t merely a private offense,” their assertion reads. “It’s a public affront to the values of collaboration, fairness, and mutual respect that our theater neighborhood claims to uphold.
“We can’t proceed to welcome again those that hurt others merely due to their fame or perceived
worth,” it concludes. “This should cease. We’ll now not tolerate violence—verbal, emotional, or bodily—in opposition to artists inside our personal neighborhood. No extra free passes. If our trade is really dedicated to fairness, justice, and respect, then these values should be utilized constantly, even when it’s uncomfortable.”