Broadway beef shouldn’t be one thing you usually hear about exterior of New York Metropolis theater circles, however this week it went viral after feedback made by theater icon Patti LuPone. In a interview with The New Yorker, simply earlier than her visitor look on the third season of HBO Max’ And Simply LIke That, LuPone shared her opinion about Audra McDonald, a four-time Tony Award winner presently onstage within the Broadway revival of Gypsy.
LuPone, a three-time Tony winner greatest identified for her function as Eva Perón in Evita, additionally commented on actress Kecia Lewis, a Tony winner for Hell’s Kitchen, main observers to marvel simply what her drawback was with the actresses.
Turns on the market’s some backstory with Lewis. When the 76-year-old actress was starring in a play referred to as The Roommate with Mia Farrow, she complained that the sound cues from Hell’s Kitchen, displaying within the neighboring theater, have been bleeding by their shared wall. After the manufacturing adjusted the sound, LuPone despatched flowers to the present and forged. That prompted Lewis to share in an IG submit that she thought of LuPone’s request to be a “microaggression” and accused her of bullying.
When requested about it in The New Yorker piece, LuPone stated, “Right here’s the issue. She calls herself a veteran? Let’s learn how many Broadway exhibits Kecia Lewis has executed, as a result of she doesn’t know what the f-ck she’s speaking about,” she stated. “She’s executed seven. I’ve executed thirty-one. Don’t name your self a vet, bitch.” (Per the article, Lewis has ten credit, LuPone has 30).
McDonald caught a stray apparently for liking Lewis’ submit and including emojis in settlement. That prompted LuPone to say, “And I assumed, ‘You need to know higher.’ That’s typical of Audra. She’s not a buddy.”
In a CBS This Morning interview with Gayle King, McDonald appeared confused because it doesn’t seem she ever thought they have been pals. When she was requested about any ‘beef’ with LuPone, McDonald stated that she hadn’t seen or spoken to her in over a decade.
But it surely didn’t finish there – when requested how LuPone felt about McDonald’s efficiency as Momma Rose, the lead character in Gypsy, which LuPone additionally gained a Tony for, The New Yorker article studies she sat in silence, then appeared out the window and stated, “What a beautiful day.”
McDonald is the primary Black actress to play the function on Broadway.
However now, after the backlash, LuPone has had a change of coronary heart. She apologized for her remarks on social media, saying, “I remorse my flippant and emotional responses throughout this interview, which have been inappropriate, and I’m devastated that my habits has offended others and has run counter to what we maintain pricey on this group,” she stated in her submit. “I hope to have the prospect to talk to Audra and Kecia personally to supply my honest apologies.”
The apology got here after an open letter signed by 600 Broadway stars and insiders asking that LuPone be disinvited from the upcoming Tony Awards, saying her feedback have been a “blatant act of racialized disrespect.” In addition they characterised her feedback about McDonald as the alternative of the values of the theater group.
“To publicly assault a girl who has contributed to this artwork kind with such excellence, management, and beauty — and to discredit the legacy of Audra McDonald, probably the most nominated and awarded performer in Tony Award historical past — shouldn’t be merely a private offense,” the letter stated. “It’s a public affront to the values of collaboration, fairness, and mutual respect that our theater group claims to uphold.”
LuPone agreed, saying, “From center college drama golf equipment to skilled levels, theatre has at all times been about lifting one another up and welcoming those that really feel they don’t belong anyplace else. I made a mistake, I take full accountability for it, and I’m dedicated to creating this proper. Our complete theatre group deserves higher.”
Apology or not, social media is roasting her. See the reactions beneath.
Broadway’s Patti LuPone Apologizes For Shading Black Actresses & Calling Kecia Lewis A “B-tch” As Social Media Roasts Her
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2.
Patti LuPone needed to wait 28 years for her second Tony. In the meantime, Nathan Lane as soon as launched Audra McDonald as “the girl who wins a Tony each time she leaves her home.” pic.twitter.com/VnQV0ejTxB
— Jeremy Fassler (@J_fassler) Might 27, 2025
4.
i hate patti lupone and have for years. she performs the sufferer in each situation, when essentially, she is the one who is selecting to make enemies with form, gifted folks. she’s not a diva or an icon, she’s only a impolite previous girl who thinks she’s gods present to theatre. pic.twitter.com/cMspLp1u0y
— Maddie (@MaddieTillem) Might 26, 2025
8.
Audra McDonald masking TIME Journal & Kecia Lewis receiving her Grammy award after Patti LuPone’s feedback on them is ICONIC. pic.twitter.com/kovkAq6kRt
— 🗝️ (@DiaryOfKeysus) Might 28, 2025
9.
Lastly caught up on the Patti Lupone drama and let me simply say.. you’d by no means see Bernadette Peters saying some fuckass bullshit. Bernadette is MY bway diva pic.twitter.com/BLy7VGJqNl
— S🤍 (@HeavyMtlHookr) Might 28, 2025
12.
to not flip this right into a joke however Patti LuPone apologizing for one thing is definitely an apocalypse indicator
— Rod (@bitchfromkalos) Might 31, 2025