Patti LuPone Says Audra McDonald Is ‘Not a Friend' After a Falling Out Years Ago, Stares in Silence When Asked About McDonald's ‘Gypsy' Revival
Patti LuPone is not one to mince words, which is why her latest profile in The New Yorker is stirring up buzz among Broadway fans for the revelation that she is no longer friends with fellow stage icon Audra McDonald. 'She's not a friend,' LuPone said when McDonald's name was brought up by interviewer Michael Schulman. McDonald is a Tony nominee this year for playing Rose in 'Gypsy,' a role that previously won LuPone a Tony.
LuPone revealed to The New Yorker that she had a falling out with McDonald some years ago, although she declined to go into further detail. The revelation came to be after Schulman brought up a scandal that LuPone found herself in last fall while on Broadway opposite Mia Farrow in 'The Roommate.' The play shared a wall with the Alicia Keys musical 'Hell's Kitchen,' loud noises from which could be heard next door. LuPone filed a noise complaint to Robert Wankel, the head of the Shubert Organization, and sent flowers to the cast and crew of 'Hell's Kitchen' when the noise problem was fixed. But she was later criticized by some of the musical's cast members.
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Kecia Lewis, whose role in 'Hell's Kitchen' won her the Tony for best featured actress in a musical, posted a video on Instagram slamming LuPone's behavior as 'bullying' and 'racially microaggressive.' Lewis added that LuPone was 'rooted in privilege' and called out LuPone for labeling 'a Black show loud.' McDonald liked Lewis' video.
'Exactly,' LuPone told The New Yorker. 'And I thought, 'You should know better.' That's typical of Audra. She's not a friend.'
When Schulman then asked LuPone for her thoughts on McDonald's production of 'Gypsy,' LuPone stared back at him 'in silence for fifteen seconds' and proceeded to look out the window and say: 'What a beautiful day.'
As noted by People magazine, LuPone and McDonald's history of working together in the past includes the 2007 Los Angeles Opera's production of 'Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny' and the New York Philharmonic's 2000 concert version of 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,' in which LuPone played Mrs. Lovett and McDonald starred as the Beggar Woman.
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