
Oprah seemingly threw shade at Patti LuPone during the Tony Awards
Oprah seemingly threw shade at Patti LuPone during the Tony Awards
The 2025 Tony Awards paid very little mind to the recent Patti LuPone controversy that made waves in the Broadway community recently, but Oprah Winfrey was seemingly the only one to make reference to it during Sunday night's show.
In the lead-up to this year's Tony Awards, LuPone made incredibly disparaging remarks about six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald and fellow Tony-winner Kecia Lewis in a New Yorker profile. The Broadway community was furious at the slight, so much so that LuPone eventually apologized for the comments, stating "I regret my flippant and emotional responses during this interview, which were inappropriate, and I am devastated that my behavior has offended others and has run counter to what we hold dear in this community".
Broadway actors such as James Monroe Iglehart and others were asked about the controversy on the Tonys' red carpet, but the show itself steered pretty clear of the topic for the majority of the night. That is until Oprah took the stage to announce the winners of Best Actress in a Musical, where McDonald was nominated. In the lead-up to announcing the winner, Oprah seemingly threw shade at LuPone and the "lively conversations among theater fans" that ensued.
"Lotta talking going on" indeed!
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The musical Maybe Happy Ending, starring Darren Criss and Helen Shen, has had an unlikely and unique journey to success on Broadway. The show, which is about two 'Helper' robots running out the clock on their batteries and eventually falling in love, started in South Korea in 2016 before making its Broadway debut last year. Now, one year later, the show racked up 10 Tony nominations and won six at the 2025 Tonys on Sunday night. 24-year-old Shen stars opposite Criss, who won a Tony Sunday for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. The pair Criss and Shen also performed one of the songs from the musical for live television and the crowd at Radio City Music Hall. Shen jumped on a Zoom with Teen Vogue the day after the Tonys to talk about the show's huge night, the 'luminescence' of her co-star, and how this is hopefully just the beginning for Maybe Happy Ending. Helen Shen: Ahh! I'm feeling crazy. I'm so excited the world knows the show has had the impact that it has had. 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Also in the microcosm way at the theater, we get to really celebrate what's fun about it and order dim sum and go out to the barbecue. There's little things like that when you're not the minority in a cast, you can kind of experience in a way that you didn't really experience before. And we have AAPI representation across the board — the stage managers and our designers, and everyone at the Belasco, even though it's a four person cast, it is filled to the brim with the most amazing women, the most amazing queer people. It's just the best building to go to work in. And I'm going back to work tomorrow. It feels like there's an ending of some sorts that feels like a conclusion or a culmination, a chapter ending [with the Tonys wins]. But actually, we go to work. HS: I just hope that as many people [possible] can see this show and get to experience this story. We're living now [in a time] where technology is a bullet train barreling towards us, and there's no stopping it. There's only: how can we have it while maintaining our humanity? In terms of the way that media has portrayed technology, this [show] is a very compassionate way of portraying it. It has a warmth to it. I hope that we get to do it all over the world. I don't know. I hope that more people get to see it. I think other audiences would love it, too. HS: It's becoming a more casual use, which I find that to be a bit scary. There's so many cautionary tales that we've seen about not letting our human hubris think that trying to make this thing that's artificial intelligence, that we can somehow be superior to that and always control that. There's a Pandora's box that we're opening. I think that the evil part of it is the people who are designing this technology, trying to better their own lives and make more money from it. I think if we can use that technology to continue connecting people and make a way to help the world with this technology and think of more solutions to these problems that have wracked our human brains for centuries. We can use AI to think of better solutions to the evils of capitalism, but the evils of capitalism are making the technology. I think we have to know that it's inevitable and then do with that what we will, with kindness and connectivity. HS: I believe in this piece because I believe in the music and the book and my creative team and the story that we're telling. I believe in so much, so much more than I have any other project that I've ever done. And it felt rare. But it was like trying to explain a new color to people. Even the log line of: 'two robots falling in love,' like, womp womp. Okay, that's crazy. I can't really picture it. I can't really empathize with it. And so even though we were playing sometimes to emptier houses or just trying to get the word out, it felt like we were shouting into the void sometimes. But whoever came really resonated with it. The sentiment of the show personally helped me stay present throughout all of it because Claire, her whole motto is that, it's the way that it has to be, and tomorrow is not promised. So instead of using that to make me feel dread or there's an expiration date, and that being an impending doom feeling, it can feel like release — that I can just experience now to the fullest. I remember when there was a lot of doubt floating around the internet, all this internet gossip, all of these things that were really scary. I said to one of my castmates, if I can get one thing out of this, I just want to do this for one audience one time. I really hope we get there. There was also a world in which that didn't even happen, that we didn't even get to previews. So every step was a new dream come true. The fact that we got to opening, and then when we got to opening, we got so many amazing reviews. We got those reviews and our producers still said, don't relax, because we still don't know — it's still never a guarantee. The industry is just so hard. It's so hard. All of these amazing shows closed after fall openings, and that is not a testament to how hard they were working or how much they believed in their pieces. That was so out of their control as well. I think that really sobered us up and made us feel grateful for every single audience that we ever had. HS: Yes! We call them the 'fireflies.' They have been instrumental in getting this word out, especially in the beginning. Someone told me that a couple of the fireflies pooled together and helped pay for tickets for people who couldn't afford to do so. It's a testament to how much they believed in this show. At every turn, they've been so supportive. And they support our standbys so much too. Whenever a standby goes on, they're pooling to the theaters to go see them and it's really amazing. They're so kind. They're a kind group of people. I think our show invites a kind of person who… there's a cerebral-ness to the show, there's a softness to the show, maybe it's the jazz elements and Marcus, and there's a warmth to it that I feel a lot of familiarity and kinship with these people who resonate with this show. I resonate with it. If I wasn't a part of it, I would be a firefly. HS: It's for you. It's for you. I haven't seen John Proctor yet, but I've read a couple of script dialogue moments, and what I appreciate about Kimberly Belflower's writing is that it doesn't talk down to the youth. Actually, it reveres and respects and has dignity to the young voice. And I think that's what a lot might've been missing from representation of young people in the past — it's been people writing from a point of, look how naive this kid is. Look at this kind of perspective. 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But especially with live theater, there's no substitution for getting into a space together and experiencing one thing and being affected and being open to it. So I'm really excited that John Proctor and Romeo + Juliet and all of these pieces are resonating with young people. We have a lot of Gen Z people resonating with Maybe Happy Ending. There is an accessibility issue. Tickets keep getting more and more expensive, and that's just tough, because it's for the people and shouldn't be gatekept from people just because of prices. But there's rush and there's ways that people are trying to make it more affordable and lower that accessibility. I would say just get in a rush line, see something and think about it and form your own opinion about it. It's irreplaceable. HS: Well, first of all, in their creative collaboration, [co-writers] Will and Hue are very Claire and Oliver-coded. They do switch off between which one's which. Will is more Oliver and Hue is more Claire. He is so sardonic and witty, and they're both super self-deprecating individuals. So I would say [his type], I don't know, somebody who could be really kind and loving to Hue, I would invite to hit him up in the DMs. HS: If you had asked me that before Maybe Happy Ending, it would've been trying to describe something like Maybe Happy Ending. So, I guess my journey now is what happens after your dream comes true. HS: I would love to dip my toes into some TV, on-camera, or film work. Theater is my flesh and blood and bone: The way you're able to zero in on a moment and get into the psyche of a character because the camera's right here. I'm really hungry to do that and write something one day. I have a background in classical music, and I think there's a story percolating within me about the classical piano world. Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue