Breaking down Patti LuPone's latest Broadway controversy—and responses
Patti LuPone's undeniable stage presence and talent have turned her into a bona fide Broadway legend over the years. However, the Tony Award winner and Agatha All Along actress is now facing controversy for some of her recent comments about Broadway performers like Audra McDonald and Kecia Lewis — prompting a critic to also bring up a past incident related to Lillias White.
Sign up for the to keep up with what's new in LGBTQ+ culture and entertainment — delivered three times a week straight (well…) to your inbox!
Between comments about Audra McDonald's run on Gypsy, controversies with the Hell's Kitchen musical and its star Kecia Lewis, and criticisms of Lillias White for calling out an audience member during a performance of Hadestown, a flood of social media responses are being shared to defend McDonald, Lewis, and White, while making pointed remarks toward LuPone.
Here's a breakdown of the controversies surrounding Patti LuPone at the moment.
Bruce Glikas/WireImage
Audra McDonald during a curtain call of the Gypsy revival on Broadway in December 2024.
Audra McDonald's stint as Rose Thompson Hovick in the current Broadway revival of Gypsy — a show for which Patti LuPone nabbed a Tony Award in 2008 — came up in a recent interview of LuPone with The New Yorker.
When asked about McDonald using supportive emojis in reaction to a post about LuPone's controversy with the Hell's Kitchen musical (more on that later!), LuPone declared, "That's typical of Audra. She's not a friend."
It's unclear what caused this falling out between the two of them. However, instead of elaborating on what happened, LuPone reportedly sat in silence, looked out the window, sighed, and commented on how it was "such a beautiful day outside."for Tony Awards Productions
Kecia Lewis performing a number of Hell's Kitchen at the 2024 Tony Awards.
The controversy between Patti LuPone and the Hell's Kitchen production — a jukebox musical with music and lyrics by Alicia Keys and loosely based on the singer's life — came about when LuPone starred in The Roommate stage play alongside Mia Farrow.
As the story goes, The Roommate (a play) shared a wall with Hell's Kitchen (a musical), which caused sound to bleed through from one production to another. Once that issue was fixed, LuPone reportedly sent flowers to the crew of Hell's Kitchen.
When asked by The New Yorker about that situation, LuPone expressed her "surprise" over Hell's Kitchen star Kecia Lewis sharing an Instagram video in response to LuPone calling the musical "too loud."
In the video (below), Lewis referred to herself, as well as LuPone, as Broadway "veterans," stating that LuPone's comments were "offensive," "rude," and "racially microaggressive."
www.instagram.com
"She calls herself a veteran? Let's find out how many Broadway shows Kecia Lewis has done, because she doesn't know what the fuck she's talking about," LuPone told The New Yorker when asked about Lewis's video. "She's done seven. I've done 31. Don't call yourself a vet, bitch!" The real tally, as noted in The New Yorker profile, is 10 for Lewis and 28 for LuPone.
LuPone's comments in The New Yorker referencing Lewis and McDonald did not go over well on social media, with many Broadway fans, critics, and fellow performers expressing their opinions over LuPone's remarks.
x.com
"Audra McDonald has won six Tonys, the only performer to win in all four acting categories! Patti LuPone comes across horribly in this new interview! She is a bully. That's not 'diva' behavior, that's asshole behavior. She is a bitter woman and jealous," X/Twitter user @RyanForEQUALITY wrote.
x.com
"Dear Patti LuPone, 31 shows doth not equal class," @DouglasSings wrote on X/Twitter, with a longer response (shared via Facebook) attached to the post.
Bruce Glikas/WireImage; Instagram (@jessicavosk)
Jessica Vosk poses at the first anniversary celebration of Hell's Kitchen on Broadway in April 2025; Jessica Vosk via Instagram stories.
Kecia Lewis's former and current co-stars on Hell's Kitchen, Shoshana Bean and Jessica Vosk, spoke out in support of her and Audra McDonald via Instagram posts.
Vosk wrote in two posts shared via Instagram stories:
"It's not hard to be kind. But it takes a hell of a lot of effort to be intentionally cruel. Lastly, talent does not excuse bad behavior. Read it again. Harassment and bullying are not welcome here."; Instagram (@shobean)
Shoshana Bean at the opening night of Hell's Kitchen on Broadway in 2024; Shoshana Bean via Instagram stories, part 1.
Bean started a series of Instagram stories writing, "Here's what I know for certain… Speaking this way about any woman is unacceptable to me. Let alone a Black woman. I don't care how many shows or Tony's or years. Their achievements are remarkable yet irrelevant to me when it comes to the respect they inherently deserve as BLACK WOMEN."
"It is unacceptable to speak of or to Black women in ANY industry, let alone OUR SHARED COMMUNITY, in the manner we have just seen," Bean added. "My entire artistry and inspiration stands on the shoulders of Black women… I will always stand for, with, beside, in front and behind, to protect, celebrate and raise them high."; Instagram (@shobean)
Shoshana Bean at the opening night of Hell's Kitchen on Broadway in 2024; Shoshana Bean via Instagram stories, part 2.
The actress continued, "And for all the little white girls who look up to Patti watching this all unfold? This is not how it's done. We will not teach nor perpetuate this behavior."
"This community is already under attack," Bean wrote. "Our own government is threatening the very existence of art and creators on a daily basis, our funding, our validity… while simultaneously trying to erase the history and contributions of Black people in this country."
Bean concluded, "We won't allow attacks like this within our own community. This one woman is not who WEEEEEE are."Lillias White performing at The New York Pops 40th Birthday Gala in May 2023.
Patti LuPone's latest remarks about Audra McDonald and Kecia Lewis have also resurfaced a past situation involving fellow Broadway icon Lillias White.
During her 2022 stint in Hadestown, White mistook a venue-provided captioning device for hard-of-hearing fans for a recording device. The actress reprimanded the audience member in the middle of the show — and given that LuPone had done similar things on more than one occasion, an intense social media discourse was split between criticizing White and comparing the instance to LuPone's past behavior, as reported by Broadway World.
Back then, even the audience member who was reprimanded by White shared an X post urging people to have some grace for the Broadway legend. "I ask to extend kindness and forgiveness to Ms. White," the audience member wrote, as reported by Deadline. "Her social media pages, particularly Instagram, have been flooded with ageist [and] racist comments. Please stop harassing her."
x.com
Carla Renata, also known as @thecurvycritic on Instagram, shared a statement in support of McDonald, Lewis, and White while highlighting LuPone's recent comments.
"What these beautiful souls have in common other than being Black Tony Award winning women artists is that they have all been verbally attacked and/or disrespected by another legendary Tony winner — Patti LuPone," Renata wrote in an Instagram post. "No matter how many years in the business, no matter how many awards or how many times someone refers to you as iconic or legendary — it tarnishes your status by belittling and calling folks out of their names in public forums."
While acknowledging that LuPone is, without a doubt, a legend, Renata also urged the actress to be more self-aware of her words.
"With all due respect, your blatant disregard for these women and fellow artists in the Broadway community bullying them for no apparent good reason is mind boggling," the critic wrote. "Please put the same reverence and respect on Audra, Kecia and Lillias' name. They earned and deserve it just as you have for decades."
www.instagram.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Every beat is meticulously crafted': 6 ‘Purpose' Tony nominees offer an oral history of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama
In a pivotal scene in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Purpose, Solomon Jasper, a Civil Rights icon, describes to his son Nazareth his newfound appreciation for beekeeping. Part of the appeal of bees to him is that 'they are literally born with a role to play.' Given the reception of critics, audiences, and awards bodies to Purpose, one could argue that the playwright and his ensemble members were born to play these roles as well. Gold Derby sat down with six of the play's Tony Award nominees — performers Glenn Davis (Junior), Jon Michael Hill (Nazareth), LaTanya Richardson Jackson (Claudine), Harry Lennix (Solomon), and Kara Young (Aziza), and playwright Jacobs-Jenkins — to discuss the origins of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama and the act of performing it eight times a week. More from GoldDerby 'King of the Hill' cast and creators on revival: 'Bobby's got a little bit of fame and a little bit of swagger' Watch the first 6 minutes of 'Wednesday' Season 2, from Netflix Tudum 2025 'Stranger Things' Season 5 reveals three-part holiday release: What to know about the final season Branden Jacobs-Jenkins: This play started as a commission from Steppenwolf Theatre Company, so that was really the impulse. When Steppenwolf commissions you, part of the brief is you write to their actors, and at the time there was also this conversation about their house style being 'muscular realism,' so I had these interesting parameters. I was told to go on their website and look at all the actors from the ensemble and choose some of them that I wanted to write for, and I immediately gravitated towards Glenn Davis, Jon Michael Hill, and Alana Arenas, who I'd actually seen in various shows in New York. I knew I wanted to write a family drama and I wanted them to be siblings, and that's all I really of all, there's a million, trillion family stories, right? I find that so much of our identity as people intersects with our identities as family members, but it is only in these plays that we get to process those incredibly old emotions and dynamics. I'm really pleased when people tell me that they come to the show and they see their family. I love watching them, I love reading them, I love the game of bringing a bunch of actors who are not blood related into the illusion where it feels like they are. Glenn Davis: I think Branden is a generational talent. He obviously has been lauded as such: He won the MacArthur Genius Award, he was showrunner of a television show [Hulu's Kindred], he has a whole host of plays that have been recognized for his artistry, including being a Pulitzer finalist twice. When I started as artistic director along with Audrey Francis in 2021, I had already done a workshop of this play in 2019. This play had already been commissioned, so what I did was recognize while in the room with Branden that he had something special. When we did the first scene of the play, already apparent in his language was a sense of timing, structure, understanding of story and place, setting, all the initial elements were there, so I thought this could be really thrilling, and it was really funny. He didn't know at the time where he wanted the play to go, he just knew he had a great set-up. When I became artistic director, I called his agent and said I want to program this play, when we only had 30-35 pages, and he was obviously surprised because you normally don't program a play when you don't know what it is just yet. But I believed in Branden. Marc J. Franklin Jon Michael Hill: Nazareth's character didn't change much at all, but since he is the narrator, he's got a lot of text and a lot of context that he gives to the audience, and all of the speeches have been streamlined. There's been some restructuring and completely new monologues in the second act. It's pretty extensive, the difference between what was performed in Chicago and what we have now. There are literally changes on every page. It's really hard to quantify what he's changed, because it was constant tweaking and sharpening and clarifying. Harry Lennix: The chief change in terms of the play, for me, other than the refining of the language, has been in the chemistry of the cast. When you have actresses who are as talented at humor as Kara Young and LaTanya Richardson Jackson, it's going to add more laughs. It's a funnier show here than it was in Chicago. Our cast in Chicago was magnificent, of course, but this is a different city and it has a different temperature. In Chicago, it was a little close to home — the play is set in Chicago — but in New York, I think there's more distance, so the audience can see a little bit more the humor. LaTanya Richardson Jackson: Phylicia Rashad, who directed it, made sure that it wasn't a moving freight train, but it felt like a moving freight train! It was a different process of having to learn lines every day, especially during previews, which was hard because you rehearse in the day and you do the play at night and try to implement the lines. But this company welcomed us and just plugged right into us as soon as we met them, so they made the process easy, easier than what it seemed because they were so welcoming. Kara Young: The cast just really welcomed us with an open heart, open arms. The play was evolving and Branden was writing constantly, consistently, and we were all on it together, too, to some degree, so there was a lot of new things happening and we were all on the train. But it was one thing for these incredible actors, the four from Chicago, to be sitting with these characters for some time, and so you do have to get with the program and keep it going, but it was a deep dive and we wanted to do it, to really get there with them. We were welcomed and hugged and supported and loved. Marc J. Franklin Jacobs-Jenkins: That scene is one of the first things that I wrote for the show. That scene showed up pretty soon when I was starting to write. I'm homaging the very iconic dinner scene in August: Osage Country; when I was given that brief to write 'muscular realism,' that was the first thing that came to mind. It's pretty clear the actors are having fun doing it, and it helps to have a thing that the actors like to do because there's a constant source of inspiration happening. For me, that scene is really where it's hard to tell where my work ends and the actors' begins, because if you watch the show six times and you just focus on one of those actors in the dinner scene, each of them is telling a very specific story. Lennix: It really is an ensemble piece, at no more important time than that time. That is the central section, in my view. In a basketball game, a player will get a hot hand and they'll start dishing the ball to that person because they are on a streak, and this is like being able to predict who's going to have the streak at any given time. You're just handing off the energy to another actor. I'm looking at Kara and LaTanya and Glenn be virtuosi. Alana Arenas, I think, in many ways sets the temperature when she has her beautiful aria, if you will. I look forward every night to seeing that bit. Hill: I get to sit down and look at each of these titans in their craft. My back is to the audience, so folks can't really see what I'm doing or my face, but it's a lot of listening and eye contact and very intricate choreography with the food going around the table. There are five different things happening at all times and everyone has to be completely focused and locked in to really pull that scene off every day. It's completely fraught but also exhilarating. Young: As Aziza, I'm clocking the emasculation of these two men by their father and really clocking how deeply this onion is being peeled to revealing the vitriol of Solomon Jasper and asking, 'Where is that coming from?' The disappointment is illogical in this moment because this is the first time that everybody has come together in two years. I also have to bring up the epic, epic Broadway debut of the one, the only Alana Arenas. I'm gagged every single night! I have to remind myself that I'm in the play sometimes because I'm watching her as an audience member, and I guess Aziza is, too. Davis: I'm up there with five of the best actors I've ever worked with in my life, and each one has their own moment. Every night I look forward to it. Depending on the night or the audience, some laughs are bigger than others. There's always laughter, there's always surprise, there's always intrigue. Each one of us are doing things every night and surprising each other watching each other. I'm thrilled by each of those actors and once I get to it, I'm just excited. I'm on the edge of my seat like the audience is. Each one of these actors is so electric, so that scene flies. Jackson: We sit at that table anew at every show. It's fresh and new for us because we look for the truth of what we're saying right then in the moment. Somehow, the energy that's needed and the freshness of the approach is just there with us because we see each other differently at every turn. Marc J. Franklin Jackson: Every time I do it, it takes my breath away. I am standing there having to recover from the violence of what I have just done. It's new every morning, it's fresh, it's an unexpected turn because that is not the way this family has been put together. It was all unexpected and unfortunate, but at that point, Claudine had to just follow through. Hill: That one is a nightmare. I hate doing it, but that's just because our director really identified what that scene is about, and it's about a friendship cracking and beginning to disintegrate. The lovely thing that Branden's done is place these flaws in characters that you have to play genuinely, and they make the audience cringe and judge you, but that's exactly how it would happen in real life. It's painful yelling at Kara Young, the most delightful human on earth. Looking into her eyes and seeing her heartbreak is very difficult, but you have to execute that scene to justify what her character has to do later. Young: My first thought when you ask that question is that you really can't save the world, you can only save yourself. Self-liberation is at the core at the end of that scene in a wild way. She is trying to help her friend, she is trying to defend him, she is trying to stand up for him, and yet she made a huge mistake. It's a heartbreaking thing. When you're trying to help someone that doesn't want to be helped, it really hurts. Aziza has never seen this side of her friend. This is a very surprising reaction, and Aziza's never seen the level of toxic masculinity come out of this very pure soul. Marc J. Franklin Davis: Junior is dealing with some very particular circumstances in terms of mental health. For an actor, you want to imbue him with a sense of urgency to make good on his name. He has a sense of urgency to do something magnanimous, to do something great as soon as possible, to impress, to rectify. As you alluded to, he overdoes it, he goes a little too far as one is prone to do when you can't see the forest for the trees. I have to give all credit to Ms. Phylicia Rashad, who helped me in this, and obviously Branden. It's a harrowing moment, but that's part of Branden's gift. He gives you something that is inherently tragic or harrowing and then juxtaposes it right up against something that is supremely hilarious. Hill: You see two people with a gulf between them that are each making the effort to bridge that gap, so while it does feel gratifying, it's also helpful at the end of the play. They're both still really reaching for something and going after something with their words, so I think that really drives us through it. But when it's over, it feels special. I think what Branden's written is really transcendent. It ends up being one of those universal father-son theological, philosophical discussions that transcends our immediate reality. It takes on this epic context or feel. We look forward to that scene. Lennix: I've told Branden and Jon that this is my favorite scene to do with another actor that I've ever done. I cannot think of another scene that I look forward to doing more every night. Jon is such a beautiful actor and so responsive, wherever I go he can go, and wherever he goes I try to go. The completion of these characters' journeys, at least for this evening in the theater, is beautiful. It's a beautiful written scene, my word! Jacobs-Jenkins: I definitely don't write plays to win Pulitzers, so when you win it, you're like, 'Oh my God, this is sweet, this is the icing on the icing.' I'm very happy to have won it, honestly, because some of my favorite plays have won it. It feels so wild. The panel is made up of other writers, too, so it feels like it's the only real writing award in the theater because it's based on the script, not the production. In terms of how I look at it in my body of work, the truth is for every play, because I live inside the writing of them, they're all connected in ways that maybe aren't clear to people. This is in some ways the cousin to Appropriate, but there's also something about it that couldn't have been written unless I wrote The Comeuppance. I'm also aware that I'm on the young side in terms of the award, so I hope this isn't the only one in my lifetime. Marc J. Franklin Jackson: I was just so overwhelmed and overjoyed with pride and honor when he won [the Pulitzer]. I think I felt more emotionally than when I heard that I had been nominated for the Tony, quite frankly. That was such a major, major accomplishment because I want so much for all of you young people that you become everything that has been put inside of you. It is something that is written on the resume of my heart, and I will always, until I leave this earth, look at this moment and realize that God had given me such a miracle to live inside. It's a major accomplishment. Hill: I don't think the feeling in the building has changed. We've felt this way about the play probably since Branden brought in the last 40 pages the night before first preview in Chicago and sat on the stage and read it, and there wasn't a dry eye. We are overjoyed to see Branden being recognized in this way and for it to be officially his installment in the great American play canon. We approach it with the same verve and vigor every night, and perhaps the audience comes in with something new, a different expectation because it has received this accolade, but our job is to really execute what we built and make this offering every night with the same inspiration as we did on first preview. Lennix: When we started, we had half of a play, so in some ways I feel like I am in the DNA of this character now. I think Branden took certain conversations and poeticized them, put a lot of stuff that we talked about at the table when we were workshopping this play into the play as any great writer would do. It's very gratifying that the Pulitzer committee would select us. I think it's fitting. I hope that doesn't sound arrogant, but I don't know of a play that is this brave, that is this ambitious, and that is this insular: you take a little family, all of the action of the play must take place over a 12- or 14-hour period, so these are classical elements, these are elements of union, time, and space, the stuff that great writers of old have tried to achieve. It's been very gratifying, and I take some pride in the acknowledgement, in his acknowledge, of Branden being a Pulitzer-worthy writer. Davis: As an actor, that's a cherry on top. The greatest honor for me is that the play is being recognized in this way with the Pulitzer. We've had one other Pulitzer Prize-winning play at Steppenwolf, and that was August: Osage County, so to be mentioned alongside Tracy Letts' fantastic play is the greatest honor. Lennix: The commonality, I think, is almost unavoidable, that is, August chronicled the 20th century, he can be thought and argued to be the defining voice of that twentieth century in terms of drama on the American stage, and much can be said for Branden. Purpose is a definitive, I would dare say, representative work of the new millennium. No other play that I'm aware of at this point, a quarter of a century in, has so adroitly dealt with the causes that we're all dealing with: COVID, neurodivergence, expanding gender identities. This is something that probably could not have been written in August Wilson's lifetime, but August did for that century what I think Branden is doing for this one. It's not uncommon to have great poets writing dramatic literature, but somebody that exists who is aware of the politics of it, of the racial aspects of it, of the complexities that are unique to this American experiment in such a comprehensive way, this distinguishes these two men. Jackson: Branden is the most consequential writer of our time, bar none. Because of Branden's relationship with himself and the world, he has been able to write women in a way that is different and less intellectual than August. There's something about the visceral nature of how Branden has written women that is different. I said to August one time, 'You've got to write me some women that sound like these men,' and he said, 'When I get to understand women that way, I will.' The way Branden has treated these women, there is something that is inherent in what he knows and what he sees that he's been able to capture and deliver. August's women, they are great intellectual women, but they don't really, to me, compare to the men because I don't know of a playwright who has written men as well as August. I think Branden, the breadth of Branden's genius, is he knows women in an intimate way. Young: I have not really taken the moment to absorb the last four years, but I feel incredibly fortunate. I feel incredibly fortunate to have been part of these works and these writers and the brilliance, the majesty of these pens. I actually cannot believe these are the companies in which I'm surrounded. When you said it, it really hit me. Listen, I saw Martyna Majok and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Lynn Nottage [Clyde's] continue to work on their plays. These people are masters at what they do. Every moment, every beat is meticulously crafted. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby 'Maybe Happy Ending' star Darren Criss on his Tony nomination for playing a robot: 'Getting to do this is the true win' Who Needs a Tony to Reach EGOT? Sadie Sink on her character's 'emotional rage' in 'John Proctor Is the Villain' and her reaction to 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow' Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Maybe Happy Ending' director Michael Arden taps into the ‘universal heartbreak and joy' of his robot love story
"I think it's all about making sure that you're building a world for an audience ... and that you're making sure they're on the emotional ride that you want them to be on," explains Maybe Happy Ending director Michael Arden. For years, Arden has been one of the most prominent directors when it comes to reinventing worlds. He won a Tony Award for the recent revival of Parade, and earned additional nominations for his radical reimaginings of Once on This Island and Spring Awakening. But Maybe Happy Ending, which tells a near-future love story between two obsolete "Helperbots," marks the first time that Arden has directed a new musical on Broadway. More from GoldDerby Kieran Culkin Joins 'Sunrise on the Reaping' as Caesar Flickerman: Everything we know about 'The Hunger Games' prequel 'Monsters' stars on breaking furniture and bringing the Menendez case back into the spotlight Latest Tony Awards odds: 'Maybe Happy Ending' and 'Oh, Mary!' maintain their leads, Best Actress in a Musical tightens Speaking to Gold Derby, the director reveals what it was like to build a complex musical world from the ground up, and why he believes that this robot saga is actually about living. Gold Derby: What was it was about this script that hooked you the first time you read it? Michael Arden: It was that I started out feeling so distanced from the characters. Like, oh, these are robots in the future in Korea, that's nothing like me. And then by the time it was over, I thought, "Oh, that will be me one day in some way, shape, or form." I think that's what's so universal about the story, it kind of taps into the universal heartbreak and joy that is when you sign up to love, you sign up to lose. I just felt like I was watching my own life flash before my eyes through the lens of these strange robots, and I was so moved by that. Part of what makes the show so special is that you can't help but imprint your own experiences on these characters. Was that true for you as you created it? Definitely. I think what the writers have done so beautifully is that it is not overwritten in the slightest. They've left enough porous space in the material for you to fill in the blanks with your own experience. I think that's the show's magic in a way. You can be a teenager and project your first relationship onto it, or I've seen couples in their 90s who've come to see the show and are filling in the blanks with a lifetime of sadness and joy and hope and love. So it was certainly an interesting process in that almost every day there was a moment that just kind of brought me to my knees emotionally, because it was looking at a different chapter of love and of life. Making sure that we were both specific, and being universal enough to let everybody in, was the challenge and the fun of forming the piece. The world you've created combines this intimate sense of connection with huge technology and stagecraft. How did you reach that type of visual language? It was based upon the needs of the story. It's a really cinematic script, and either you kind of do it with two chairs and nothing, which I've heard is kind of what the Korean production does, or you have to go on the journey with these characters. And therefore we need to travel through all these spaces. We need to be in a car. We need to be on a ferry. We need to be in the woods. We need to go into the memories. So it wasn't that I set out to make something technological. In fact, everything we're doing is quite simple. It's just the coordination that makes it very complex. But we're just responding to the kind of widening lens of the perception of the world of these robots. It just felt like we had to respond to each chapter and each emotional beat physically. I felt it was important that the audience went on as much of an epic adventure as our robots did. The 'Chasing Fireflies' scene is a great example of what you're talking about. There's this grand reveal of the musicians and a lot of stagecraft involved, but it's quite simple in the emotion that it's conveying. How did you create that moment? In the script it says a firefly appears and then suddenly millions of fireflies appear. I think that's the only stage direction. I often take stage direction as metaphor and emotional suggestion. And I thought, "OK, well Oliver's greatest love is jazz, and it's because of his owner [Gil Brentley], which is because he loves people most of all. Fireflies are what Claire is most excited about because of what they represent, these kind of forest robots that don't ever need to charge. And even though they live briefly, there is a magic to it." So the metaphor to me became clear that it was connected to Gil Brentley and ultimately to other people. So having people be Gil Brantley's New Year's Eve Orchestra, as I kind of imagine in my mind, in the woods, seemed like an appropriate visual metaphor for that. And it's very simple. We open up an iris on the players who've been playing music all night, but somehow having them share space with our robots. … The human element is so powerful because we've been denied it all evening. We've just been stuck with the droids. But it reminds us that, oh, this thing is about life. The way I start and end the show visually is with an iris on [Oliver's plant] Hwa'Boon, who is kind of the witness to this story. He's the only living thing in those rooms. So he represents life because for me, the play is about living The chemistry between Darren Criss and Helen J Shen is integral to the story. What was it like working with them and charting their characters' relationship? Incredible in so many ways. They're both so curious and hardworking and really listen to each other and surprise each other. It's been so exciting to watch their performances grow over the course of the run. Helen is just such a pro, I can't believe this is their Broadway debut. It's really shocking because they're wise beyond their years. And Darren is just so meticulous and so curious and obsessive that it's sort of perfect for the role of Oliver, and he's just so good physically. I'm the choreographer of the show, so it was fun to get to work with them both physically and find the differences between the models that way. And then they've just really flown with it since opening it. The show has become a true word-of-mouth success. What is it like to experience this strong reaction from fans? It's the best part. Honestly. For many years we all believed in it so much. We knew that if we can just get people to see this, surely they will be as moved by it as we are. But we didn't quite expect the outpouring of love. I think what we've noticed is that people kind of leave the theater a bit more open and tender when they came in. And the most miraculous part is they have shared that, and invited their friends, and called their parents and said: go see the show. And they come back. It's just so rewarding because doing a musical is hard, especially doing a new musical with no nothing to kind of cling onto and a tagline that's probably somewhat alienating for many. So the fact that we are seeing such a swell of love and support is one of the most beautiful things. I stand in the back and see people holding hands and gasping and wiping their eyes as they leave the theater. It's just so rewarding to think, oh, we were right. I'm glad we didn't give up. We all feel just kind of … the word isn't disbelief because we all believed in it. I think it's just gratitude. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby Who Needs a Tony to Reach EGOT? Sadie Sink on her character's 'emotional rage' in 'John Proctor Is the Villain' and her reaction to 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow' 'It should be illegal how much fun I'm having': Lea Salonga on playing Mrs. Lovett and more in 'Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends' Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Ready for her close-up: Nicole Scherzinger takes the lead in Tony odds for Best Actress in a Musical
For the first time since the Tony Award nominations were announced, Nicole Scherzinger has taken the lead in Gold Derby's odds to win Best Actress in a Musical. In this incredibly competitive Broadway season, our combined predictions have been surprisingly steady in many of the top categories. Even Best Actress, which has been seen as a close race since the start, has been consistent in favoring Audra McDonald for Gypsy, with Scherzinger's Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard in second, and Broadway breakout Jasmine Amy Rogers in the title role of Boop! The Musical in third. The category is rounded out by Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard from Death Becomes Her. More from GoldDerby Inside the Drama Desk Awards: Sarah Snook, Nicole Scherzinger, Jasmine Amy Rogers and more on theater's big night 'Maybe Happy Ending' dominates the 2025 Drama Desk Awards with 6 wins, 'Boop!' and 'Gypsy' stage upsets Kate Hudson and Mindy Kaling shoot for Emmys recognition for 'Running Point' at the Lakers training facility Scherzinger has long had the majority of our users predicting her to win, but has not been able to break out of second place because of the number of experts and editors who have favored McDonald. Our experts still overwhelmingly support McDonald for the victory, with seven backing the six-time Tony winner to the four who think Olivier Award-winning Scherzinger will repeat stateside. Now Scherzinger has a slim majority of editors predicting her in a 5-to-4 split between her and McDonald. SEE 'Sunset Boulevard' star Tom Francis reveals how he plays 'the complete and utter opposite' of Nicole Scherzinger's Norma Desmond This odds development follows many twists and turns in the Best Actress category throughout the Broadway awards season. At the Outer Critics Circle Awards, Scherzinger faced both McDonald and Rogers — along with Simard, Darren Criss (Maybe Happy Ending) and Jeremy Jordan (Floyd Collins) — in the Lead Performer in a Musical category but lost to Rogers. Days later, Scherzinger won the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance in a field of 51 thespians, a prize that a performer may only win once in their career; she notably bested Hilty, Simard, and Rogers in this category, but McDonald was not eligible as she received the prize back in 2012 for The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess. The Drama League victor often goes on to win the Tony in their respective field. But at Sunday's Drama Desk Awards, Scherzinger lost to both McDonald and Rogers for the Lead Performance in a Musical prize; this awards body has gender-free categories and thus opts to give two trophies per race. Although the voting bodies of these various groups do not extensively overlap with Tony voters, their decisions speak to perceptions within the industry and, in this case, the lack of consensus in this race. One large factor in Scherzinger's favor is the perceived strength of Sunset Boulevard across other categories at the Tonys. The revival has the most overall nominations versus Gypsy and Boop! with seven to their five and three, respectively. Our current odds have Sunset out front for Best Musical Revival and Best Director for Jamie Lloyd, though it did not win either of those categories at the Drama Desk, where the prizes went to Gypsy and Maybe Happy Ending's director Michael Arden. Gold Derby also projects Sunset to win Lighting Design. 1. Nicole Scherzinger, Sunset Boulevard – 11/5 2. Audra McDonald, Gypsy – 51/20 3. Jasmine Amy Rogers, Boop! The Musical – 5/1 4. Jennifer Simard, Death Becomes Her – 7/1 5. Megan Hilty, Death Becomes Her – 8/1 SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby 'Maybe Happy Ending' star Darren Criss on his Tony nomination for playing a robot: 'Getting to do this is the true win' Who Needs a Tony to Reach EGOT? Sadie Sink on her character's 'emotional rage' in 'John Proctor Is the Villain' and her reaction to 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow' Click here to read the full article.
