Patti LuPone controversy: Offensive comments, backlash and apology, explained

USA Today

4 hours ago

Patti LuPone controversy: Offensive comments, backlash and apology, explained
Patti LuPone is a Broadway and musical theater legend who's as famous for her performances as her unfiltered opinions about everything from mid-show interruptions to the president. She's appeared in dozens of shows, and among her many accolades are three Tony Awards — two for Best Actress in a Musical (Evita, 1980 and Gypsy, 2008) and one for Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Company, 2022).
The 76-year-old actress — who also has had an extensive film and TV career — knows a lot about theater. Probably more than most. But one thing she clearly still needs to learn is that you can still be an outspoken diva without being mean, derogatory or straight-up racist.
Leading up to the 2025 Tony Awards on Sunday, LuPone has been in the middle of an ugly controversy seemingly entirely of her own making. In a May 26 New Yorker profile, she made disparaging remarks about six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald — the most nominated and awarded performer in Tony's history — and fellow Tony-winner Kecia Lewis. This sparked tremendous backlash from fans and those in the Broadway community and LuPone ultimately apologized.
Here's a breakdown of the Patti LuPone controversy.
Who is Patti LuPone?
As we mentioned, she's a theater star with three Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards and two Emmy Award nominations. Along with Gypsy, Evita and Company, LuPone has been in productions of Anything Goes, Sweeney Todd, Sunset Boulevard and Les Misérables, among many others. After making her stage debut in the 1970s, she's been part of shows on Broadway and West End.
What did Patti LuPone say in her New Yorker profile about Audra McDonald and Kecia Lewis?
The New Yorker profile by Michael Schulman about LuPone was long, wide-ranging and in-depth, but we're here to focus on a couple specific parts at the end of the feature.
LuPone was in a 2024 two-woman play The Roommate, for which her co-star Mia Farrow earned a 2025 Tony nomination. The show shared a wall with the theater showing Hell's Kitchen, the Tony-winning Alicia Keys jukebox musical. The New Yorker notes the musical sound was so loud it could be heard through the walls leading LuPone to ask the show to address the noise issue. She then sent thank-you flowers after it was fixed.
Kecia Lewis — a star of Hell's Kitchen who won a 2024 Tony Award for her performance — took to Instagram in November 2024 to read an open letter responding to LuPone labeling "a Black show loud in a way that dismisses it" and accusing her of committing microaggressions.
"These actions, in my opinion, are bullying," Lewis says in her Instagram video. "They're offensive. They are racially microaggressive. They're rude. They're rooted in privilege, and these actions also lack a sense of community and leadership for someone as yourself who has been in the business as long as you have."
From The New Yorker:
'Oh, my God,' LuPone said, balking, when I brought up the incident. 'Here's the problem. She calls herself a veteran? Let's find out how many Broadway shows Kecia Lewis has done, because she doesn't know what the [expletive] she's talking about.' She Googled. 'She's done seven. I've done thirty-one. Don't call yourself a vet, [expletive].' (The correct numbers are actually ten and twenty-eight, but who's counting?) She explained, of the noise problem, 'This is not unusual on Broadway. This happens all the time when walls are shared.'
But LuPone didn't stop the insults there. When Schulman pointed out that Audra McDonald responded to Lewis' Instagram video with "supportive emojis", LuPone insulted McDonald and her Tony-nominated portrayal of Rose in Gypsy, the same role LuPone won a Tony for in the 2008 revival. More from The New Yorker:
I mentioned that Audra McDonald—the Tony-decorated Broadway star—had given the video supportive emojis. 'Exactly,' LuPone said. 'And I thought, You should know better. That's typical of Audra. She's not a friend'—hard 'D.' The two singers had some long-ago rift, LuPone said, but she didn't want to elaborate. When I asked what she had thought of McDonald's current production of 'Gypsy,' she stared at me, in silence, for fifteen seconds. Then she turned to the window and sighed, 'What a beautiful day.'
Did Audra McDonald or Kecia Lewis respond to Patti LuPone?
In an interview with CBS Mornings published this week, Gayle King asked McDonald if she was surprised by LuPone's comments about her. McDonald said:
"If there's a rift between us, I don't know what it is. That's something you'd have to ask Patti about. I haven't seen her in about 11 years just because we've been busy just with life and stuff, so I don't know what rift she's talking about. So you'd have to ask her."
Despite previously responding to LuPone on Instagram in November, it doesn't seem that Lewis has responded publicly to LuPone's recent comments.
How did the Broadway community respond to Patti LuPone's comments?
Outrage on behalf of McDonald and Lewis was abundant. More than 500 actors from around the industry signed and published an open letter on May 30 condemning LuPone's comments as "degrading and misogynistic" and "a blatant act of racialized disrespect." According to Playbill, the total number of signatures on the letter is more than 700.
Before demanding a broad and consistent standard of accountability in the industry, the letter added:
"It constitutes bullying. It constitutes harassment. It is emblematic of the microaggressions and abuse that people in this industry have endured for far too long, too often without consequence.
"To publicly attack a woman who has contributed to this art form with such excellence, leadership, and grace—and to discredit the legacy of Audra McDonald, the most nominated and awarded performer in Tony Award history—is not simply a personal offense. It is a public affront to the values of collaboration, equity, and mutual respect that our theater community claims to uphold."
Others reactions included one from Emmy Award winning actress Sheryl Lee Ralph, a current star on Abbott Elementary who starred in the original Broadway production of Dreamgirls in 1981, for which she was Tony nominated. Speaking to Page Six from the Gotham Television Awards red carpet, Ralph explained why she's not judging LuPone, 'Why not be nice?' before adding:
"But was it a moment where, maybe, you wanted to say, 'Zip it, girl. Zip it'? Inner thoughts need not always be outer thoughts."
Patti LuPone ultimately apologized for her comments about Audra McDonald and Kecia Lewis
LuPone posted her apology on social media. It read, in part:
"I am deeply sorry for the words I used during The New Yorker interview, particularly about Kecia Lewis, which were demeaning and disrespectful. 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. I hope to have the chance to speak to Audra and Kecia personally to offer my sincere apologies."
Taking responsibility and committing to doing better is a good thing. But after so many performances, accolades and decades in the industry, she should have known how offensive the words coming out of her mouth were.