Broadway star Patti Lupone says she’s sorry.
Lupone is apologizing after the dreadful — and maybe racist — things she said about fellow performers Audra McDonald and Kecia Lewis.
The comments were made in a New Yorker article in which Lupone was over the top nasty, not just snarky. She claimed McDonald was not her friend despite their past relationship. And she went after Lewis, because her musical, “Hell’s Kitchen,” made too much noise while Lupone was on stage next door in a play.
It didn’t help that both McDonald and Lewis are Black actors starring in Black shows.
The result was 500 Broadway artists signing a letter in support of McDonald and Lewis, and castigating Lupone. They asked that she be disinvited from the Tony Awards.
She must have hired crisis PR over night because now she’s contrite.
“I made a mistake,” she says in the statement below. Will it work? The Tony Awards are a week away, and believe me, this will be the talk of the town, indeed.
One addendum: When I ran into Lupone at the opening of “Dead Outlaw,” she was particularly mean about McDonald starring in “Gypsy,” in a role Lupone is famous for. I was taken aback. She needs to muzzle herself going forward.
