Patti LuPone reignites Kecia Lewis and Audra McDonald feuds: ‘Don’t call yourself a vet, b***h’

Patti LuPone has taken aim at fellow Broadway star Kecia Lewis after the latter accused her of being “racially microaggressive”.

Three-time Tony Award winner LuPone is known for saying exactly what is on her mind, but this time, some theatre fans feel she’s gone too far.

In a new interview with The New Yorker, LuPone reflected on being called out by Lewis last autumn, while the pair were starring in Broadway shows next door to each other.

At the time, LuPone was starring in The Roommate alongside Mia Farrow at the Booth Theatre, while Lewis was appearing in Alicia Keys’ jukebox musical, Hell’s Kitchen, next door at the Shubert Theatre. 

At the time, LuPone felt that noise was bleeding through the walls from Hell’s Kitchen and, at the suggestion of her stage manager, got in touch with the head of the Shubert organisation, Robert Wankel, to address the issue.

Yet Lewis, who was starring in the production as Miss Liza Jane, decided to upload a video to social media in which she spoke as one “veteran” Broadway star to another to call out LuPone’s actions.

In the clip, Lewis suggested that LuPone’s request was “bullying”, “racially microaggressive” and “rooted in privilege” as she had deemed a Black-led show “loud”.

Thinking back to the incident in her chat with The New Yorker, Patti LuPone raged that Lewis didn’t know “what the f**k she’s talking about”.

“Oh, my God… 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 f**k she’s talking about,” LuPone fumed.

“She’s done seven. I’ve done thirty-one. Don’t call yourself a vet, b***h,” she added, though the publication found that Lewis had actually done 10 Broadway shows, to LuPone’s 28.

“This is not unusual on Broadway. This happens all the time when walls are shared,” she added of the noise issue.

During the conversation, The New Yorker’s journalist Michael Shulman then reminded LuPone that six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald had left an emoji on Lewis’s video to voice her support.

“…I thought, you should know better. That’s typical of Audra. She’s not a friend,” LuPone revealed, adding that the pair had a rift in the past. She also declined to answer a question about McDonald’s revival of Broadway stalwart Gypsy, which she is currently nominated for her 11th Tony Award for.

Instead, LuPone sarcastically quipped: “What a beautiful day.”

Online, the Broadway community is less than impressed with LuPone’s digs at both Lewis and McDonald.

“Listen I appreciate Patti LuPone and her contributions to theatre as much as anyone else but she’s crossed the line one too many times. I’m tired of her actions being passed off as ‘diva behavior’ when in reality she’s just mean spirited,” wrote one person on X/Twitter.

Another added: “Patti is so tactless and tone deaf… like girl.”

Elsewhere in the profile, the Agatha All Along star addressed accusations that she is a “diva”.

“I know what I’m worth to a production,” she said in response.

“I know that I’m box-office. Don’t nickel-and-dime me before you put me onstage. Don’t treat me like a piece of sh*t. Because, at this point, if you don’t value me, why am I there?”

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