Patti LuPone revealed she and Audra McDonald are no longer friends, six months after the Company actress was embroiled in a feud with Kecia Lewis for being “racially microaggressive.”

Patti LuPone does not want to be in Audra McDonald’s company.

Seventeen years after Patti won a Tony for playing the lead role in Broadway’s Gypsy, Audra stepped into the iconic role in the George C. Wolfe revival. And though the two have costarred in numerous concerts and galas over the years, the Agatha All Along actress revealed in a New Yorker profile published May 26 that, as of now, Audra is “not a friend.”

Indeed, when asked what she thought of Audra’s current run as Rose in Gypsy, Patti simply stared out the window for 15 seconds before simply turning to say, “What a beautiful day.”

While Patti is no stranger to a Broadway feud, her unfiltered update about her and Audra’s relationship comes six months after the Company actress was enthralled in a feud with Kecia Lewis, who portrayed Miss Liza Jane in Alicia Keys’ Hell’s Kitchen while Patti and Mia Farrow were performing The Roommate in the theatre next door.  

At the time, Patti had deemed the neighboring show too loud and called the head of the Shubert Organization, which owns both theatres, to ask him if he could fix the noise problem. But soon after, Kecia posted a video to Instagram, speaking as one “veteran” to another, calling Patti’s actions “racially microaggressive” and “rooted in privilege” for calling “a Black show loud.”

And Patti didn’t hold back when offering up her take on that controversy.

“Oh, my God,” she began when the subject was broached during her New Yorker conversation. “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. She’s done seven. I’ve done 31.”

Though it was clarified in the profile that, in reality, Kecia, 59, had been in 10 productions while Patti had been in 28, the three-time Tony winner went on to insist that her initial comments were completely acceptable.  

“Don’t call yourself a vet, b---h,” she continued. “This is not unusual on Broadway. This happens all the time when walls are shared.”

But when Kecia had initially accused Patti of “bullying” in her post, Audra was one of many showing their support in the comments, leaving a few uplifting emojis for the Broadway star, which Patti took umbrage with.

“I thought, ‘You should know better,’” she recalled thinking when she saw Audra’s comment. “That’s typical of Audra. She’s not a friend.”

“There was a little bit of bulls--t that went down,” she added, “and then I washed my hands of a couple of people in the business.”

Source:
courtesy of ESPN

by Desiree Anello

If you have any stories or news that you would like to share with the global online community, please feel free to share it with us by contacting us directly at [email protected]