Is Patti LuPone Racist?

Dear Frank #2

Introducing Dear Frank, a new pop culture column.

Who hasn’t argued about pop culture? Whether it’s with a friend, significant other, or annoying co-worker, we’ve all had pop culture debates… okay, arguments… okay, sometimes fights. Sometimes they’re even with strangers on the internet. For all my frustrated readers, I’m calling for submissions of your heated pop culture fights — and I’ll decide who’s right and who’s wrong.

Dear Frank,

That heifer Patti LuPone is in the press again. This time being RACIST AS HELL to Audra McDonald and Kecia Lewis! And don’t think I forgot about the fight she had with the cast of Hell’s Kitchen! She’s always in the press these days saying something crazy and racist but the white gays on my feed are always having a kiki over her quotes calling her “iconic.”

I don’t think I’m overreacting. I think it’s fuck Patti all day! But tell me if I am.

(I’M NOT!!! I just want to know if you agree!)

Sincerely,

Angry Black Theatre Gay

Audra McDonald and Patti LuPone. Photo: Stephanie Berger.

Angry Black Theatre Gay,

Let me first say… you came in hot chile! But fuck it, let’s get into it.

Is Patti LuPone racist? Well… not really! I mean, she could very well be I don’t know what hoods are hanging in her closet you’d have to ask her recent roommate Aubrey Plaza, but in this particular situation, I would say no Patti is not being 100% racist. Is she being insulting, demeaning, and tone-deaf? Well… yes!

The thing about this recent drama between Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, and Kecia Lewis (stemming from Patti’s recent New Yorker profile by Michael Schulman) is that there are a few things you need to understand to parse it. This requires a bit of nuance and grace, which the internet lacks, and with good reason, Black people in the theatre community are unwilling to give Patti because they’re fed up. Fed up with how Black actors are treated and fed up with what Patti gets away with. Add in the fact that she’s attacking two beloved Black actresses, and well, you can imagine why people are mad as hell at her.

I’ve interviewed Patti before and I found her incredibly charming. First off, she always gives you a soundbite, which I appreciate as an interviewer. And she’s very good at being friendly with someone one-on-one when she doesn’t feel threatened by them. This is the important part here. There’s an anecdote in the New Yorker that gets to the heart of this. Patti was notoriously at odds with the cast of Evita due to tension between her and director Hal Prince.

A former chorus boy explains: “A former “Evita” chorus remembered LuPone as ‘a bit of a mess and undisciplined and driving Hal crazy.’ But he also told a story that validated her sense of being messed with. After a rainy day of rehearsal, he shared a taxi with her, and they became chummy. Then Prince’s general manager ordered him to keep his distance from the leading lady. ‘I was very upset. I thought it had come from Patti—that I had offended her. So, from that minute on, I absolutely iced her. In retrospect, I realized they wanted to control her by isolating her.’”

Patti was a bitch to the cast because of her issues with Hal. But after a one-on-one with a chorus buy, she defanged. We all know people like this. Hell, I’m like this at times. Does it excuse how she treated everyone during the Evita process? No, but it does help you understand it a bit. But that’s enough sympathy for Patti! Let’s get to the real drama here.

One thing I will say first about this New Yorker drama is that it’s clear no one read the entire article when it dropped on Monday. Because the focus was “Why did Patti single out these two actresses?” But if you read the whole thing, she attacked a ton of people in it. Hell, she even called Glenn Close a bitch too. But the difference is that Glenn is white and a household name, much like Patti is. There are different power and racial dynamics at play when she refers to Kecia as a bitch.

She not only calls Kecia a bitch but also minimizes her theatre credits and says she’s “not a veteran.” Never mind that Kecia has been in 10 Broadway productions since 1985. If that’s not a veteran, I don’t know what is. But it’s also clear that her beef with Kecia is because Kecia specifically called her racist in an Instagram video about the fight between Kecia’s production of Hell’s Kitchen and Patti’s production of The Roommate. The Roommate, a play, shared a wall last year with Hell’s Kitchen, a musical starring Shoshana Bean so you know it was loud as hell before you even factor in the fact that it’s a Black show.

During parts of The Roommate, you could hear Hell’s Kitchen being performed. This isn’t a new phenomenon to anyone who’s worked on Broadway or seen a Broadway show. This is probably something the producers of The Roommate shouldn’t figured out before performances started. But Patti called the theater owner for Hell’s Kitchen and had some sound cues changed because they were “too loud.” A diva move. And one that only someone of Patti’s stature could have happened. Very few Black Broadway actors could have (or would’ve to be honest) done this. Except for Audra! But we’ll get to the Audra beef in a minute.

Kecia, rightly mad, posted a video to Instagram where she called Patti’s actions “bullying” and said calling a Black show “too loud” was a racial microaggression. Unfortunately, here, I am gonna… disagree. I think it was rude. But to call it bullying and racial microaggression is the kind of annoying online speech that I hate. There was a way to call out Patti without calling it a “microaggression.” Yes, it’s different when you call the Black show “too loud.” But, I’ve seen Hell’s Kitchen twice. It IS a loud show! All musicals are loud! And given everything you know about Patti, who goes on about how she hates people talking loudly in restaurants next to her, wouldn’t have done the same thing to a white show, you’re not being a serious person.

Does that mean that she should be calling Kecia a bitch in print? No, that was nasty. And I can see why people would rally around Kecia after this. But also, like I said, she also called Glenn Close a bitch in the same article. And Patti has a history of beef with EVERYONE. If this were an isolated incident and she called Kecia a bitch and had never been a rude, petty, demeaning woman to anyone else, then I’d understand it more. But that’s like calling Ghostface racist for killing Jada Pinkett Smith and Omar Epps in Scream 2. A lot of people got chopped up!

You can be mad at her for discounting Kecia’s credits and saying she’s not a veteran. That is actually racially microaggressive because it stems from Patti not seeing a Black woman who’s been on Broadway almost as long as her as a peer. Just because she’s been in 10 shows and Patti has been in 28 shows. Especially when we know how hard it is for Broadway to even put on a damn show with Black casts in the first place. So, in the case of Patti versus Kecia? Is Patti being racist? Yeah. Whether intentionally or not, what she said was kinda racist. And she should apologize.

Now, let’s address the Audra McDonald issue. I know the initial question dragged white gays for celebrating another one of Patti’s rude moments. But gays love drama and you’ll never get them to quit Patti. She’s attacked Madonna and they still love her! It’s never happening. And to be fair, she did not refer to Audra in a derogatory manner and her actual response about Audra was shady and kinda funny:

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.”

I’m sorry, I laughed! It’s so campy and ridiculous. Also, if the women had some “long-ago rift,” then that seems like PERSONAL beef that we don’t know anything about! Until we know what the actual beef is and who wronged who, it’s not my business to decide who’s in the wrong here.

But I’d be willing to bet that it’s probably Patti. Audra is also currently playing Mama Rose, a role that was one of Patti’s major comeback roles, on Broadway. Now, Patti has lauded Nicole Scherzinger’s turn in Sunset Boulevard (the role Patti originated and began a feud with Glenn for “stealing” from her), but as I said earlier, Patti never gets mad at people she’s not threatened by. Patti LuPone is not threatened by Nicole Scherzinger. In any world. Threatened by six-time Tony-winner Audra McDonald? I’ll bet she is!

The funniest part in all of this is that if you ask most people off the record, they don’t even like this production of Gypsy nor do they love Audra’s interpretation of the role. But we love Audra down so we will defend her like family, even if we really don’t think she needs a seventh Tony¹. And certainly not for this production of Gypsy.

So, in the case of Patti versus Audra? Is Patti being racist? I really can’t decide until I know the tea! But to quote Mo’Nique, “My sister done burned too many bridges, and there’s nothing I can do for her now!” Patti hates a lot of people, but now the streets are wondering if there are any Black people she likes. She might need to schedule a lunch with Whoopi or Vanessa Williams and send in a tip to Deux Moi…

Got a burning pop culture question?

E-mail submissions to: frank@iramadison.com

1. Patti only has THREE by the way. No wonder she’s pressed…