Broadway legend Patti LuPone, never one to simply exit stage left, has announced that she is taking a break from Broadway.
On Monday, the three-time Tony winner took to Twitter to explain her seemingly abrupt decision.
“Quite a week on Broadway, seeing my name being bandied about,” she wrote. “Gave up my Equity card; no longer part of that circus. Figure it out.”
Her “Equity card” refers to her membership with the Actors’ Equity Association, the labor union that represents stage actors and managers. Union membership is required to perform in a Broadway production and for many professional theaters in the country.
A spokesperson for LuPone later revealed that she left the union after her run of “Company” closed on Broadway on July 31. LuPone received a Tony this year for featured actress in a musical for her turn as Joanne in the production.
“When the run of ‘Company’ ended this past July, I knew I wouldn’t be onstage for a very long time,” LuPone said in a statement verified by The Times. “And at that point, I made the decision to resign from Equity.”
LuPone’s spokesperson told The Times that the stage actor will not be speaking further on the matter.
LuPone’s tweet appears to be referring to an incident last week involving “Hadestown” performer Lillias White. While onstage, White repeatedly called out an audience member whom she thought was recording the Broadway production. It turned out the attendee, who was later identified as Samantha Coleman, was actually using a captioning device.
Coleman, who identifies as a deafblind person who is late-hard of hearing with progressive vision loss, documented her experience on Instagram last week.
“Providing access is also about educating everyone in the theater about how we can be more supportive. We are reviewing our policies and internal protocols to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” the “Hadestown” production team said in a statement provided to the Los Angeles Times.
“The production connected directly with Samantha earlier today to convey their apologies and thank her for bringing this to their attention so that it can be addressed.”
In a follow-up Twitter thread, Coleman — who was sitting in the front row — clarified that White handled the situation “quickly and concisely” while other action was unfolding onstage and that “the show was not disrupted or interrupted.” Coleman said she was not “publicly shamed” by White, adding, “It was [NOT] a LuPone incident.”
In a May performance of “Company,” LuPone was filmed berating a theatergoer for not following COVID-19 protocols in New York City’s Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre.
“Put your mask over your nose. That’s why you’re in the theater,” the 73-year-old can be heard saying in a recording of the incident. “That’s the rule. If you don’t want to follow the rule, get the f— out!”
During a 2015 production of “Shows for Days” at the Lincoln Center in New York City, LuPone snatched a cellphone out of the hands of a texting audience member during the play’s second act.
“There’s an arrogance and defiance to these people,” she told The Times following the encounter. “I think it’s gone too far. ... Audiences are as upset as actors. It’s only between two and four people a night, but the minute it goes off or a screen turns on, your attention is shattered.”
Now this is the way to answer a telephone: Patti Lupone, known for her zero-tolerance policy on cell phone use during theater performances, demonstrates proper phone etiquette for the audience at New York's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater while Michael Urie cowers under a table during a scene from Douglas Carter Beane’s new play, "Shows for Days."
LuPone was widely praised online after both instances — a stark departure from the intense online criticism White recently received, with some online noting the difference in responses to White, a Black woman, and LuPone, a white woman.
“I havent even gotten into how awful Lillias White has been treated for the behavior that makes Patti LuPone ‘legendary,’” tweeted @slothlevine. “The problem was that Ms. White had not been clued in on accessibility measures, which is about how theater prioritizes access, not about her.”
Twitter user @hadesmydarkness wrote, “i’m really of two minds regarding what went down at hadestown: on the one hand, there’s no way audience members should be publicly shamed for using accessibility devices, on the other hand, lillias white is catching a lot more flack for this than patti lupone ever has.”
Broadway performer James Harkness tweeted about the difference in responses to White and LuPone by questioning the biases of Broadway audiences.
“So — Patti Lupone gets praised for stopping shows and calling out audience members with devices but Lillias White gets attacked and even gets — and I quote ‘You think you are Patti Lupone. You are not,’” he wrote. “Why is that? Bias much? Yeah and no that is not happening Broadway fanbase.”
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