The fallout from the latest drama in the Broadway world continues, with Audra McDonald officially broken her silence regarding Patti LuPone’s comments heard around the world. In case you missed it, Patti LuPone, one of the biggest Broadway legends, threw some pretty serious shade towards two Broadway legends in their own right, Audra McDonald and Kecia Lewis, in a new profile in the New Yorker.
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In an interview with Gayle King for CBS Mornings, McDonald shared her perspective on the drama.
“If there’s a rift between us, I don’t know what it is,” the six-time Tony winner replied to King when she was asked if LuPone’s comments “surprised” her. “That’s something you’d have to ask Patti about. You know, I haven’t seen her in about 11 years just because we’ve been busy just with life. So I don’t know what rift she’s talking about, but you’d have to ask her.”
McDonald, as well as Lewis, have certainly had support in light of all of the drama LuPone stirred up. The Broadway community and celebrities at large have taken to social media to lift up these theater legends, and are simply not having any of it.
Fellow actress Yvette Nicole Brown took to Instagram with a post showing major support towards McDonald and Lewis. “Lemme tell you what we NOT gon’ do... allow the slander of these ICONS. I don’t care WHO it is,” Brown wrote in her post, clearly referencing LuPone and her comments.
“Lawd, my heart is hurt by this mess and by who tried it,” she continued. “But then again, have we not learned what Malcolm X so eloquently tried to teach folks about Black women being the most disrespected and unprotected group of people?”
Brown specifically took the time to call both of these actresses “VETS,” clearly referring to LuPone’s jab in the New Yorker.
LuPone specifically shaded Lewis in the New Yorker profile based on a public back and forth the two of them got into last year. Lewis publicly called out LuPone after she complained that “Hell’s Kitchen” (the show Lewis is currently in and won a Tony for) was too loud. LuPone eventually went to the show’s theater owners and even got them to change the show’s sound cues — actions that Lewis declared as “bullying” and a sign of her “privilege.”
Responding to this in the piece, LuPone said, “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*ck she’s talking about. She’s done seven. I’ve done 31. Don’t call yourself a vet, b*tch!”
Brown’s post clearly references this, as she rightfully refers to the actresses as veterans (Lewis has 10 Broadway credits while LuPone has 28), and tells them to “keep shining.” The post got thousands of likes, with Oscar and Tony-winning actress Viola Davis taking to the comments in support.
“Love, love them,” Davis wrote under the post. “I will fight for them as fervently as I fight for anyone I love.”
Bernice A. King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., specifically supported McDonald in her own post, writing, “Thank you for your artistry, commitment to excellence, and consistent bold brilliance. You are one of one.”
Natasha Rothwell (“Insecure,” “The White Lotus”), used her social media to defend Audra as well, sharing a personal connection between her and the six-time Tony Award-winner. In the post, Rothwell recalls when she was in college and McDonald visited her school and cheered on her fellow castmates in her school’s production of “You Can’t Take It With You.”
“A testament to her heart— she made it a point to come backstage to cheer us on and graciously received the tidal wave of admiration that followed moments before taking the stage herself. Audra had my back way back then, and I have her back now. Periodt,” Rothwell wrote.
Adrienne Warren, who won the Tony for playing Tina Turner in the “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical” and currently stars in “The Last Five Years,” took to social media as well to support both Lewis and McDonald as well. “I don’t play about the women who set the blueprint and inspired generations of artists, specifically, black women,” she wrote on Instagram, thanking them for being themselves and shining “as only they can.”
She added, So many of us wouldn’t have dared to try if it weren’t for you. I thank you, Queens.”
Neither McDonald nor Lewis has publicly responded to LuPone’s digs, not that they should have to. As we reported, the internet and Broadway community at large certainly seem to be on their side, rallying behind these two queens of the American theater.
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