Broadway icon Patti LuPone gave a shocking response to remarks made by fellow Broadway star Kecia Lewis, who previously said some of LuPone’s past actions were examples of racial microaggressions — and the entire situation spurred a lot of chatter online.
During an interview with The New Yorker published Monday, LuPone was asked to address Lewis’s accusations. In case you haven’t been following the Broadway drama and apparent feud, here’s the backstory: Lewis, a Broadway veteran, stars in the Alicia Keys musical “Hell’s Kitchen.” The musical previously shared a wall with a show that starred LuPone, “The Roommate,” which ran on Broadway for 16 weeks and concluded in December 2024.
At the time, LuPone, who is white, contacted the owner of the Shubert Theatre, where “Hell’s Kitchen” plays, to ask for the volume of the musical’s sound cues to be adjusted, claiming that the sound bled through. In November, Lewis posted a video on Instagram and accused LuPone of bullying, saying her actions were “rooted in privilege.” Lewis, who’s Black, said that LuPone describing “Hell’s Kitchen,” which features a predominantly Black cast, as “too loud” was a racial microaggression.
A TikTok video posted online the month prior shows LuPone signing autographs from fans outside a theater, at one point telling a fan that she refused to sign a “Hell’s Kitchen” playbook because the musical was “too loud.”
