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Patti LuPone has issued an apology after hundreds of members of the Broadway community condemned her recent remarks disparaging fellow actresses Kecia Lewis and Audra McDonald.
“For as long as I have worked in the theatre, I have spoken my mind and never apologized. That is changing today,” LuPone wrote in the opening of a statement released via Instagram on Saturday (May 31).

“I am deeply sorry for the words I used during The New Yorker interview, particularly about Kecia Lewis, which were demeaning and disrespectful. I regret my flippant and emotional responses during this interview, which were inappropriate, and I am devastated that my behavior has offended others and has run counter to what we hold dear in this community. I hope to have the chance to speak to Audra and Kecia personally to offer my sincere apologies,” said LuPone.

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LuPone’s response arrived the day after after an open letter directed at her — and signed by more than 500 individuals in the Broadway world — was published in outcry to comments from the actress perceived to be “degrading and misogynistic,” as well as a “blatant act of racialized disrespect.” The letter was also aimed at “a culture, a pattern” in the Broadway industry: “a persistent failure to hold people accountable for violent, disrespectful, or harmful behavior — especially when they are powerful or well-known.”

In Saturday’s statement, LuPone acknowledged the message of the letter and expressed regret over what she said about her peers.

“I wholeheartedly agree with everything that was written in the open letter shared yesterday,” she wrote. “From middle school drama clubs to professional stages, theatre has always been about lifting each other up and welcoming those who feel they don’t belong anywhere else. I made a mistake, I take full responsibility for it, and I am committed to making this right. Our entire theatre community deserves better.”

The New Yorker ran a profile on LuPone earlier this week that quoted hercalling Lewis — who’s in the Alicia Keys-created Broadway musical Hell’s Kitchen, which was performed next door to the LuPone-starring The Roommate in 2024 — a “b—-” for considering herself a stage “veteran.”

The piece had LuPone recounting complaints she’d made to Shubert Organization head Robert Wankel that sound from Lewis’ Hell’s Kitchen could be heard during her stage time in The Roommate. (Lewis had responded to LuPone’s complaints on Instagram at the time, and deemed them “bullying,” “racially microaggressive” and “rooted in privilege” for calling “a Black show loud.”)

“She calls herself a veteran?” LuPone said in The New Yorker article dated May 26. “Let’s find out how many Broadway shows Kecia Lewis has done, because she doesn’t know what the f— she’s talking about. Don’t call yourself a vet, b—-.”

LuPone also remarked that she had a “rift” with McDonald, who’d shown support for Lewis: “That’s typical of Audra. She’s not a friend,” LuPone told The New Yorker; McDonald later said she was unaware of the rift.

LuPone, a three-time Tony Award and two-time Grammy Award winner, in 2024 starred as Robyn opposite Mia Farrow’s Sharon in The Roommate for the dark comedy’s four-month engagement on Broadway at the Booth Theatre. She just wrapped a series of concert dates that ran across select U.S. cities from late January through late May, with a couple festival appearances slated for this summer.

Lewis won her first Tony, for best featured actress in a musical, for her work as Miss Liza Jane in Hell’s Kitchen, the Broadway production whose performers were also awarded the Grammy for best musical theater album in 2024. Hell’s Kitchen is presently still on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre.

Following Patti LuPone‘s recent remarks disparaging fellow Broadway actresses Audra McDonald and Kecia Lewis, more than 500 members of the Broadway community have signed an open letter calling out the musical theater legend for “bullying” and “harassment.”
In the message published Friday (May 30) — just a few days after a New Yorker piece quoted LuPone as saying that McDonald was “not a friend” while calling Cole a “bi—” for labeling herself a stage “veteran” — the signatories wrote that the Agatha All Along star’s comments were “degrading and misogynistic,” as well as a “blatant act of racialized disrespect.” People who signed the letter include Courtney Love, as well as Tony winners James Monroe Iglehart, Maleah Joi Moon and Wendell Pierce.

“It constitutes bullying,” the letter continues. “It constitutes harassment. It is emblematic of the microaggressions and abuse that people in this industry have endured for far too long, too often without consequence.”

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Though the signatories directly urged the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League to disinvite LuPone from the 2025 Tony Awards — as well as other “industry events” such as “fundraisers and public programs” — they also insisted that their message was about “more than one person.”

“It is about a culture. A pattern. A persistent failure to hold people accountable for violent, disrespectful, or harmful behavior — especially when they are powerful or well-known,” the letter reads. “This is not about differing opinions. It is about public actions that demean, intimidate, or perpetuate violence against fellow artists. It is about the normalization of harm in an industry that too often protects prestige over people.”

Billboard has reached out to LuPone’s rep for comment.

The letter adds to the online backlash LuPone has been facing since her New Yorker profile went live Monday. In the piece, LuPone reflected on how she once asked Shubert Organization head Robert Wankel to step in after sound from the Alicia Keys-created musical Hell’s Kitchen, in which Lewis starred, could be heard during LuPone’s performances of The Roommate next door on Broadway. Shortly after LuPone’s complaint, Lewis posted an Instagram video labeling the icon’s actions as “bullying,” “racially microaggressive” and “rooted in privilege” for calling “a Black show loud.”

“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— she’s talking about,” LuPone told The New Yorker of the situation. “Don’t call yourself a vet, bi—.”

As for McDonald, LuPone took issue with the Private Practice star showing support for Lewis in the comments of said Instagram video. “I thought, You should know better,” LuPone told the publication, noting that there had been an undisclosed “rift” between the two actresses. “That’s typical of Audra. She’s not a friend.”

McDonald later responded in an interview with Gayle King, saying she had no idea what “rift” LuPone was referring to.

But while the comments could be regarded as typical for the famously forthright LuPone, the members of the Broadway community who signed Friday’s open letter thinks she crossed a line. “To publicly attack a woman who has contributed to this art form with such excellence, leadership, and grace … is not simply a personal offense,” their statement reads. “It is a public affront to the values of collaboration, equity, and mutual respect that our theater community claims to uphold.

“We cannot continue to welcome back those who harm others simply because of their fame or perceivedvalue,” it concludes. “This must stop. We will no longer tolerate violence—verbal, emotional, or physical—against artists within our own community. No more free passes. If our industry is truly committed to equity, justice, and respect, then those values must be applied consistently, even when it’s uncomfortable.”

Audra McDonald has responded to Patti LuPone‘s recent disses. Shortly after LuPone said that her fellow Broadway legend was “not a friend,” citing a past “rift” between them, McDonald told Gayle King for CBS Sunday Morning, “If there’s a rift between us, I don’t know what it is.” “That’s something that you’d have to ask […]