CHATTER AWAY: Overnight Open Thread

Variety reports:

Broadway performers and theater professionals are calling on the producers of the Tony Awards to disinvite Patti LuPone from the show after the theater legend made controversial remarks about Audra McDonald and “Hell’s Kitchen” star Kecia Lewis in an interview with the New Yorker. The open letter has received more than 500 signatures, including those of Tony winners James Monroe Iglehart, J. Harrison Ghee and Maleah Joi Moon, as well as stage and screen veterans like Ephraim Sykes, Wendell Pierce, and Jaquel Spivey.

The open letter criticizes LuPone for her comments about Lewis, stating that “this language is not only degrading and misogynistic — it is a blatant act of racialized disrespect. It constitutes bullying. 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.” It goes on to criticize LuPone’s comments about McDonald.

Read the full article. The backstory is at the link. Late this afternoon LuPone posted the apology seen below.

An open letter urging the Tony Awards to disinvite Patti LuPone for “racialized disrespect” and “degrading, misogynistic” comments about Audra McDonald and Kecia Lewis has garnered 500 signatures from Broadway performers.https://t.co/rjl4YagRW6

— Variety (@Variety) May 31, 2025

there is an open letter signed by 500+ members of the Broadway community reprimanding Patti LuPone and demanding that she do better pic.twitter.com/kdBOfFbVDF

— Carl Woodward (@mrcarl_woodward) May 30, 2025