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Patti LuPone apologized on May 31, 2025, for remarks she made about fellow Broadway performers Audra McDonald and Kecia Lewis in a New Yorker interview. LuPone called her comments about Lewis demeaning and disrespectful, described her interview responses as flippant and inappropriate, accepted responsibility, and said she hoped to speak with both women personally.
The apology followed an open letter signed by more than 500 members of the Broadway community. It is important, however, to define what LuPone apologized for: her published interview comments, particularly those concerning Lewis and McDonald—not necessarily every aspect of the earlier dispute over sound from Hell’s Kitchen reaching the neighboring theater where LuPone was performing.
What Patti LuPone said in her apology
LuPone’s statement said that she had spent her theater career speaking her mind and had never apologized before, but that “is changing today.” She apologized for the words she used in Michael Schulman’s New Yorker profile, published May 26, 2025.
Addressing Lewis in particular, LuPone said her comments had been demeaning and disrespectful. She characterized her interview responses as emotional, flippant, and inappropriate, and said she was devastated that her behavior had offended people and conflicted with the values of the theater community.
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LuPone accepted responsibility and said she hoped to speak with Lewis and McDonald privately so that she could make things right. The available reporting does not establish whether either conversation later took place, so the apology should not be presented as evidence of a private reconciliation.
How the dispute began
The conflict grew out of a theater-noise complaint during the 2024 Broadway runs of The Roommate and Hell’s Kitchen. LuPone and Mia Farrow were appearing in The Roommate, which shared a wall with Hell’s Kitchen, the Alicia Keys musical featuring Lewis.
In the New Yorker profile, LuPone said sound from Hell’s Kitchen was bleeding into her production. According to her account, her stage manager suggested that she contact Robert Wankel of the Shubert Organization, and she did so to ask that the noise be addressed. The sound was adjusted, and LuPone later sent flowers to the Hell’s Kitchen crew, according to the profile.
Lewis subsequently addressed LuPone in a video. Lewis characterized the conduct as bullying, rude, racially microaggressive, and rooted in privilege. She also objected to the description of a predominantly Black production as “loud.” The accessible reporting does not preserve a stable source for assigning an exact publication date to Lewis’s original video, so it is more accurate to describe it as a public response to the incident rather than attach an unsupported date.
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What LuPone said about Kecia Lewis in The New Yorker
When Schulman revisited the dispute, LuPone challenged Lewis’s description of herself as a Broadway veteran and compared their Broadway credits. LuPone recalled that Lewis had appeared in seven Broadway shows while she had appeared in 31. The published profile corrected those figures to 10 and 28, respectively.
That distinction matters. The numbers should be attributed to LuPone’s recollection and to the New Yorker article’s correction, rather than repeated as an independently verified career audit. More broadly, the exchange turned a disagreement about a production’s sound into a public argument about seniority, status, race, and the way established performers use their influence.
LuPone’s apology directly addressed these interview remarks. It did not amount to a detailed admission that every criticism Lewis made about the original theater encounter was correct.
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The New Yorker interview also brought McDonald into the controversy. Schulman asked LuPone about supportive emojis McDonald had left on Lewis’s video. LuPone responded that McDonald was “not a friend” and referred to an older rift, but she did not explain what had caused it. When asked about McDonald’s performance in the current revival of Gypsy, LuPone declined to comment.
McDonald later addressed the remarks in a CBS interview with Gayle King. She said she was surprised by LuPone’s characterization of their relationship. McDonald said that if there was a rift, she did not know what LuPone meant, and that she had not seen LuPone in approximately 11 years because of the demands of work and life.
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That exchange does not establish a confirmed feud or a known cause. The public record contains LuPone’s assertion that there had been a rift and McDonald’s statement that she did not know what rift LuPone was referring to. It does not provide a mutually confirmed account of their history.
For readers interested in the performer’s longer public career rather than this specific controversy, Patti LuPone’s memoir offers first-person background on her life as a working actor, her collaborators and directors, and the development of her Tony-winning performances. The book should be treated as career context—not as an explanation or resolution of the 2025 dispute.
What the Broadway open letter said
On May 30, 2025, members of the Broadway community published an open letter addressed to the American Theatre Wing, The Broadway League, and the wider theater community. Playbill reported that the letter had more than 500 signatures, including Tony winners Wendell Pierce, James Monroe Iglehart, and Maleah Joi Moon.
The letter described LuPone’s comments about Lewis and McDonald as inappropriate and unacceptable. It called for accountability and asked that LuPone be disinvited from the Tony Awards and other industry events.
The letter described itself as a collective “call-in,” not merely as a demand for punishment. Its signatories described Lewis as a Black woman and a 40-year veteran of the American stage, and characterized LuPone’s language as racialized disrespect, misogyny, bullying, and harassment. Those are the signatories’ descriptions and allegations; they should not be presented as an independently adjudicated legal or institutional finding.
Did Patti LuPone attend the 2025 Tony Awards?
No. LuPone did not attend the 2025 Tony Awards ceremony on June 8, according to contemporaneous coverage.
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While presenting an award, Oprah Winfrey made a remark that coverage and audience interpretation treated as an apparent reference to the controversy. Winfrey did not name LuPone directly, so it is more precise to call the moment an apparent allusion rather than say that Winfrey explicitly identified her.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What remains unresolved
- The original interaction: LuPone’s account centers on sound traveling between theaters and the subsequent adjustment. Lewis viewed the episode and the language around it through the lens of race, privilege, and workplace power.
- The McDonald relationship: LuPone referred to a past rift, while McDonald said she did not know what rift LuPone meant. The cause has not been established by the cited reporting.
- Private follow-up: LuPone expressed hope that she could speak with Lewis and McDonald, but the available sources do not confirm that either conversation occurred.
- The scope of the apology: LuPone apologized for the New Yorker comments, especially the remarks about Lewis. It is too broad to say without qualification that she apologized for the entire Hell’s Kitchen sound dispute.
Timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2024 | LuPone and Mia Farrow performed in The Roommate, next door to Hell’s Kitchen. LuPone said sound from the musical entered her theater and was later adjusted. |
| 2024, exact video date not established in the accessible sources | Kecia Lewis publicly criticized LuPone’s conduct and the characterization of the predominantly Black production as “loud.” |
| May 26, 2025 | Michael Schulman’s New Yorker profile revisited the dispute and included LuPone’s comments about Lewis and McDonald. |
| May 30, 2025 | An open letter from Broadway community members called for accountability and asked that LuPone be excluded from the Tony Awards and other industry events. |
| May 31, 2025 | LuPone apologized for her interview comments and said she hoped to speak with Lewis and McDonald. |
| June 8, 2025 | The Tony Awards took place without LuPone in attendance; Oprah Winfrey made an apparent, unnamed reference to the controversy. |
Sources and attribution
This account is based on Michael Schulman’s profile of LuPone in The New Yorker; CBS interview coverage featuring McDonald and Gayle King; Playbill’s reporting on the open letter, LuPone’s apology, and the Tony Awards aftermath; the Broadway community’s published open letter; and Penguin Random House’s description of LuPone’s memoir.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Patti LuPone apologize for?
She apologized for remarks made in a May 2025 New Yorker interview, especially comments about Kecia Lewis that she described as demeaning and disrespectful. She also called her responses about Audra McDonald and Lewis flippant, emotional, and inappropriate.
Did Patti LuPone apologize for the entire Hell’s Kitchen dispute?
Not explicitly. Her apology addressed the words she used in the New Yorker interview. It should not be described as a full admission that every criticism of the earlier sound dispute was accurate.
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Are Patti LuPone and Audra McDonald confirmed to have had a feud?
The public record does not establish that clearly. LuPone referred to an older rift, while McDonald said she did not know what rift LuPone meant and had not seen LuPone in about 11 years.
Did Patti LuPone attend the 2025 Tony Awards?
No. She did not attend the June 8, 2025 ceremony. Oprah Winfrey made what coverage treated as an apparent reference to the controversy, but did not name LuPone directly.
The Bottom Line
LuPone apologized for her New Yorker comments about Kecia Lewis and Audra McDonald after the Broadway community condemned them. The apology expressed responsibility and a desire to repair the relationships, but the available reporting does not confirm private reconciliation or resolve the conflicting accounts of the original theater dispute.
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