Patti LuPone.Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
Patti LuPonetore into a pair of theatergoers on Tuesday after the duo refused to wear their masks properly during a post-show talkback.
“Who do you think you are, that you do not respect the people that are sitting around you?” she continues. “Put your mask over your nose, that’s why you’re in the theater.”
Although New York City lifted its mask and vaccine mandates back in March, the Broadway League — the national trade association for the theatre industry — has its own COVID-19 safety protocols. Audience members are currently required to wear their masks inside theaters through May 31 in an effort to protect actors, musicians, crew members and staffers fromthe deadly virus.
Broadway wasshut down for 18 months during the pandemic, delayingCompany’s opening (it was in the midst of previews when the industry stopped performances in March 2019). LuPone herself contracted COVID in February and March of this year, missing 10 performances.
Despite LuPone’s pleas, the audience members still refused. “I pay your salary,” one woman told LuPone, who responded, “You pay my salary? Bullshit. [Producer] Chris Harper pays my salary.”
“Who do you think you are?” LuPone repeated. “Just put your mask over your nose.”
Bruce Glikas/WireImage
A source on the scene tells PEOPLE that the patrons were then removed from the theater.
“What you don’t see in the clip is she had them kicked out and then said, ‘This is bulls—. F— this, I’m done’ and stormed off the stage,” the insider said. “Talk backs are all free, so it’s not like we were cheated out of anything we paid for; we had already seen Patti’s incredible performance. It was just disappointing because two people ruined it all for the rest of us.”
“Before it even got to the point in the video, Patti had politely asked them to lift their masks several times,” the source added. “They just kept shaking their heads at her. That’s when she hit a breaking point, taking the mic, stopping the panel, and demanding they follow the rules. These people were so rude.”
A representative for LuPone did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment, but Harper provided a statement to PEOPLE through aCompanyspokesperson.
“Over the course of her storied career, Patti has always had an unshakable bond with the audience, and she takes their role as seriously as her own. She is also a fierce advocate for the entire theatrical workforce,” the statement read. “We stand with Patti and support her efforts to keep our entire community — from patrons to ushers, cast to stage crew — safe and healthy so we can keep Broadway open.”
It was notably signed, “Chris Harper (the man who pays Patti LuPone’s salary).”
This isn’t the first time LuPone has clapped back at an audience member.
Back in 2009, she famously yelled at someone taking pictures of her during a performance ofGypsy, stopping the show’s penultimate number “Rose’s Turn” and insisting the offender be thrown out of the theater.
“Stop taking pictures right now! You heard the announcement. Who do you think you are?” LuPone said, in audio of the moment that was later shared on social media. “I won’t continue if they’re taking pictures. Get them out!”
“We have forgotten our public manners,” she told the audience, according to the clip. “We have forgotten that we are a community and this is the theater. All of you, every single one of you except for that person, has respect. And I, and the rest of this company, appreciate it. Thank you.”
Years later, in 2015, LuPone did it again — this time snatching a phone from an audience member who was texting during her performance ofShow Daysat Lincoln Center.
“There was a woman texting throughout the entire show,” LuPone’s costar Michael Urie explained onNew York Live. “She was in the second row, and she happened to be in a spot where Patti could get it [so] on her way out [of a scene], she just took it.”
From L to R: Etai Benson, Patti LuPone, Katrina Lenk, Matt Doyle, Christopher Sieber and Terence Archie inCompany.Bruce Glikas/Getty
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LuPone received a Tony nomination for her role as Joanne inCompany. It’s her eighth career nomination for theater’s biggest honor, among two wins.
source: people.com
