people.com/theater: Has Patti LuPone possibly taken her final bow on the Broadway stage?
On Monday, she announced that she's leaving the Actors' Equity Association (AEA). The American Horror Story star, 73, explains to PEOPLE that she's done with what she calls the "worst union" after five decades as a member.
A rep for AEA did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.
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4 comments:
There's been a lot of controversy around Patti LuPone lately as the interaction between Lillias White and the hearing-impaired patron has rose to headlines. As people have been calling out Lillias White for her handling of her situation, many have been calling out the way the theater world has been treating Patti LuPone who is known for calling out patrons in a much more overt, offstandish, and disrespectful way. Many people have let her behavior slide even when it is against someone like the photographer who she called out, someone who was hired by the theater to be there and take photos. Since she is so famous and iconicity her, people have even been encouraging her behavior despite it being disrespectful and not her job. Now that she is announcing that she is stepping down from broadway at least for now, I am interested to see how people will react to her decision and if people will continue to excuse her behavior.
Patti LuPone keeps talking about hating AEA so much but not really saying much about it, which is what’s making me “icky” about this. There’s a lot of screaming, but not a whole ton of talking. I also think her reasoning is a little immature. But also I’m not on Broadway nor an AEA member, so I truly don’t know what it is like being in there. On the other hand, good on her for saying she will no longer do eight shows a week. Even though it is the industry standard for long-running shows, and that is one of the things I do not foresee changing anytime soon, it’s hard. And it’s a lot harder when you are not one hundred percent committed to it. Feeling uncomfortable with how other people are treating you for how it’s going, from the media to your coworkers, makes being a member of the industry ten times harder than it already is.
I've never been involved in a union, so I can't say much about how it works or how effective it is, but I have to say that it seems like Patti LuPone is making a much bigger deal of this than it needs to be. Sure, maybe the union isn't for you, especially if you are starting to move away from Broadway bit by bit, but you also haven't said what the problem is here. If one of your gripes is that they have no idea who you are, then you clearly think you have a big name and platform, so why not use that platform to address what you see as problems in the union? There are thousands and thousands of other people that are in the union, so if you see so many problems with it, why not try and make it better for them? It literally just seems like an instance of big timing, and while obviously, I don't know all the details, it still seems like someone is making a mountain out of a mole hill here.
I was sitting next to my high school theatre teacher during a rehearsal, watching as a visitor, when he slid me his phone and showed me this tweet. It had been a few hours since she had tweeted it, but neither of us had seen it yet. He whispered to me “What’s this about?” to which I shrugged my shoulders. I haven’t even read up on the situation until reading this. I can tell that Patti thinks it’s a big deal, and for as much as I keep up with Broadway news, is it a big deal? Does it really matter that she gave up her equity card? I think her statement saying that she isn’t even known is a little big headed. Yes, Patti LuPone is a theatre household name. But I don’t think that gives her the right to act the way she is about the situation. I don’t know much about AEA though, so I’ll be following along with this news and story.
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