If Audra McDonald and Patti LuPone have beef, McDonald wasn’t aware.
The actress-singer has responded to Patti LuPone‘s recent New Yorker interview, where she seemingly dissed McDonald and claimed the two were no longer friends after a falling out.
When McDonald was asked by Gayle King on CBS Mornings Thursday if she was “surprised” by LuPone’s remarks, she responded, “I mean, if there’s a rift between us, I don’t know what it is. That’s something you’d have to ask Patti about.”
“I haven’t seen her in about 11 years because I’ve been busy with life and stuff,” McDonald added. “So, I don’t know what rift she’s talking about. You’d have to ask her.”
Earlier this week, when McDonald’s name was mentioned during LuPone’s interview with The New Yorker‘s Michael Schulman, she said, “She’s not a friend.” LuPone didn’t elaborate but noted that they had a rift years ago.
McDonald was just nominated for a Tony for playing Rose in Gypsy, a role that LuPone previously won a Tony for. When the latter was also asked about McDonald’s current production of Gypsy, Schulman wrote that LuPone stared at him for 15 seconds in silence, before turning to look out the window and sighing, “What a beautiful day.”
The two stars have previously worked together, including the 2007 Los Angeles Opera production of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, as well as co-starring in the 2000 New York Philharmonic’s concert version of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
McDonald wasn’t the only person LuPone called out during her interview. She also recalled an incident that happened last fall when she was starring in the Broadway production, The Roommate, involving fellow Tony winner Kecia Lewis. After LuPone filed a noise complaint from the musical next door, Hell’s Kitchen, Lewis took to Instagram to call out LuPone, saying her actions were “bullying,” “racially microaggressive” and “rooted in privilege,” because she had labeled “a Black show loud.” McDonald reportedly liked the video.
“Here’s the problem. She calls herself a veteran? Let’s find out how many Broadway shows Kecia Lewis has done, because she doesn’t know what the fuck she’s talking about,” LuPone told The New Yorker in response. “Don’t call yourself a vet, bitch.”
