Back in November of last year, I wrote about the silly–but instructive—Broadway feud between diva Patti Lupone and performer Kecia Lewis, who is black, and who has received some accolades herself. Lewis was starring in “Hell’s Kitchen,” a 2024 jukebox musical about the life and career of Alicia Keys in a theater that shared a wall with the theater featuring “The Roommate,” a quiet, two-actor drama starring Mia Farrow and LuPone. The amplified sound in “Hell’s Kitchen” at two points in the musical could be heard by the audience LuPone’s show, so LuPone sent a polite note to the “Hell’s Kitchen” producers asking them to turn down the volume at those points in the sound design that were loud enough to interfere with her show. (The producer of “The Roommate”should have handled that, but Patti has power and influence and has never been shy about using them.) “Hell’s Kitchen” complied. LuPone, in gratitude, sent a thank-you note to the producers and flowers to the stage management and sound staff.

But Lewis decided to play the race card, because that’s what so many of the Woke of Color have been taught to do, because it works. She posted a video on Instagram reprimanding LuPone for supposedly engaging in race-based “microagressions.” I wrote in “Dear Patty LuPone: Please, PLEASE Tell Kecia Lewis ‘Oh, Bite Me!’” that I was ” hoping against hope that LuPone, who is the epitome of a diva (as this Ethics Alarms post demonstrates), either issues an emphatic “Bite Me!” to Lewis or ignores her completely as not worthy of attention from Patti’s perch on Broadway Olympus. Lewis is the racist here; she is the one who is stereotyping a white performer as insensitive and dismissive.”

Well, Patti took my advice. First she ignored Lewis’s race-baiting, but when LuPone was asked by the New Yorker about Lewis’ post for a feature this month, she called the actress a “bitch” and questioned whether or not Lewis, who won a Tony for “Hell’s Kitchen,” had the status to criticize her. In the same interview she criticized Audra McDonald’s performance in “Gypsy,” which Patti has standing to do as LuPone won a Tony appearing in an earlier revival of the musical. MacDonald had “liked” Lewis’s contrived tirade against Lupone. But MacDonald is black.

So now, 500 “Broadway professionals” have written an “open letter” demanding that LuPone be banned from the upcoming Tony Awards on the theory that criticizing two performers who happen to be black makes Lupone a racist. Here’s the “money quote”: “No artist, producer, director, or leader — regardless of legacy or celebrity — should be allowed to weaponize their platform to belittle, threaten, or devalue others without consequence.”

Of course, no such mass protest was aimed at Lewis, who weaponized her platform to belittle, threaten, or devalue LuPone, or MacDonald, who applauded Lewis’s unjust attack. Gee, I wonder why? What could it be?

Let me fix that quote from the letter: “No white artist, producer, director, or leader — regardless of legacy or celebrity — should be allowed to weaponize their platform to belittle, threaten, or devalue a black artist without consequence.”

LuPone has a reputation for being fierce and outspoken, but she is also as lock-step progressive as anyone in her profession. So, sadly but predictably, the star decided to grovel an apology, writing,

“For as long as I have worked in theatre, I have spoken my mind and never apologized. That is changing today. I am deeply sorry for the words I used during The New Yorker interview, particularly about Kecia Lewis, which were demeaning and disrespectful. I regret my flippant and emotional responses during this interview, which were inappropriate, and I am devastated that my behavior has offended others and has run counter to what we hold dear in this community. I hope to have the chance to speak to Audra and Kecia personally to offer my sincere apologies.”

Yes, when it comes to standing up to race-based bullying, Patti Lupone, true to her Black Lives Matter-supporting knee-jerks, is just another woke weenie after all.