Fed Up Patti Lupone Grabs Theatergoer’s Phone, Now Threatening To Leave The Stage Altogether
Don’t mess with Patti LuPone. She will rip you apart, in front of everyone, if you are rude at one of her shows. A texting-happy theatergoer learned that the hard way Wednesday night — the legendary actress grabbed the phone right from her hands.
And she isn’t apologizing. If anything, a day later she’s even more ticked off. Unbelievably, this is the second time in a week that someone interrupted live theater in order to indulge their obsession.
After she grabbed the rude spectator’s cell during a performance of comedy Shows for Days the night before, she issued a formal statement about the incident Thursday, according to the New York Daily News.
Here's what Patti LuPone does when you text during her show http://t.co/l3wvdJBG1h ? pic.twitter.com/69YFJpB8F3
— Paramount Advertising (@paramount_ads) July 9, 2015
“We work hard on stage to create a world that is being totally destroyed by a few, rude, self-absorbed and inconsiderate audience members who are controlled by their phones. They cannot put them down. When a (it) goes off or when a LED screen can be seen in the dark, it ruins the experience for everyone else — the majority of the audience at that performance and the actors on stage.”
Just a few days ago, someone stupidly crawled onstage before Broadway’s Hand To God — to plug in a charger, the Guardian reported.
The socket was a fake.
If you think Patti overreacted at the Wednesday evening show, consider this: At that day’s matinee, a ringtone interrupted the performance. By the time the second show came around, she was primed for a tussle.
PATTI LUPONE TOOK SOMEONE'S PHONE MID-SHOW BECAUSE THEY WERE TEXTING
— Travis Amiel (@heytravistravis) July 9, 2015
I saw Patti LuPone deliver her scene exit line tonight at Lincoln Center & SNATCH A CELL PHONE OUT OF AN AUDIENCE MEMBER'S HAND. #theatre
— CatsPolitics (@CatsPolitics) July 9, 2015
https://twitter.com/moonstone1520/status/618973597370032128
Picture it: LuPone is acting her heart away. The unnamed woman — and paying ticket holder, no less — is bent over her phone’s screen, glowing obtrusively in the dark, thumbs flicking away. According to CNN, the legendary actor kept in character and didn’t break the scene when she reached down and snatched the device mid-text.
After she grabbed the phone from the woman’s hands, LuPone took it backstage. The obsessive texter got it back by the end of the night.
Patti and other actors are finding the constant and intrusive use of phones in the theater an incessant problem that doesn’t seem to be going away. More and more actors are making their frustrations known, but the actress has gotten so upset she’s thinking of quitting live theater altogether.
“I am so defeated by this issue that I seriously question whether I want to work on stage anymore. Now I’m putting battle gear on over my costume to marshal the audience as well as perform.”
Obsessive cell phone users — be very ashamed. That anyone should have to have their precious device grabbed from their sweaty hands at a Broadway play is, in the words of Patti LuPone, “self-absorbed and inconsiderate.”
[Photo Courtesy Jason Kempin/Getty Images]
