Triple Tony winner and stage icon Patti LuPone says she’s given up her Actors’ Equity card, a move that could signal an end to her celebrated Broadway stage career.
“Quite a week on Broadway, seeing my name being bandied about. Gave up my Equity card; no longer part of that circus. Figure it out,” writes LuPone in an apparent reference to last week’s controversy over Hadestown star Lillias White reprimanding an audience member from the stage.
LuPone did not draw a cause-and-effect between the Hadestown incident and quitting Equity, nor did she indicate when, exactly, she gave up her card.
The incident, in which White mistook a captioning device used by an audience member with hearing loss for an illegal recording device, drew many social media comparisons to LuPone’s show-stopping dressing-down of a flash-camera user during a 2009 performance of Gypsy.
Deadline has reached out to spokespersons for Equity and LuPone for additional information and comment.
An Equity card is required of all performers on Broadway and at most major theatrical venues in the country.
LuPone most recently appeared on Broadway in last season’s Company, winning her third Tony Award for the performance (she previously won for Gypsy and 1980’s Evita). She also has a long and prolific TV career, and will next be seen in the upcoming American Horror Story: NYC.
