The theatre star’s announcement came as a surprise (Picture: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
Patti LuPone has caused a stir in the American theatre world by announcing she has resigned from the Actors’ Equity Association.
The Broadway legend, who received her third Tony Award for her performance as Joanne in the popular revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Company earlier this year, took to Twitter to make the surprise announcement.
‘Quite a week on Broadway, seeing my name being bandied about,’ she began before dropping the bombshell and adding: ‘Gave up my Equity card; no longer part of that circus.’
LuPone then signed off her tweet with a cryptic ‘figure it out’.
Membership of the actors’ union Equity is compulsory for anyone performing in any theatre on Broadway as well as in post other professional theatres in the US.
It advocates for its members by negotiating wages, improving working conditions and providing benefits including health and pension plans.
Her rep confirmed that she has left the union (Picture: John Lamparski/Getty Images)
The theatre star’s rep later confirmed that the 73-year-old had resigned from Actors’ Equity after the close of Company, which played its last show on July 31.
Stressing that this would be the final word on the matter from LuPone, the statement, shared with EW, read: ‘When the run of Company ended this past July, I knew I wouldn’t be on stage for a very long time. And at that point I made the decision to resign from Equity.’
It’s not explicitly known why the Evita and Gypsy star said she wouldn’t be on stage again any time soon, although many suspect the ‘circus’ she referenced in her original tweet was linked to the recent controversy surrounding Hadestown, when actor Lillias White mistook an audience member’s closed captioning device for recording equipment and berated her.
LuPone’s comments came following a Broadway backlash to a mistaken criticism of a hard of hearing audience member at Hadestown (Picture: Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
The show’s producers later apologised for the incident and the audience member Samantha Coleman then took to Twitter later to urge social media users to stop harassing White for her mistake.
This incident in turn led people to link it to LuPone’s own moments in the past when she has halted shows.
She complained about audience behaviour following flash photography in 2008’s Gypsy and during a 2015 Off-Broadway show grabbed an audience member’s mobile phone from their hand after they reportedly texted.
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LuPone also criticised a theatregoer for not wearing their mask properly during a post-show Q&A in May, leading to a heated exchange which saw her tell them that they ‘did not respect the people that are sitting around you’.
As well as her three Tonys, LuPone also has two Olivier Awards and two Grammys to her name.
Metro.co.uk has contacted the Actors’ Equity Assocation for comment.
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Actors are required to be members of the union if they want to perform on Broadway or in most professional US theatres.