Video: Patti LuPone Responds to Giving Up Her Equity Card: 'I Think I Need a Break From the Stage'
She also commented on how she believes that industry is changing, and how it can be fixed.
By: Stephi Wild Oct. 19, 2022
As BroadwayWorld previously reported, Patti LuPone took to Twitter earlier this week to announced that she was giving up her Equity card in light of recent discourse in the industry. Now, LuPone has clarified in an interview with Variety that this doesn't mean she is done performing.
"I just gave up my Equity card but that doesn't mean I can't perform on stage," LuPone said. "It's fifty years that I've been a member of Actors' Equity and I think I need a break from the stage."
LuPone also went on to comment on how she believes Broadway has changed overall.
"I think, whoever is in charge of whatever, has actively dumbed down the audience. So I think the attention span of the majority of the audience is much less than it was in the past," she said. "I don't think plays are going to have long lives on Broadway and I feel as though it's turning into Disneyland, a circus, and Las Vegas."
"There are still very intelligent audiences, I don't want to be everybody down," she clarifies.
LuPone also commented on the increasing ticket prices on Broadway and said, "There are so many obstacles that prevent theatre from being the tool it should be in our society, which is an education."
Watch the full interview below:
Patti LuPone says that she's not "giving up the stage," but that she needs a break. "Broadway has also changed considerably...I think we've spent, not we, but whoever's in charge of [Broadway] has actively dumbed down the audience." #SchoolforGoodandEvil https://t.co/XtuMsQpQHi pic.twitter.com/wn47gvIZxm
- Variety (@Variety) October 19, 2022
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