Tony Award winner Patti LuPone is currently starring in Douglas Carter Beane’s Shows for Days at the Lincoln Center Theater. On Wednesday night (July 8), LuPone went off-script, and as Twitter user CatsPolitics reported:
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
The incident occurred during a scene in the show where LuPone’s character is supposed to leave the stage and shake hands with audience members.
In 2008, LuPone famously stopped mid-show during a Broadway performance of the musical Gypsy in order to lecture an audience member about taking photos. She released a statement regarding Wednesday’s incident expressing frustration over the overuse of smartphones and questioning her future in the theater:
“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 phone 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. 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.”
Many in the theater community support LuPone’s position, including the Lincoln Center itself. While there was no comment made at the time of the incident, they have since tweeted “We stand with Patti!” along with a link to her curtain speech from Wednesday’s show.
We stand with Patti! WATCH her curtain speech from last night: http://t.co/cbBeD4pGFY
— LincolnCenterTheater (@LCTheater) July 10, 2015
What do you think? Should smartphones be off-limits in live theater?
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