Whereas some costars attain Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo ranges of friendship, others completely detest working with one another. These sorts of behind-the-scenes feuds aren’t restricted to behind the display screen.
Listed below are 8 occasions actor known as out their theater costars, manufacturing members, and friends:
1.
In 2016, Laura Benanti costarred with Zachary Levi in a Broadway run of She Loves Me. In 2024, she instructed That is a Homosexual Ass Podcast, “I by no means appreciated him. Everybody was like, ‘He is so nice!’ And I used to be like, ‘No, he is not. He is sucking up all of the fucking vitality on this room.'”
2.
In 2024, Sarah Paulson instructed the Smartless podcast, “The final time I used to be on stage, I did a play known as Talley’s Folly on the Roundabout and the actress — and I’ll say this, and I am not going to ask you to chop this out, as a result of I do not fucking care — this actress got here to the play. Her identify is Trish Hawkins — Hello, Trish! Hello, Trisha! — Trish Hawkins got here to the play. Am I going to get sued? I do not care as a result of I feel that is outrageous…[Backstage] she checked out me up and down, after which she went, ‘Your costume is yellow. Mine was pink.’ And I assumed, ‘What?'”
3.
Kecia Lewis presently stars in Hell’s Kitchen, which shares a wall with the present manufacturing of The Roommate that includes Patti LuPone. In a 2024 Instagram publish, Kecia shared an “open letter” to Patti. She stated, “Ms. LuPone, I perceive that there have been a few conditions which have gone on in the previous few weeks that I wish to deal with. The primary one is that you just contacted our theater proprietor about altering a few our sound cues since you discovered them to be too loud. You additionally, after our sound design was adjusted, despatched flowers to our sound and stage administration workforce thanking them. One other factor that I am conscious of is that you just dismissed publicly signing a fan’s Hell’s Kitchen playbill as a result of…’they’re too loud.'”
4.
Lea Michele originated the function of the Little Lady in Ragtime in Toronto in 1996 then performed the function on Broadway in 1997. In a since-deleted 2020 tweet, her understudy, Elizabeth Aldrich, reportedly stated, “She was completely terrible to me and ensemble.”
5.
In 1967, Maya Angelou reportedly auditioned for the function of Pearl Bailey’s understudy in Hiya, Dolly! In 2017, Man Johnson, Maya’s son, instructed American Masters – Maya Angelou: And Nonetheless I Rise, “For my mom, it will have meant residing repeatedly in New York with out leaving me for at the very least a 12 months, and it was common cash. The director and the producer each beloved her. However Pearl Bailey got here again and stated, ‘Oh no — I ain’t gonna have this massive previous ugly woman be my understudy.'”
6.
In 2013, Alec Baldwin and Shia LaBeouf have been solid in Orphans on Broadway. The next 12 months, Alec instructed Vulture, “Getting again onstage appeared like a good suggestion. I beloved Lyle Kessler’s play and was anxious to work with director Dan Sullivan. Then Shia LaBeouf confirmed up. I’d heard from different those who he was probably very tough to work with, however I at all times ignore that as a result of folks say the identical factor about me. When he confirmed up, he appeared like a number of younger actors in the present day — scattered, as he was coming from making six films in a row or no matter. There was friction between us from the start.”
7.
When Patti LuPone was at Julliard, John Houseman was the drama division’s founding director, and so they additionally labored collectively when she was within the Performing Firm’s repertory troupe, which he co-founded. In 2019, she instructed the New York Occasions, “John Houseman used to name me ‘flannel mouth.’ You do not know, if you’re within the second, that you just’re not enunciating. As an viewers member, I can perceive the issue…In a few of my performances, I used to be oblivious to that; I used to be busy emoting. Apparently, once I was doing Three Sisters, John Houseman wished to yell at me about my diction. They stored him away from me till he actually strangled me.”
8.
And eventually, in 1994, Andrew Lloyd Webber infamously fired Patti LuPone from the function of Norma Desmond — which she originated on the West Finish — paid her off with $1 million, and recast her with Glenn Shut within the Broadway debut of Sundown Boulevard. This resolution launched a decades-long feud between Andrew and Patti.
What is the largest Broadway {and professional} theater feud or scandal you have ever heard about? Inform us within the feedback!
