Patti LuPone responds to snarky NYT writer

Okay, here’s the real news: I’m going to see Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin at the Ahmanson tonight and, frankly, it feels like Christmas I’m so excited.

I worship Patti LuPone.

Anyway, there’s a follow to yesterday’s item regarding Miss LuPone (I just can’t refer to her as Patti) and an audience member at her recent Vegas show who dared to text message just as the great star was about to sing one of her signature numbers Don’t Cry for Me Agentina. She stopped the show and gave him a lecture.

A NYT blogger, under the headline “Another Show-Shopping Moment (Not the Good Kind) From Patti LuPone” wrote about the incident in a way that was not pleasing to the two-time Tony winner whose credits include starring in Broadway productions of Evita, Gypsy, Anything Goes, Sweeney Tiodd and originating the role of Norma Desmond on the London stage in Sunset Boulevard.

Miss LuPopne did not like the tone of the post and let the author know it in this response I spotted on Vegas Happens Here:

Dear Dave Itzkoff,

Your story about my stopping my concert in Las Vegas on the New York Times ArtsBeat blog was forwarded to me.

I found the tone of your report very snide and feel compelled to write you to ask – what do expect me, or any performer for that matter, to do?

Do we allow our rights to be violated (photography, filming and audio taping of performances is illegal) or tolerate rudeness by members of the audience who feel they have the right to sit in a dark theater, texting or checking their e-mail while the light from their screens distract both performers and the audience alike? Or, should I stand up for my rights as a performer as well as the audiences I perform for?

And do you think I’m alone in this? Ask any performer on Broadway right now about their level of frustration with this issue. Ask the actor in “Hair” who recently grabbed a camera out of an audience member’s hand and threw it across the stage. Or ask the two Queens in “Mary Stuart” (Harriet Walter and Janet McTeer) how they react to it.

I find it telling that my story elicited 47 comments from your readers while a few other stories on the blog elicited a handful, with many getting 0 comments. It certainly touched a chord with people, almost all of whom sounded like audience members, who share in my frustration with what threatens to become standard behavior if no one speaks out and takes action against it.

This has been going on in my career for 30 years since I starred in “Evita,” and, you’re surprised I stop shows now?

Sincerely, Patti LuPone

My advice is this: you really don’t wanna mess with Patti LuPone. Just ask Andrew Lloyd Webber.