Six-time Tony winner Patti Lupone took the phone right out of an audience member’s hand when the woman repeatedly texted during a recent performance.
The rude use of cell phones in theaters has been making the news in recent years, and
Lupone told The New York Times she had a bad day and was through with such inconsideration for both the audience and the actors. The incident occurred Wednesday during "Shows for Days."
“We could see her text. She was so uninterested. She showed her husband what she was texting. We talked about it at intermission,” Lupone recounted to The Times. “When we went out for the second act I was very close to her, and she was still texting. I watched her and thought, ‘What am I going to do?’ At the very end of that scene, we all exit. What I normally do is shake the hand of the people in the front row. I just walked over to her, shook her hand and took her phone.”
LuPone, who never broke character, said the phone was returned to the woman at the end of the show.
In a statement after the incident to Playbill, LuPone said audience rudeness is making her question her future.
"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,”
Playbill quoted LuPone.“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."
Many online applauded LuPone’s actions:
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