Have you heard the one about Kathleen Battle?
The one where she’s in the back seat of a town car and calls her manager’s office?
You know, the one where she says, “Can you tell this driver to turn the air down?”
______
It takes a village, as they say, to manage an artist’s public image. If I am rude or unresponsive to a journalist regarding one client, the others suffer slightly as well. If my artists’ record labels, presenters, management companies and I don’t put forth a unified message, that’s bad public relations in a crucial way. If I take on an artist or project that I don’t care very much about, the implication is that I’m not passionate about anyone I’m representing. It’s all wide-reaching, omnipresent and complicated. When Doug asked if I’d ever thought about blogging, for example, I asked each client and their managers for permission; if one of them had said no, I wouldn’t have done it.
There are less obvious things, however, that result in bad artist PR. Artists can be busy, tired, and sometimes just plain bizarre and obnoxious (as can the rest of us), but it’s an artist’s team’s job to absorb those things and present a calmer, more grounded front to outside parties. Why do I know that Kathleen Battle story? Because it’s archetypal diva behavior that screams “tell me!”, and about ten different people have. But that was a conversation between her and the people who work for her, so no matter how ridiculous, it wasn’t intended for public consumption. Keep it under wraps.
Managers who walk on eggshells around their clients and expect the rest
of the known-universe to do the same are also guilty in their own way: the artist is actually not as “something” as the team has made him or her seem. I’ll work with the front-people and then finally meet the ” ” artist we were all so concerned about, and he or she will be great. Through overt efforts to shield artists from bad PR, we are sometimes generating it on other levels.
Artists do, of course, share some of the responsibility. We had a day of interviews planned with The King’s Singers in early December, and I met them at their hotel in the morning. I showed up and there they were, all six, bundled up and ready to go. They had flown overnight to get to New York, and I had visions of at least part of the group dragging a little. “I’m so impressed you’re all here,” I said. “We’re British!” the bass Stephen Connolly replied. It seems trivial and obvious, but knowing that your clients will get to interviews when and where they’re scheduled is important: I work hard to set up interviews, so to have an artist just not show, or be forty-odd minutes late, would be crushing. I’m also fortunate that not only do they show up on time, but at the interviews my clients are all articulate, intelligent and charismatic. I cannot imagine having to babysit a client during an interview for fear of what they would say. I tag along to interviews sometimes for logistical reasons, but I would never sit in the room or interfere.
All the retainer money and prestige in the world could not convince me to work for an artist who publicly misbehaved. That, I would not be able to absorb and re-present to the world-at-large. On Saturday night, my friend Maureen and I braved the snow and went to Gypsy on Broadway. PATTI LUPONE GYPSY, as I believed it was actually billed. Maureen had never seen a production of the musical and was especially excited to be at the last Saturday night performance of the run. “She’s really gonna give it her all,” we both smiled smugly, and when Lupone entered there was a full three minutes of applause. I had seen the same production at City Center, and knew she was about to earn all the preemptive clapping the crowd wanted to give her.
She was pretty hoarse the whole time – I also saw Caroline, or Change near the end of its run, and I remember the same thing happening to Tonya Pinkins. It was fine, though, since Patti Lupone hoarse is still a more powerful voice than most. And the whole cast was clearly having fun. So all was better-than-well until we got to the two hour and thirty minute mark, Mama Rose on stage by herself, having a breakdown. We earned it, let’s bring it home.
“Here she is, boys! Here she is, world! Here’s Roooose!”
“Curtain up…light the lights…”
“No. Enough. ENOUGH. Stop. Stop. You have taken three pictures. You in
the third row from the back. Didn’t you hear the announcement? They
said no pictures in the announcement! Three pictures. I won’t have it.
I want him out of here.”
Patti Lupone, not Mama Rose, shouting at an audience member, at the most – some might say only – important part of the entire musical. What followed was a ten minute lecture on our contemporary society’s “lack of public manners”. “This is the the-atre!” she exclaimed as if this were a Saturday Night Live skit about a Broadway diva. “I won’t go on while he’s still in this theatre.” “Turn on the house lights, I must see that he’s gone.” “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE.” “I simply won’t go on.” Screaming. Storming around the stage. Screaming and storming, the hoarse Broadway diva playing Mama Rose on the last evening show of the run, Patti Lupone: a cliché within a cliché.
Yes, it’s rude – illegal, even – to take photographs at a Broadway show, but Lupone knows the drill at this point in her career. Pull yourself together. Have some degree of respect for your fellow cast members, orchestra members, audience members. Tell someone backstage that you won’t go on for the scene unless the person is taken out of the theater. Simply walking off stage would have been better. Breaking character like that? Yelling at us? Ready or not, here comes Patti.
It seems my friend and I were in the minority in our disbelief and disappointment. The audience went absolutely nuts when she broke character. I thought the dancer boy in front of us was going to pass out from the thrill of it all. Why? Because Lupone was in the right? Of course not. The audience loved it because now they can go back to NYU or New Jersey or Minnesota and tell their very own, first-person, crazy Patti Lupone story. For most, that PR disaster was worth the price of admission.
Me? I want my money back, and from here on out will believe she’s earned all the bad diva press she gets.
Update 1/16 2:30pm: It’s “LuPone” not “Lupone”. Please don’t eat/kill me, Patti.
Update 1/19 11:58am: My sister has found a recording of the incident. The quality is quite good. Apparently, Ms. LuPone had bigger things to worry about than someone taking photographs.
Oh The King’s Singers are wonderful. I remember working with them back in my CBC days in the late 80s/early 90s. It was during a huge choral festival in Toronto in 1989, and they were back stage at Roy Thompson Hall with us, the recording crew, and NOT for one of their concerts: they wanted to hear the group that was performing that night (I forget which one), and thoroughly enjoyed being with the back-stage crew.
Amanda, your take on this is absolutely spot-on, and I say that as one who spent nearly 20 years as an arts/entertainment PR guy. There are certain artists who seem to have an internal clock that sets to EXACTLY 40 minutes late for everything, from interviews to meet & greets. That’s what makes it so wonderful to work with professionals who understand the concept of “public relations” and are punctual, articulate and charming whenever they’re in public….and usually in private too.
I was right with you until you used the phrase “dancer boy” sitting in front of you. Was he wearing a button or sign that said “I’m a dancer”? Was he pirouetting on his seat” I’m guessing he was a bit too effiminate for your taste and so rather than simply calling him a flaming queen, you used a less inflamatory yet still offensive description. To me that’s more of a crime than Ms. LuPone’s.
As for the content of your blog, yes, you are right. However, on the last night of a very heady run when the performer’s emotions are at a fever pitch 3 flash pictures can be very dangerous…to a performer. The flashes can interrupt concentration and lead to a clash with moving scenery or a misjudgment leading to a fall. In this case, I think Patti LuPone was guilty of over-reacting but hardly in the league of major bad behaved divas.
I am very very familiar with the St. James Theater. My first job in show buisness was as casting director for HELLO DOLLY (PEARL BAILY) and spent many many hours of auditions and just watching one of the best and occasionally badly behaving divas.
Watch your language, lighten up a bit and do realize that many of our most talented and popular performers are not perfect which is why they hire you! Thanks for reading.
Joel Thurm – please feel free to check my name on IMDB. I do know what I’m talking about.
Actually, we were talking to him about how he was in school as a dancer. I think he was there with his girlfriend. -AA
“Watch your language”?
“Lighten up”?
Are you her father??
Watching divas behave badly at auditions that you are getting paid to conduct is far different than paying $50+ dollars a seat to see someone have a hissy fit.
I’m so sorry that happened to you. We saw the show the first week in Jan. and it was absolutely riveting. I’ve never been much for “big names” and so didn’t expect much more than a bunch of fan-fawning and queen bee response. Instead, I got my heart broken again in that very scene that was ruined for you(I’m a mother; happens often to mothers) and felt LuPone “became” the person she played. It was an awesome experience and worth our $60 each seat price (Yay! TKTS).
I saw Phillip Seymour Hoffman in a play at the Public Theatre. (I’ve forgotten the name). At one point PSH sat on the edge of the stage and the girl in front of me started taking pictures of him with her cell phone. He did not break character. But, right after the play ended, he came out into the audience and had a word with the girl. He was clearly angry, though I am not sure what he actually said to her. I have always thought that that was such a respectable way to handle that situation.
More dramatically, my mom saw Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich in a production of ‘Death of a Salesman’ during which Malkovich slammed a glass of water down and cut his hand. The audience thought the broken glass and blood were part of the show, until intermission was prolonged and Malkovich came back for the second act with his hand wrapped. And that’s show business. -AA
Not a huge PL fan myself, and I wasn’t there myself, but listening to the recording, I was left wondering: At least at the beginning of her rant, was she trying to stay in character with the Gypsy/overbearing Mama Rose schtick? If it had gone on for a few seconds, maybe she would have proven her point and gotten a nice laugh from her audience. But she carried it on for far too long–it got uncomfortable at maybe the 30-second mark– and I agree that she really crossed a line and disrespected her audience. I suppose that’s what you meant by cliche within a cliche–I’m sorry you had to pay to sit through that.
I do frequently run across bootlegged copies of performances, and I’m torn. On the one hand, it’s unfair to the artists and crew who work hard to create a LIVE performance experience, and want to work without distraction and be fairly compensated for their work product. It’s unfair to the producing company, which is working hard and often struggling against tight margins and scraping the bottom of the barrel to put paid butts in seats, only for others to get it for free on the internet. BUT–man, especially if it’s a big-name artist, those bootlegged videos/audio generate a lot of viral buzz.
What’s a publicist to do? I’ve personally had to go through the whole “cease and desist” nonsense before, but at the end of the day, there’s little legal recourse, except that you’re CYA-ing so that you can demonstrate a good faith effort to your unions.
Best solution I’ve seen is to either search bags (yes, I’ve seen this done), which annoys the bejesus out of patrons. Or, once I worked with an artist who wrote some very strong language into their contract, and it compelled the house to forbid recording (the house already did so, but the contract gave some extra incentive!). It was only then that I started seeing cameras being taken away, and patrons removed from the house. Neither of these were great solutions, since the bootlegs showed up anyway. We are such a sensitive industry….
Mr. Thurm,
“I think Patti LuPone was guilty of over-reacting but hardly in the league of major bad behaved divas.” Are you KIDDING me with this? You as a professional in the industry have absolutely no business condoning such blatantly unprofessional behaviour from ANYONE star or not. You’re actually trying to excuse her actions by saying taking her picture could have put her in physical danger? Really? No one even mentioned in the anecdote that it was a flash picture and even if it had been the guy was THREE ROWS FROM THE BACK. His picture could have been nothing more than distracting at the MOST. Emotions at a fever pitch or not, NOTHING in the theater is more sacred than the relationship between a performer and the audience. NO ONE in this business has earned themselves the right to piss on that relationship and throw it in the trash to serve their own ego. I have been an actor, director, writer and producer in this industry for over 25 years and not only would it NEVER occur to me to treat an audience in such a disrespectful and unprofessional manner but I would instantly fire anyone who did so ON THE SPOT. Diva behaviour is worthy and even worth celebrating only when it happens OFF the stage. Patti can talk to the cab driver or the waiter any damn way she wants and I’ll be glad to hear the story but when she’s onstage I’m paying $99.95 to be swept away by the magic of someone’s complete immersion in the performance, NOT to be slapped in the face like the hired help. The story especially saddens me as I was fortunate to be in the audience here at Ravinia two summers ago when this production had it’s premiere. It was indeed a magical evening in the theater, one that people talk about in legendary terms. My opinion of Ms. Lupone as one of the greatest musical theater performers of our time but it’s pretty unlikely I’ll ever pay hard earned money to see her live again.
P.S. And that business of you getting all hot and bothered about the “dancer boy” comment, you’re ACTUALLY saying THAT is more offensive that slapping an entire paying audience across the chops? REALLY? GET OFF YOUR FLAMING HIGH HORSE buddy. Uptight queens like you that can’t take even the slightest poke in the ribs really chap my hide and make the rest of us look bad. It’s a THEATER blog for chrissakes!! You think ANYONE on this thread has any issues with dancer boys? PLEASE Mary!
To the people who write on here, and to those that sit in ANY audience especially the one that Ms. Lupone addressed.
I write this to you ALL in hopes of maybe reaching a few, if not ALL of you who write to call Ms. Lupone a bitch, diva or whatever.
I ask that you not only forgive/understand Ms. Lupones choice to stop the show and address the gentleman who was taking pictures illegally, but I also ask that you understand that it is not only disrespectful to her but to those in the audience around the man taking the shots.
No one can feel what it was she was feeling at that particular moment when she decided to stop the show and address the man, no one. All I know is that it is clearly stated that no flash photography is allowed. How that is stopped, when it happens, is usually by having an usher or house manager take the camera. If this doesn’t happen, and it is getting in the way of a performers performance, and you are the LEAD in a show, I am going to say, all bets are off.
I do understand that the whole audience had to pay for one idiot, but I am not hearing one bit about how angry people are that the idiot had the nerve to use a flash 3 TIMES!!!! HE was the cause of this, no one else. The paying audience should find him and sue him for stopping the show…every last one of them…and maybe then he will stop using a flash…I mean come on…we apparently know the clip was taped…and many shows get recorded illegally, but those are done without interfering with the performers on stage, or the paying audience. Illegal? Absolutely. Interfering? Not at all.
I ask you to think about Ms. Lupones choice and to think before you decide to toss out names about, or accusations to her.
For those of you who don’t know and for those of you who do, the role of Rose in GYPSY is a VERY demanding role both vocally and emotionally. The end of the show for her is the height of all of that. I don’t expect anyone to understand what a performer has to go through to put on a performance like that. Sadly, many don’t realize that she does that 8 times a week…with the same intensity. Yes, it is her job, and as we ALL know, we are ALL expected to act a certain way when at work. We all may try, but there are days where things don’t go as planned. This was one of those times.
If Patti Lupone was a TRUE diva, or bitch, or whatever names you are all tossing about, she would do what most people do once you win an award for your work…stay with the show for a short time and then leave. She didn’t do that. As far as I know, she didn’t miss a show. I happened to see a Saturday matinee of the show last May, and she gave over 100%, as far as I could tell…and believe me…I would have known if she was phoning it in, she wasn’t.
What this really boils down to is respect, or lack thereof. The decision to stop the show came from a complete lack of respect for the performer on stage. Pictures of the show can be purchased. CD’s of the show can be purchased. A picture taken in an audience like that, is not only distracting, but as some of you may know, they can be sold. Maybe this guy just wanted it for himself, maybe not. Maybe he wanted to sell it on ebay, or maybe he just wanted to frame it and put it on the wall of his house. The fact is he shouldn’t have done it, plain and simple. What happened after that was simply because of his actions.
As for her telling someone that pictures are being taken…I myself have done that. Sometimes those complaints are listened to and sometimes they aren’t. We weren’t there, we don’t know if Ms. Lupone complained.
So, all I ask is that before you point a finger and blame Ms. Lupone for her decision, try pointing one at the man in the audience first for doing what he did. Then try and understand why she responded the way she did. We ALL choose to respond to things in our own way, some may agree with those decisions and some may not. No one is perfect we ALL make mistakes.
And lastly, given Ms. Lupones status as a well known performer, I highly doubt you all know, or even care, of the many times shows get stopped in regional theatre, or community theatre, but it does.
When Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick were in The Producers, did anyone complain when they went off book and joked onstage about current events that had NOTHING to do with the show? Nope. Yet many people had to pay good money to hear about Moriah Carey in a show that had NOTHING to do with her.
If you are going to come down on one performer for stopping a show, then come down on ALL of them…
Isn’t it time we ALL give a little more respect to each other first, before we ALL start ignoring the blatant lack of it that is given?
RIDICULOUS Tom! NO ONE is arguing against the man taking the picture in the first place as being in the wrong. If her were doing that with ME sitting next to him he’d have to pull that camera out of a certain bodily orifice after the show was over. The issue here is not how hard Ms. Lupone’s job is, (that’s NO excuse) the quality of her performances or even the fact that Nathan Lane likes to improv. (You’re going to equate Nathan staying in character but going off book with a Mariah Carey joke to get a laugh with someone stopping a show to yell at an audience member? PREPOSTEROUS!) The issue here is that the relationship between performer/4th wall/audience is SACRED. No performer has the right to RUIN the illusion to admonish anyone in the audience no matter what the audience member may be doing. You suck it up, you go on and you keep the illusion going for the sake of the rest of the audience who may have no idea what might be going on and don’t deserve to have their own experience at the same show completely ruined so that a diva can get a problem off their chest. There is NOTHING anyone can say that will support the idea of a performer behaving unprofessionally WHILE THEY ARE ONSTAGE. They can do whatever thay like when the curtain comes down but as long as I’m in the audience I have the right to demand to be fully drawn into the world of the characters I’m paying to see and not and actors ultimate expression of egotism. performers