Broadway Shockers 2019: Patti LuPone Joins Twitter After Swearing She Wouldn't

As 2019 draws to a close, TheaterMania looks back on some of the most jaw-dropping stories of the year.

Patti LuPone is one of my favorite interview subjects. It's intimidating as hell in the hours leading up to the conversation — it's Patti LuPone, for God's sake — but once you get her on the phone, or live in her dressing room, she's awesome to talk to. LuPone is a breath of fresh air in an industry that prizes itself on prewritten sound bytes and trained responses, simply because she's honest, raw, and unguarded, words that can also describe her legendary performances in Evita, Gypsy, and, as Broadway will see this spring, Company.

Back in 2015, I interviewed LuPone about her work in Douglas Carter Beane's play Shows for Days at Lincoln Center. It was in the weeks following a highly publicized incident where she spotted an audience member texting during the show and subsequently "palmed" the phone out of the person's hands in an effort to get them to stop. She called it a "sleight of hand."

That interview (which also included costar Michael Urie) was amazing. It was a wide-ranging, hourlong conversation that somehow landed on a discussion of how much she hates Twitter. It stemmed from when she noticed someone was impersonating her on the social networking site. And how, when she personally marched down to Twitter HQ, not only would they not give her the time of day, but she was almost escorted out by security. "F*ck Twitter," she told me. "And the people that run it."

You can listen to the conversation in all its glory here:

So I was very surprised last February when I saw that Patti LuPone — the real deal Patti LuPone — joined Twitter.

Surprised, but not disappointed.

I'm a prolific Tweeter, and I love having the raw and unguarded LuPone there to share her thoughts (even if it is her assistant doing the typing). I can only urge you to follow her, too, so you can see wonderful photos of her at baseball games, having her hip replaced, and Marie Kondo-ing her Eva Perón wig. And cursing Donald Trump.

Here she is, world! We'll drink to that.