Listen: Patti LuPone Talks Leaving Broadway and Taking Cell Phones on NPR's WAIT WAIT...DON'T TELL ME

Patti LuPone appeared on NPR's podcast Wait Wait Don't Tell Me to discuss leaving Broadway, taking cell phones from audience members, and more!

In the interview, LuPone elaborated on her announcement that was quitting Broadway, stating that while she plans to no longer work on Broadway, she is not done with the stage: "What I want to do is I want to make my downtown debut. I want to work on East 4th Street."

When the host joked that she wants to do her career in reverse, she said "No, I want a Broadway salary--downtown!"

LuPone also discussed the hardships of being in a Broadway show: "I don't understand why people want to be on Broadway. It is extremely hard. You have to be an athlete and a monk. But there's such joy in it, there's such ecstasy, but there's also incredible pain and depression in it. It's show business. It's a subjective business. You can be in a hit, or you can give your life to a flop. You just have to roll with the punches, and sometimes that's really really hard."

Listen to the interview below!

In October of 2022, LuPone revealed to BroadwayWorld that she had decided to resign from Equity after her run in the Broadway revival of Company had concluded.

"When the run of COMPANY ended this past July, I knew I wouldn't be on stage for a very long time. And at that point I made the decision to resign from Equity,​​​​​" the musical theatre legend shared at the time.

LuPone most recently won a Tony Award for her performance as Joanne in Company. A two-time Tony Award winner for her performances in Evita and the most recent Broadway production of Gypsy, her New York stage credits include War Paint (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Award nominations); Shows for Days; The Seven Deadly Sins (New York City Ballet); Company (New York Philharmonic); Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Tony, Drama Desk, OCC Award nominations); Sweeney Todd (Tony, Drama Desk, OCC nominations); Noises Off; The Old Neighborhood; Master Class; Anything Goes (Tony nomination, Drama Desk Award); Oliver!; Accidental Death of An Anarchist; The Water Engine; and The Robber Bridegroom (Tony and Drama Desk nominations).

In addition to Company, her London stage credits include Master Class; Sunset Boulevard (Olivier Award nomination); The Cradle Will Rock, and Les Miserables, for which she won the Olivier Award, the first American artist to do so, for her performances in both musicals.

Opera credits include The Ghosts of Versailles (Los Angeles Opera), To Hell and Back (San Francisco Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra), The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Los Angeles Opera debut), Regina (Kennedy Center).

Her film credits include: The Comedian, Parker, Union Square, Summer of Sam, Driving Miss Daisy, and Witness. LuPone's television credits include "Pose," "Mom," "The Simpsons," "Vampirina," "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," "Penny Dreadful" (Critics Choice Award nomination), "Girls," "American Horror Story: Coven," "30 Rock," "Glee," "Frasier" (Emmy Award nomination), and three years as Libby Thatcher on the ABC series "Life Goes On."

She is a founding member of both the Drama Division of The Juilliard School and John Houseman's The Acting Company and the author of the New York Times best-seller Patti LuPone: A Memoir.

Photo Credit: Bruce Glikas