Patti LuPone’s drama is dividing the Broadway community ahead of the Tony Awards

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — Patti LuPone may have apologized for some recent controversial remarks, but that doesn’t mean the curtain has dropped on the drama.

The actress sparked a major backlash after disparaging comments she made about fellow Broadway stars Kecia Lewis and Audra McDonald in a recent interview with the New Yorker .

LuPone referred to Lewis as a “b**ch” and said McDonald was “not a friend.”

Hundreds of performers from Broadway and other theater communities then wrote a letter in which they characterized LuPone’s comments as “degrading and misogynistic—it is a blatant act of racialized disrespect.”

“It constitutes bullying. It constitutes harassment,” they wrote. ”It is emblematic of the microaggressions and abuse that people in this industry have endur