Broadway Shockers 2024: Patti LuPone Returns to Broadway Without Her Equity Card

As 2024 draws to a close, TheaterMania looks back on some of the most jaw-dropping stories of the year.

 In 2022, Patti LuPone went through a very public break-up…with her union. After 50 years of membership, LuPone resigned from Actors’ Equity Association, calling it the “worst union” (How would she know? Is she also a teamster?) and asserting “I just didn’t want to give them any more money.”

Equity membership is generally considered a prerequisite for appearing on Broadway, but LuPone seemed confident that should she ever want to return to the Broadway stage, she could via a loophole. And in 2024, she made good on that promise by starring opposite Mia Farrow in Jen Silverman’s comedy The Roommate, which completed its run at the Booth Theatre on December 15 with nary a peep of dissent from AEA.

How did she do it? According to this interview in the New York Times, LuPone invoked the Supreme Court’s 1963 “financial core” ruling, which essentially allows actors to appear in a Broadway show provided they contribute an amount to the union that covers the costs of its core activities of collective bargaining and contract enforcement (but not extracurriculars like lobbying and other political activities). Actors seeking “financial core” status are barred from participating in union votes or running for office within the organization, so Brooke Shields is safe from LuPone’s populist insurgency, for now.

Unsurprisingly, AEA claims that 86 percent of its expenditures go to core activities — which strongly suggests that LuPone got a 14 percent discount on the dues she might typically have paid as a member. It’s not a bad deal for the union, which perhaps explains its silence on the matter (multiple requests for comment went unanswered by AEA’s press representative).

It’s unclear if more actors will follow LuPone down the witches’ road, which presently seems open only to household-name actors with significant box office potential (to get on Broadway one must first be cast, which is much easier for unfamous actors with access to the Equity lounge). But with her act of defiance, LuPone has shown that there is life onstage after Equity. It’s certain to have more performers wondering if the dues they pay to the union are really worth it.