When Broadway stalwart Patti LuPone insulted fellow stage legends Kecia Lewis and Audra McDonald earlier this year, the backlash against her was swift and unerring.
More than 600 Broadway actors wrote an open letter to the American Theatre Wing calling her comments “not only degrading and misogynistic — it is a blatant act of racialized disrespect. It constitutes bullying. It constitutes harassment.”
The letter demanded “accountability, justice, and respect” and within days LuPone issued an apology, taking “full responsibility” and saying the “entire theatre community deserves better.”
But when mega-producer Scott Rudin announced his return to Broadway this week after a four-year absence — following explosive allegations of workplace abuse, including bullying and sexism — the response was strikingly muted.
In 2021, The Hollywood Reporter published a bombshell exposé detailing a pattern of extreme bullying by Rudin, whose film and theater credits include West Side Story, The Social Network, No Country for Old Men, and The Book of Mormon.
Rudin allegedly smashed an Apple computer monitor on an assistant’s hand for failing to book him a seat on a sold-out flight, and hurled a glass bowl at another colleague, triggering a panic attack that required emergency medical care, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In that same report, multiple women also accused him of sexism during his decades-long career in entertainment, where he is among the rare few to have achieved EGOT status — winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.
He apologized in a public statement, saying: “Much has been written about my history of troubling interactions with colleagues, and I am profoundly sorry for the pain my behavior caused to individuals, directly and indirectly.”
After the exposé was published, hundreds of theater workers marched in protest against him, and Rudin stepped back from producing. At the time, though the industry was still shuttered by the Covid-19 pandemic, he was backing major Manhattan productions like The Music Man, starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster, and To Kill a Mockingbird.
But after a few years out of the public eye, he has returned. Speaking to The New York Times in March 2025 after his four-year exile, Rudin claimed he has “a lot more self-control” now. “A lot of what was said was true. Some of what was said wasn’t true,” Rudin told the publication, referring to the 2021 allegations. “But I didn’t feel there was any point in responding to all of it because what’s the point of parsing bad behavior? It was bad behavior. I own it.”
The producer said he had apologized to those “I felt I needed to,” but that not all were receptive. Rudin also shared his plans for a grand return to Broadway, including several plays starring stage and screen darling Laurie Metcalf.
Now, the first of those productions has been formally announced. Little Bear Ridge Road will open at the Booth Theatre this fall, helmed by prolific director Joe Mantello and starring Metcalf, both of whom have been his previous collaborators. Representatives for Rudin, Metcalf, and Mantello did not respond to The Independent’s request for comment.
Ironically, the production currently occupying that space is the “Me Too”-driven play, John Proctor is the Villain, in which a small Georgia town grapples with alleged abuse by multiple men and comes to terms with the fact that women might (believe it or not!) be telling the truth.
When news of Rudin’s return broke Monday morning, social media was ablaze as theatergoers and workers spoke out against it, but no visible response has been seen from the wider industry.
When asked how members are responding to the news of Rudin coming back to Broadway, the Actors’ Equity Association, the main theater union, told The Independent: “Equity contracts hold employers responsible for ensuring a workplace free of bullying, discrimination and harassment. Since Scott Rudin last worked with Equity members, in reaction to his previous behaviors, Equity has taken steps to strengthen those contractual protections – including limiting the use of NDAs so they can’t shield abusive employers from the consequences of their behaviors.”
The Independent also reached out to The Broadway League, the national trade association for the Broadway industry, and the American Theatre Wing, the New York City–based non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and advancing theatre in the United States, inquiring about potential action against the production, but did not receive a response before publication.
Perhaps something is being planned behind the scenes but unlike with LuPone, the response is currently limited to anonymous Reddit threads and some tweets. Broadway appears to be proving it’s one rule for women and another for powerful rich men.
Though Rudin’s behavior had been whispered about for decades before the public reckoning, the 18-time Tony winner was also lauded within the industry, having mounted hit after hit after hit — and, of course, bringing his check book along for the ride. His productions have long been known for their star power and subsequent cash flow.
But in the years since Rudin’s hiatus, Broadway has regained its footing post-pandemic. The 2024-2025 season was the starriest and highest-grossing of all time thanks to the likes of George Clooney, Denzel Washington, and Sadie Sink treading the boards. That was accomplished without any new Rudin-backed productions, which shows definitively: Broadway doesn’t need him back.
Rudin has never been charged or convicted of any crime. He’s allegedly treated men poorly, and women even more so. For women in the entertainment industry, similar allegations would surely be a nail in the coffin.
Take Ellen DeGeneres as an example. When bullying allegations arose against the comedian, she was forced to end the wildly successful, eponymous talk show she created and executive produced. A Buzzfeed News investigation accused the show of fostering a toxic work environment, with alleged sexual misconduct, racism and workplace bullying taking place behind the scenes. DeGeneres has since addressed the backlash she received as part of her stand-up comedy show, quipping that she “got kicked out of show business.”
Lea Michele went through a similar ordeal after allegations of toxic on-set behavior toward her Glee castmates forced her to issue a public apology in 2020. She has since used Broadway to mount a comeback, starring in the recent revival of Funny Girl and the upcoming production of Chess. However, she hasn’t been cast in a screen role since 2019.
Rudin, too, is using Broadway as his way back in. He hasn’t been attached to any film or television projects since 2021’s The Woman in the Window, though IMDB has been quietly updated to include three upcoming film credits under his profile.
Barry Diller, Rudin’s long-time friend, is co-producing his first foray back in Times Square, signaling that yes, other powerful (and wealthy) men are willing to work with him again.
However, it does appear that some are quietly opposing Rudin’s return. Steppenwolf Theater Company in Chicago, where Little Bear Ridge Road was first mounted last year, has announced it will not participate in the Broadway transfer, in a departure from its norm.
“Steppenwolf is proud to have commissioned the world premiere of Little Bear Ridge Road by Samuel D. Hunter, however we have decided to not take a role in producing the Broadway production,” the theater’s leadership said in a statement to The New York Times. “We wish ensemble member Laurie Metcalf, director Joe Mantello and Sam all the best.”
The Independent has reached out to Steppenwolf to see if they’ve declined to co-produce the Broadway transfer due to Rudin’s involvement, but did not receive a response before publication.
As someone who worked in the theater industry for years, I’m sadly not surprised to see Rudin welcomed back with open arms. Broadway has failed its hardworking actors and creatives in the past by not having proper workplace protections — one of the very reasons theater workers organized the March on Broadway in the wake of the Rudin exposé.
Those in the industry demanded transparency and accountability regarding the Rudin situation, looking to prevent the abuse and harassment that was allegedly endured at his hands. And while some of that was achieved through the aforementioned Equity protections that are now in place, the fact that Rudin was so easily able to mount a return at all reveals that less has changed since the 2021 march than we think.
Sure, four years away from the industry is arguably a punishment — but some wanted Rudin to suffer the long-term consequences in the same way they were afraid to speak out against him for fear of being blacklisted.
His comeback also certainly feels like a slap in the face to the alleged victims in the situation and sends a poor message to the public; that alleged abusers can sit in time out but then waltz back onto the scene and assume their spot on the throne like nothing ever happened.
Broadway doesn’t need saving and Rudin isn’t a knight in shining armor.
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