Academy Award winner Faye Dunaway, 78, was fired from a show heading for Broadway, “Tea at Five.”
According to several sources that talked to the NY Post, she was creating a hostile and dangerous environment.
The company had to cancel a July 10 performance because Dunaway allegedly slapped and threw things at crew members that were helping with theatrical preparations.
.@nypost EXCLUSIVE: Faye Dunaway has been fired from Broadway-bound ‘Tea at Five’ for creating a ‘hostile’ and ‘dangerous’ environment backstage https://t.co/clTMRe63L6 pic.twitter.com/6ChMmVl62p
— Page Six (@PageSix) July 24, 2019
Sources told the NY Post that the canceling of the show infuriated her and started “verbally abusing” the staff, making some of them “fearful for their safety.”
The NY Post tried to reach out to the actress but she was traveling in Europe and queries to her lawyer were unanswered.
Dunaway’s agent in the U.K. said in a statement to The Independent: “With certain artists there is always more drama off stage than on, which is unfortunate. We did not work with Ms. Dunaway on Tea at Five as we represent European projects and therefore have not been in touch with either the producers or indeed Ms Dunaway regarding this recent event. If however physical abuse against hard working theatre personnel has taken place as alleged then we will no longer be in a position to represent Ms. Dunaway.”
The producers of the play announced that they were planning to replace Dunaway with a new actress.
“The producers of ‘Tea at Five’ announced today that they have terminated their relationship with Faye Dunaway,” the statement said. “Plans are in development for the play to have its West End debut early next year with a new actress to play the role of Katharine Hepburn.”
Dunaway was returning to the theater stage after 37 years, she had acted in “The Curse of the Aching Heart” in 1982.
According to sources who spoke with the Post, she was often late for rehearsals, with delayed appearances going up to two hours. She didn’t let people look at her during rehearsal, including the director and the playwright. Once, she threw a salad on the ground apparently because she was trying to lose weight, saying that the salad would be better on the floor than in her hand.
Once production source said that she had left “troubling, rambling, angry” voicemails to some team members during the middle of the night, insisting also that no one could wear white because it distracted her, similarly, she didn’t allow anyone to move in the theater because it would distract her.
She allegedly wasn’t able to remember her lines, although she had access to the script for six months. She relied largely on an earpiece for the Huntington theater tryout.
She had lost weight during rehearsals, at one point looking overly thin, prompting some staff members’ concern.
At one point, Dunaway allegedly made some staff members scrub the floor of her dressing room on their knees. She also threw hairpins, combs, and mirrors at workers.
She had also reportedly exhibited other abnormal behavior previously in the early 1990s while acting as Maria Callas in a play called “Master Class” by Terrence McNally.
Faye Dunaway has been fired from the previously Broadway-bound one-woman play #TeaAtFive, according to various reports https://t.co/3tkjGirKzg
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) July 24, 2019
A Boston Globe review of the “Tea at Five” said that Lombardo’s rewrite “attempt to explain the inexplicable is skin-deep.”
But praised Dunaway’s performance, “Dunaway’s performance is the real deal,” said Patti Hartigan of the Boston Globe, “Of course, (Dunaway) captures The Voice—waspy, reedy, patrician—but she also brings a mix of fragility and strength to the role, maintaining the straight spine but also letting that stiff upper lip quiver ever so slightly when grief overtakes her.”
