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'So defeated by this issue': Patti LuPone grabs patron's cell phone at Broadway show

Thinking of whipping out your phone during a Broadway show? Think again: Your phone might get snatched.
/ Source: TODAY

Thinking of whipping out your phone during a Broadway show? Think again — and not just because it's really, really rude.

If the performance you're attending stars two-time Tony Award winning Patti Lupone, you've got another reason to think twice: Your phone might get snatched.

Lupone is already famous for responding to audience rudeness, most notably for her show-stopping anti-photography rant during the Broadway revival of "Gypsy" in 2009.

But her wrath was rekindled this week when she spied a texting audience member at Wednesday night's performance of "Shows for Days" at Lincoln Center in Manhattan.

The first signs of phone-happy mayhem were witnessed during Wednesday's matinee performance. According to a poster on one of BroadwayWorld.com's message boards named Auggie27, the overall scene could best be described as "cell phone hell."

Her post reads: "The second act of the Shows for Days' matinee today was besieged with cell phone ringing, first one long unanswered call that threatened to ring for the rest of the performance, and then two or more which resulted in someone leaping up and answering in the semi-opened door...Cell phone rudeness is far from rare. Yet this was the most egregious example of how these phones can ruin a play that I've ever encountered."

She added: "It peaked during the quietest moments of the production, when revelations surfaced and allegiances shifted dramatically."

"Show For Days" Opening Night
Patti LuPone, pictured at the opening night of "Shows For Days."Walter McBride / Getty Images Contributor

Given her past willingness to confront distracting audience members, the house was plainly surprised when Lupone did nothing but "pause." Besides that, she "ignored the ringing."

As Auggie 27 saw it, "She clearly made a decision to reward the rest of us with a complete performance, uninterrupted at least from the stage."

It was during the evening performance, when she saw yet another texting audience member, that she decided to snatch up his phone.

In a statement, she explained her actions: "We work hard on stage to create a world that is being totally destroyed by a few, rude, self-absorbed and inconsiderate audience members who are controlled by their phones. They cannot put them down."

"When a phone goes off or when a LED screen can be seen in the dark it ruins the experience for everyone else - the majority of the audience at that performance and the actors on stage. I am so defeated by this issue that I seriously question whether I want to work on stage anymore."

"Now I'm putting battle gear on over my costume to marshall the audience as well as perform."

This isn't the first time an audience member has embarrassed themselves this month. On July 2, someone marched onto (yes, onto) the stage at a production of "Hand to God" on Broadway to plug his phone into one of the non-operational outlets onstage.