Faye Dunaway has been fired from the Broadway-bound “Tea at Five,” a one-woman show about Katharine Hepburn, amid a New York Post report of physical and verbal abuse of crew members during a recent run of the show at Boston’s Huntington Theatre.
“The producers of ‘Tea at Five’ announced today that they have terminated their relationship with Faye Dunaway,” a rep for producer Ben Feldman said in a statement. “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.”
The show’s rep declined to elaborate on reasons for the termination but sources on the production told the Post that the Oscar-winning actress slapped crew members and threw things at them, frequently arrived late to rehearsals and used an earpiece for lines and blocking because she had not memorized the script.
According to the Post, the July 10 performance was canceled just before it was set to begin because the actress had slapped a crew member.
A rep for Dunaway did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
John Tillinger was directing the production based on Matthew Lombardo’s revised script for the show, which would have marked the star’s first appearance on Broadway since 1982. The 2002 play was first performed by “Star Trek: Voyager” actress Kate Mulgrew.
In 1968, Dunaway famously lost her first chance at an Academy Award to Hepburn, who won for “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” Dunaway, who had been nominated for “Bonnie and Clyde,” won Best Actress nine years later for “Network.”