Hamilton is taking a stand.
The beloved musical was scheduled to carry out on the Kennedy Heart for the third time in March and April of 2026, however have since canceled the run as a consequence of President Donald Trump‘s latest takeover of the performing arts establishment. “Political disagreement and debate are important expressions of democracy,” lead producer Jeffrey Vendor mentioned in a press release, shared to the official Hamilton X web page. “These primary ideas of freedom are on the very coronary heart of Hamilton. Nonetheless, some establishments are sacred and needs to be protected against politics. The Kennedy Heart is one such establishment.”
He continued, “The Kennedy Heart was based over 50 years in the past with a honest bipartisan spirit. Certainly, it was based throughout the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower, named after President John F. Kennedy, and opened in 1971 beneath the administration of Richard M. Nixon. The Kennedy Heart was meant to be for all People, a spot the place we may all come collectively in celebration of the humanities. Politics have by no means affected the presentation of 1000’s of exhibits and the show of extraordinary visible arts.”
Nonetheless, Vendor famous that, “Given the latest actions, our present merely can not, in good conscience, take part and be part of this new tradition that’s being imposed on the Kennedy Heart.”
Within the first month of his second time period, Trump fired the Kennedy Heart’s management and changed the board of trustees along with his supporters, finally saying he had been “unanimously” elected the board’s chair. “At my course, we’re going to make the Kennedy Heart in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN,” he wrote on his social media web site on the time, in line with the Related Press. “I’ve determined to instantly terminate a number of people from the Board of Trustees, together with the Chairman, who don’t share our Imaginative and prescient for a Golden Age in Arts and Tradition.”
A number of different well-known names related to the Kennedy Heart resigned following the information, together with Ben Folds, Renée Fleming and Shonda Rhimes. Just like the Hamilton manufacturing, Issa Rae can be amongst those that cancelled exhibits on the Kennedy Heart.