The musical theatre's juggernaut “Hamilton,” about the birth of American democracy, cancels plans to perform next year at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, citing the move that President Trump has over the years imposes his ideological and cultural values.
The musical was expected to be part of the Kennedy Center celebration, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. But after Trump expelled Democrats from the Center's former two-party committee, he became chairman and decided that “Hamilton” would not come on behalf of the president.
“This latest action by Trump means it's not the Kennedy Center as we know it,” show creator Lynn Manuel Miranda said in a joint interview with lead producer Jeffrey Seller in a joint interview on Wednesday. “The Kennedy Center is not created in this spirit, and while it's the Trump Kennedy Center, we won't be part of it. We're not going to be part of it.”
Seller said the “Hamilton” team believes Trump “takes our National Center for the Arts for all of us.”
“It's become unacceptable for us to join such a deeply politicized organization,” he said. “The Kennedy Center is for all of us, and it hurts me deeply that they took over and changed it. They said it wasn't for all of us. It's just for Donald Trump and his crowd. So we decided we couldn't do it.”
Kennedy Center officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This decision requires “Hamilton,” a highly popular retelling of the country's founding, from the Kennedy Center's plan to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America's independence. The Kennedy Center announced last year that “Hamilton” would be performing there in 2026 as part of those celebrations, but tickets had not yet been sold and no contracts had been signed. Miranda and the seller said the show will soon announce another venue in the Washington area, so anyone hoping to see the show in that area still has the opportunity to do so.
The cancellation comes at the time of transformation at the Kennedy Center. Trump says he has a “vision for a golden age of art and culture,” but has not specified what it will look like. The choice of Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell promised “a great, massive celebration of the birth of Christ at Christmas.” (Kennedy Center regularly presents Christmas-themed festivals.)
Venue managers are currently thinking about what art they are trying to present, but artists are still deciding whether they are willing to perform there, and some ticket buyers are considering whether they plan to continue participating.
Since Trump moved to control the Kennedy Center, a handful of artists have cancelled the show, including musician Rhiannon Giddens and actress Issa Rae. Soprano Rene Fleming and singer-songwriter Ben Fold have resigned from the advisory position along with the centre and its affiliates.
The biological “Hamilton” about the first Treasury Secretary of America was the biggest Broadway hit for many years. It opened on Broadway in 2015 and won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for Best Musical. On Broadway, it has generated more than $1 billion in revenue, and has seen it by nearly five million people. There have been several other works over the past decade. It currently operates in New York and London and tours in North America and the UK. Additionally, live captured versions of the show can be streamed on Disney+.
Miranda is no stranger to the Kennedy Center. In 2018, during the first Trump administration, he and other members of the “Hamilton” creative team were among the Kennedy Center recipients. “Hamilton” has been performed twice previously at the Kennedy Center, and twice there in 2018, 14 weeks when Trump was president, and 10 weeks when Joseph R. Biden Jr. was president in 2022.
Miranda is neither a dusty nor stranger with the Trump administration. Shortly after Trump was elected to presidency in 2016, the “Hamilton” cast brought a curtain call appeal to Vice President Mike Pence, who was in a Broadway audience, hoping the Trump administration would “support American values” and “work on behalf of us all.”
Trump demanded an apology, saying he heard that “Hamilton” was “very overrated.”
Shaw had a better relationship with the Obama administration. Miranda was a member of the cast, who performed songs from what would become “Hamilton” at the White House in 2009 and performed at the White House in 2016. On that occasion, First Lady Michelle Obama called the musical “the greatest work of art in any form I've seen in my life.”
Also on Wednesday, acclaimed musical theatre performer Melissa Erico said the World War I-themed concert “The Story of A Rose,” which was scheduled to be held at the Kennedy Center in May, will be relocating to a venue in northern Virginia. Jericho and show producer Daniel Dayton said the decision was made due to concerns about seating capacity. However, Erico said: I wanted to do a show where anyone could attend – left, right, center. ”
Most of theatre programming this season appears to be unharmed. Greg Novile, the lead producer of the revival, who won Tony for “Parade,” a musical about anti-Semitic lynching in the American South in the early 20th century, said in an interview before “Hamilton” cancellation that he continued to hope for the “Parade” tour to take place at the Kennedy Center.
However, programming next season could be at risk. Meredith Blair, president and CEO of the booking group that arranges tours for the Broadway show, was scheduled to perform at the Kennedy Center next season, but some shows that have not publicly announced that those plans have been quietly cancelled.
