‘Hamilton’ cancels Kennedy Center show in protest at Trump takeover
The producers of the musical Hamilton have cancelled their upcoming production at The Kennedy Center, due to President Donald Trump taking control of the venue.
In February, the US President was elected as chairman of the centre, announcing his intentions to change the venue’s programming and remove several members of the board of trustees. He told reporters at the time he would stop what he viewed as “woke” productions taking place.
In recent weeks, the Kennedy Center announced that its planned tour of its children’s musical Finn had been cancelled, as well as an upcoming performance by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington D.C. While the former cancellation was described as a “financial decision”, both shows have LGBTQ+ themes that have been targeted by the Trump Administration.
In a press release, the show’s producer Jeffrey Seller wrote: “Political disagreement and debate are vital expressions of democracy. These basic concepts of freedom are at the very heart of Hamilton. However, some institutions are sacred and should be protected from politics. The Kennedy Center is one such institution.
“The Kennedy Center was meant to be for all Americans, a place where we could all come together in celebration of the arts. Politics have never affected the presentation of thousands of shows and the display of extraordinary visual arts.
“However, in recent weeks we have sadly seen decades of Kennedy Center neutrality be destroyed. The recent purge by the Trump Administration of both professional staff and performing arts events at or originally produced by the Kennedy Center flies in the face of everything this national cultural centre represents.”
He added: “Given these recent actions, our show simply cannot, in good conscience, participate and be a part of this new culture that is being imposed on the Kennedy Center. Therefore, we have cancelled the third engagement of Hamilton at the Kennedy Center, originally scheduled for March 3-April 26, 2026”.
In the release, Seller also described the cancellation as a “business decision”, expressing doubt over the new leadership’s potential future actions.
He continued: “Hamilton is a large and global production, and it would simply be financially and personally devastating to the hundreds of employees of Hamilton if the new leadership of the Kennedy Center suddenly cancelled or re-negotiated our engagement. The actions of the new Chairman of the Board in recent weeks demonstrate that contracts and previous agreements simply cannot be trusted”.
He concluded: “We cannot presently support an institution that has been forced by external forces to betray its mission as a national cultural centre that fosters the free expression of art in The United States of America”.
The performance would have been the third for the show at the centre, with Seller pointing out that one engagement happened in 2018, during the first Trump administration.
Premiering off-Broadway in 2015, Hamilton has become a global sensation, propelling its creator Lin-Manuel Miranda to stardom and leading to productions across the world, as well as a live-recording on Disney+. NME’s five-star review of the filmed version described it as a “brilliant and daring musical” that “changed the game”.
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Victoria Luxford
NME
