Hamilton has canceled a run on the Kennedy Heart in Washington, DC, scheduled to kick off this spring in gentle of the “latest purge by the Trump Administration of each skilled employees and performing arts occasions at or initially produced by the Kennedy Heart [that] flies within the face of the whole lot this nationwide cultural middle represents.”
In a prolonged assertion posted to Hamilton’s social media channels on Wednesday, producer Jeffrey Vendor acknowledged that, “Political disagreement and debate are very important expressions of democracy. These primary ideas of freedom are on the very coronary heart of Hamilton. Nonetheless, Vendor added, “some establishments are sacred and must be shielded from politics. The Kennedy Heart is one such establishment.”
“The Kennedy Heart was based over 50 years in the past with a honest bipartisan spirit,” Vendor continued. “Certainly, it was based throughout the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower, named after President John F. Kennedy, and opened in 1971 underneath the administration of Richard M. Nixon. The Kennedy Heart was meant to be for all Individuals, a spot the place we might all come collectively in celebration of the humanities. Politics have by no means affected the presentation of hundreds of exhibits and the show of extraordinary visible arts.”
“Nonetheless, in latest weeks now we have sadly seen many years of Kennedy Heart neutrality be destroyed,” Vendor added. “The latest purge by the Trump Administration of each skilled employees and performing arts occasions at or initially produced by the Kennedy Heart flies within the face of the whole lot this nationwide cultural middle represents. This spirit of nonpartisanship ended on February 7, 2025, with the firing of Kennedy Heart President Deborah Rutter, the Chairman of the Board David Rubenstein, and quite a few different Kennedy Heart board members, in addition to the cancellation of essential programming. These actions convey a brand new spirit of partisanship to the nationwide treasure that’s the Kennedy Heart.”
Hamilton had been scheduled to run on the Kennedy Heart from March third, 2025 to April twenty sixth, 2026. Nonetheless, Vendor has now concluded that, “Given these latest actions, our present merely can’t, in good conscience, take part and be part of this new tradition that’s being imposed on the Kennedy Heart.”
Vendor careworn that his choice to cancel Hamilton’s run was not an act of protest in opposition to the Trump Administration, because the present was beforehand staged on the Kennedy Heart in 2018 throughout Trump’s first time period. As a substitute, it’s an act “in opposition to the partisan insurance policies of the Kennedy Heart on account of his latest takeover.”
Additionally factoring into Vendor’s choice was the obvious chance that the brand new Trump-appointed board of the Kennedy Heart would possibly cancel Hamilton’s performances anyway. “Hamilton is a big and international manufacturing, and it will merely be financially and personally devastating to the tons of of workers of Hamilton if the brand new management of the Kennedy Heart instantly cancelled or re-negotiated our engagement,” he defined. “The actions of the brand new Chairman of the Board in latest weeks show that contracts and former agreements merely can’t be trusted. That is unhappy, as a result of primary integrity and the rule of legislation have lengthy been nice American ideas that assist function a basis for our Nation.”
“Whatever the political local weather, I’ve all the time felt at house at The Kennedy Heart, and I’m grateful for each one that has spent the final 50 years making it a beacon of nonpartisanship and celebration,” Vendor wrote to conclude his assertion. “However we can’t presently help an establishment that has been compelled by exterior forces to betray its mission as a nationwide cultural middle that fosters the free expression of artwork in America of America.”