The play was to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, but ‘Trump’s latest actions mean that this is no longer the Kennedy Center we know,’ said Hamilton’s writer Lin-Manuel Miranda.
“We will not be part of it as long as it remains the Trump Kennedy Center,” Miranda warned, in reference to the changes the prestigious cultural institution has undergone since Trump became president of its board of directors and removed a number its members.
“Under y direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., GREAT AGAIN,” Trump wrote on his social networks when he decided to take over the institution.
The musical was scheduled at the Kennedy center in March and April 2026.
Its main producer, Jeffrey Seller, issued a statement saying that ‘the Kennedy Center was founded more than 50 years ago with a sincere bipartisan spirit’.
Politics -he added- has never affected the presentation of thousands of shows and the exhibition of extraordinary visual arts, but “given recent actions, our show simply cannot, in good conscience, participate and be part of this new culture that is being imposed on the Kennedy Center,” he stressed.
According to local media reports, the cancellation of ‘Hamilton’ joins other productions that have also decided to leave the Kennedy Center under the new administration.
The musical is about the life of Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers, with lyrics, music and script by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who described the piece as: “The United States of that time, explained by the United States of today.”
Among the personalities who decided to disassociate themselves from the Kennedy is musician Ben Folds who resigned after ‘eight wonderful years’ as artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra, ‘given the developments at the Kennedy Center’.
Also, award-winning opera singer and actress Renee Fleming concluded as general artistic advisor to the Kennedy.
An NPR public radio report noted that Trump has boasted that he has never been to a performance at the national cultural center.
ied/abo/mem/dfm
