‘Hamilton’ cancels planned Kennedy Center performances

The hit musical Hamilton is canceling its 2026 run at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. This is in response to President Trump’s decision to take over the art institution last month.

According to a statement by Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller on X, “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 center represents.”

The statement goes on to explain that the move to cancel was a business decision, as it would’ve been “financially and personally devastating to the employees of Hamilton if the new leadership of the Kennedy Center suddenly cancelled or re-negotiated our engagement.”

The Center’s new president Richard Grenell, called the move “a publicity stunt that will backfire.” In a post on X, Grenell wrote that Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda “is intolerant of people who don’t agree with him politically,” and that Miranda and Sellers “don’t want Republicans going to their shows.”

Hamilton joins a growing list of artists and productions who have decided to cut ties with the Kennedy Center. The actor and producer Issa Rae, the rock band Low Cut Connie, mystery writer Louise Penny, and more have canceled upcoming appearances. The Pulitzer Prize-winning folk musician Rhiannon Giddens moved her scheduled Kennedy Center show to a different venue, writing in Threads, “I cannot in good conscience play at The Kennedy Center with the change in programming direction forced on the institution by this new board.”

Some artists have decided to keep performing at the Kennedy Center despite the change in leadership. Conductor Marin Alsop kept her recent performances there, telling NPR “it’s really important, especially in this time that we remember and celebrate the importance of art in our lives … You know, music, art, these are not partisan issues.”

The comedian W. Kamau Bell, no fan of President Trump, opened his recent tour at the Kennedy Center. He told NPR, “the Kennedy Center is in a city called Washington, D.C. So as much as MAGA runs the White House, maybe, they don’t run Washington, D.C.”