I haven’t seen “Hamilton” yet, which is embarrassing for me, as I consider it my duty to try to keep abreast of theatrical phenomena with cultural implications. I thought I would finally see Lin-Manuel Miranda’s creative re-imagining of the life of one of America’s most important Founders with an all “of-color” ensemble singing rap next year when the touring company had a scheduled month-long run at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., but no. The touring company announced that it is canceling the gig, which had been scheduled to be part of the Kennedy Center’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The show and its creator are throwing a tantrum, punishing the audiences of the Washington D.C. area because Donald Trump is Hitler, or something.
President removed Democratic members from the Center’s board, became its (temporary) chairman and replaced the venue’s president, so the uniformly leftist cast and production company decided to boycott the place. Well, you know, theater types…
“This latest action by Trump means it’s not the Kennedy Center as we knew it,” Lin-Manuel Miranda, who originated the title role on Broadway, said in an interview last week. “The Kennedy Center was not created in this spirit, and we’re not going to be a part of it while it is the Trump Kennedy Center. We’re just not going to be part of it.”
The show’s producer, Jeffrey Seller, whined that Trump “took away our national arts center for all of us.” “It became untenable for us to participate in an organization that had become so deeply politicized,” he said. “The Kennedy Center is for all of us, and it pains me deeply that they took it over and changed that. They said it’s not for all of us. It’s just for Donald Trump and his crowd. So we made a decision we can’t do it.”
The claimed justification for this hissy-fit insults the intelligence of Democrats and Republican alike. The Kennedy Center has, since its opening in 1964 as a memorial to the assassinated President John F. Kennedy, been a stronghold of Democratic power-brokers and liberals in general and the Kennedy family in particular, whose members and allies have always controlled the place. Although its inception was an order by President Dwight Eisenhower calling for a non-political arts venue in the Nation’s Capital, once the three theater complex was under the control of the Democratic Party’s First Family, bi-partisanship got the hook.
The “Hamilton” Axis allies had some gall referring to the Kennedy Center as apolitical and “neutral.” Nothing is neutral in Washington. I experienced first-hand the partisan influence of the Center when my theater company in nearby Arlington, VA. presented the premiere of a drama, “The Titans,” about the Cuban Missile Crisis. It had originally been slated to be presented at the Kennedy Center, but was vetoed by the Center’s board when the Kennedy family protested that the script was not sufficiently supportive of the myth that it was JKF who saved the world from nuclear war (rather than the one who almost blundered us into it).
Before Trump was elected in 2016, at least the Kennedy Center had behaved itself when it mattered, treating Republican Presidents with due respect. The management showed its true sympathies, however, in 2017 when it allowed honorees in the annual “Kennedy Center Honors” event to force Trump and the First Lady out of the proceedings (which the White House had symbolically hosted previously) when some of those selected to be feted threatened a boycott. The President and First Lady had no choice but to remove themselves from the event, but the high-profile insult was one more link in the long metaphorical chain the Axis of Unethical Conduct forged to hobble Trump’s first term by robbing his Presidency of its symbolic legitimacy and prestige.
Yeah, Trump kicking the Trump-Haters off the board was payback, no doubt about it. I’m sure Robert Jr. may have had a hand in it too, as an easy way to annoy his relatives who turned on him when Baby Bobby tried to impose some genuine democratic processes on the rigged Biden re-nomination. But the back-stage politics of a Republican President making a fake non-partisan theater’s Democratic management pay the price for its hypocrisy should be none of “Hamilton’s” business. The show had role in celebrating the United States of America on its 250th birthday, but instead of participating by entertaining everyone, red, blue, black, white, brown and whatever, the company decided that virtue-signaling to the Trump-Deranged was a more important mission. (Note: almost all of the theater community is Trump-Deranged. My Facebook feed is living proof.)
“Hamilton” hasn’t learned anything, including its place and basic manners, since its cast presumed to confront Vice-President Elect Mike Pence after he attended a performance in November 2016 and to lecture him on progressive values after the curtain call. I wrote about this unprofessional and unethical conduct a lot, here, here, here, here and here. My reward was that some of my friends and colleagues in the theater community “cancelled” me: this was before I learned that trying to have an informed debate regarding anything involving Donald Trump was futile in Woke World, in which the performing arts constitute a continent.
Wait…why was it that I wanted to see “Hamilton”? While writing this, I forgot.
At the end of the first post about the “Hamilton” cast’s harassment of Pence (who was too slow on the uptake to tell the cast to stuff it in ringing rhetoric, though rap would have been better) I wrote,
“This is just more self-indicting unethical conduct from progressives. I know by the last couple weeks the rationalizations on the list that will be appealed to to justify it, the major ones being, appropriately for “Hamilton,” #28. The Revolutionary’s Excuse: “These are not ordinary times, ” and#31. The Troublesome Luxury: “Ethics is a luxury we can’t afford right now.” Now the arrogance and bias of Trump’s political foes is infecting the theater; it’s already spread to cable TV news, op-ed pages and social media. I wonder where it will strike next.”
Well we learned the answer to that question, didn’t we?
Ethics Alarms 
Personally, I like good musical theater, but the cast and producers of “Hamilton” have permanently tarnished their show for me with their blatant political activism. I will never choose to watch a professional theatrical company perform the show. I would at least consider watching a local community theater group do it after it becomes available to them, but even then, the show is still permanently tarnished in my opinion.
I watched “Hamilton” on TV – with some trepidation – a few years ago with our son. I had never watched a musical in any form, and the notion of a hip-hop version of Ron Chernow’s biographical masterpiece of the man pretty much terrified me. But I will say that I was fairly impressed with the outcome, as it stayed almost completely true to the book.
It’s a shame the company has cancelled on political grounds. It’s little different than a two-year old throwing himself/herself on the floor when mom says no to the desired toy at the Wal-mart.
And by the way, anyone of you that loves a good biography? Chernow’s biography of Hamilton is one of the best single-volume biographies yet written. You owe it to yourself to read it. In fact, I plan to sit down and read it again. It’s THAT good.
Thanks for the recommendation. I may have to get that book.
Not that long ago I read one on the 1800 election where it described how Hamilton really went after John Adams. I’ve not read much on Hamilton’s point of view and whether he eventually made up with Adams.
I saw Hamilton when it came to Louisville a few years back. It was fine, but honestly, I can think of at least three or four shows I saw in the same theater that I liked significantly more.
Cool riffs on American history will only get you so far. Fortunately, the cast was well-behaved and did not engage in overt “woke” nonsense, which I appreciated. Frankly, I was expecting a lecture, because we had one in a recent previous show we saw (I can’t remember what it was, which should tell you something) and the Pence lecture was still fresh in my mind.
I have cooled on live theater generally, which I used to enjoy. I hate paying a significant sum of money when there is a notable risk I’ll be taken advantage of for political purposes as part of a captive audience.
Regarding your commentary, Jack, it continues to amaze me that these theater people willingly, nay, enthusiastically alienate half their potential audience. Same with “woke” businesses. It’s amazing, but in this case, the “Hamilton” people managed to make themselves look significantly worse than Trump’s attempt at revenge on the Kennedy Center.
But will they figure that out? Not a chance. They are only interested in playing to the like-minded, a point they have made in abundance with this self-defeating decision.
For me, any group that refers to itself as a “community” is deeply suspect. The current use of “community” is a fairly recent development. I’d say it’s no more than twenty years old. To me, “community” now means “an angry, vicious minority intent upon wreaking havoc upon anyone not in their self-determined group.” My mother used to use the term “pressure groups” back in the ’60s, a term which long ago was changed, by pressure groups and their enablers, to “advocacy groups.” Sheesh.
I hear you. I think it started with Hillary Clinton’s “It Takes a Village.” From then on, “community” or “family” seemed to replace “city”, “town”, and “group”.
I think gays and lesbians were the first ones to drape themselves in the term.
There are tons of “Hamilton” videos on YouTube, including at least one live stage performance by the original cast. The best of the YouTube “Hamilton” videos, I think, are those on the “Hamilton IRL” channel, which uses singers and stagings (mostly) closer in appearance to the historical originals (selected songs only, though) and the various animatics (which have been arranged into playlists of the complete musical).Sincerely,Catherine McClarey(Another day when attempting to log into the combox with my Facebook credentials just wasn’t working — sorry!)
I’ve avoided “Hamilton” as I would the Plague. Just on general principle. I consider hip-hop nothing more than a social corrosive the equivalent of battery acid.
The theatrical community may not like it, but they have a lot in common with Hollywood. “I don’t have a problem with people having opinions, but this town has a habit of punishing those with the ‘wrong’ ones. That’s not freedom of speech. That’s a club where you better say the right thing, or you’re out.” ~ Gene Hackman
I saw “Hamilton” with the original cast on Disney Plus back during the Pandemic. I’m not a fan of rap or hip-hop, but I found myself reasonably entertained by it. Of course, George III stole the show.
I was about to write something similar. Saw it live in Atlanta,considered it moderately entertaining, and thought the actor doing a campy-fey King George did the best job of all, with excellent timing and inflection.
While a high school youth I enthusiasitically supported JFK run or the presidency as the first vialble Catholic candiddate since Al Smith. Our high public high school Newman Club director, urged as. (Remember back inthe day relgious values were esteemed. So my public highschool had adterschhol clubs for all varieties of religion.) In addition reading Profiles of Courage was a required part of my required juinior high list.
However, havng served in VN under JFK’s predessor and learnign of his JFK’s piccadillos the glow of Camelot waned.
Neither the Kennedy Center and ironically nor the Lincoln Center have ever leaned either to the center or to the right. The same can be said for Broadway in general. I was and remain an ardent supporter of the classical American musical theater. That too has waned since both Andrew Lloud Weber and Steven Sondheim started repeating the same melody thorughout their productions.
Thus I have never devleoped a desire to sit through 2+ hours of the incessant, repetetive beat of rap music.
All that too say, to these “entertiners” just sing, eschew the virtue signaling.
We made it halfway through the second song before turning it off. Doesn’t sound like we’ll be giving it another go anytime soon now.