Producers of Hamilton, the massively widespread Lin-Manuel Miranda musical, have canceled a deliberate 2026 engagement on the Kennedy Middle in Washington, D.C., decrying the “latest purge by the Trump Administration” of the venue’s skilled workers and center-produced occasions.
“Given these latest actions, our present merely can not, in good conscience, take part and be part of this new tradition that’s being imposed on the Kennedy Middle,” mentioned producer Jeffrey Vendor in a press release. “Subsequently, we’ve got cancelled the third engagement of Hamilton on the Kennedy Middle, initially scheduled for March 3-April 26, 2026.”
The engagement would have been the third run of Hamilton on the Kennedy Middle.
“Hamilton was proudly carried out on the Kennedy Middle in 2018 through the first Trump administration,” Vendor mentioned. “We aren’t appearing towards his administration, however towards the partisan insurance policies of the Kennedy Middle on account of his latest takeover.”
The shocking transfer comes simply weeks after the Kennedy Middle introduced that its deliberate tour of its youngsters’s musical Finn had been canceled, in addition to an upcoming efficiency by the Homosexual Males’s Refrain of Washington D.C.
“Political disagreement and debate are very important expressions of democracy,” Vendor mentioned. “These fundamental ideas of freedom are on the very coronary heart of Hamilton. Nonetheless, some establishments are sacred and must be protected against politics. The Kennedy Middle is one such establishment.”
See Vendor’s total assertion beneath.
In accordance with Vendor, the actions taken by the Kennedy Middle in latest weeks have “seen many years of Kennedy Middle neutrality be destroyed.”
“The latest purge by the Trump Administration of each skilled workers and performing arts occasions at or initially produced by the Kennedy Middle flies within the face of every part this nationwide cultural heart represents,” he mentioned. “This spirit of nonpartisanship ended on February 7, 2025, with the firing of Kennedy Middle President Deborah Rutter, the Chairman of the Board David Rubenstein, quite a few different Kennedy Middle board members, and the cancellation of essential programming. These actions convey a brand new spirit of partisanship to the nationwide treasure that’s the Kennedy Middle.”
The cancellation, Vendor famous, “can also be a enterprise resolution.”
“Hamilton is a big and world manufacturing,” Vendor said, “and it might merely be financially and personally devastating to the a whole bunch of staff of Hamilton if the brand new management of the Kennedy Middle instantly cancelled or re-negotiated our engagement. The actions of the brand new Chairman of the Board in latest weeks exhibit that contracts and former agreements merely can’t be trusted. That is unhappy, as a result of fundamental integrity and the rule of regulation have lengthy been nice American rules that assist function a basis for our Nation.”
Deadline has reached out to the Kennedy Middle for remark.
Final month, the Kennedy Middle confirmed that it had canceled an upcoming tour of the Middle-produced Finn, a youngsters’s musical a couple of younger shark who, within the phrases of the present’s creators Chris Nee, Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond, “desires to let loose his interior fish.” The shark character subsequently adopts a shiny fashion in distinction to the drab grey of his fellow sharks.
Whereas the Middle described the cancellation as “a purely monetary resolution,” and mentioned that the choice had been made previous to the change in board management, the choice was met with an outcry amongst followers of the present – which had debuted on the Middle in November – in addition to the LGBTQ neighborhood and the theater trade at massive.
As Deadline first reported, the tour cancellation prompted Stars within the Home creators Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley Jackson together with Finn creators Nee, Kooman and Dimond, to prepare a one-night-only livestream presentation of the present at New York’s City Corridor on March 17. The musical will likely be carried out by Broadway stars Andrew Rannells, Andrea Martin, Kelli O’Hara, Bonnie Milligan, Jessie Mueller, Nikki M. James, Jose Llana, Lea Salonga and Hennessy Winkler, together with members of the unique Kennedy Middle forged.
The City Corridor night will even function a efficiency by the Homosexual Males’s Refrain of Washington DC and members of New York Metropolis Homosexual Males’s Refrain. A portion of the proceeds from the occasion will profit The Trevor Mission, the main suicide prevention and disaster intervention group for LGBTQ+ younger folks.
Right here is Vendor’s assertion in its entirety:
“Political disagreement and debate are very important expressions of democracy. These fundamental ideas of freedom are on the very coronary heart of Hamilton. Nonetheless, some establishments are sacred and must be protected against politics. The Kennedy Middle is one such establishment.
“The Kennedy Middle was based over 50 years in the past with a honest bipartisan spirit. Certainly, it was based through the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower, named after President John F. Kennedy, and opened in 1971 below the administration of Richard M. Nixon. The Kennedy Middle was meant to be for all People, a spot the place we may 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 we’ve got sadly seen many years of Kennedy Middle neutrality be destroyed. The latest purge by the Trump Administration of each skilled workers and performing arts occasions at or initially produced by the Kennedy Middle flies within the face of every part this nationwide cultural heart represents. This spirit of nonpartisanship ended on February 7, 2025, with the firing of Kennedy Middle President Deborah Rutter, the Chairman of the Board David Rubenstein, quite a few different Kennedy Middle board members, and the cancellation of essential programming. These actions convey a brand new spirit of partisanship to the nationwide treasure that’s the Kennedy Middle.
“Given these latest actions, our present merely can not, in good conscience, take part and be part of this new tradition that’s being imposed on the Kennedy Middle. Subsequently, we’ve got cancelled the third engagement of Hamilton on the Kennedy Middle, initially scheduled for March 3-April 26, 2026.
“Hamilton was proudly carried out on the Kennedy Middle in 2018 through the first Trump administration. We aren’t appearing towards his administration, however towards the partisan insurance policies of the Kennedy Middle on account of his latest takeover.
“Our cancellation can also be a enterprise resolution. Hamilton is a big and world manufacturing, and it might merely be financially and personally devastating to the a whole bunch of staff of Hamilton if the brand new management of the Kennedy Middle instantly cancelled or re-negotiated our engagement. The actions of the brand new Chairman of the Board in latest weeks exhibit that contracts and former agreements merely can’t be trusted. That is unhappy, as a result of fundamental integrity and the rule of regulation have lengthy been nice American rules that assist function a basis for our Nation.
“I’ve personally liked the Kennedy Middle since touring it as a seventh grader in 1977 together with the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial. I watched the primary Kennedy Middle Honors in 1978. Whatever the political local weather, I’ve at all times felt at house at The Kennedy Middle, and I’m grateful for each one who has spent the final 50 years making it a beacon of nonpartisanship and celebration. However we can not presently help an establishment that has been compelled by exterior forces to betray its mission as a nationwide cultural heart that fosters the free expression of artwork in America of America.”
