'Hamilton' musical won't play at Kennedy Center over Trump takeover

“Hamilton,” the Pulitzer- and Tony-winning rap musical about Alexander Hamilton, canceled a 2026 run at the Kennedy Center over President Trump’s changes to the institution.

Mr. Trump ousted members of the board of the performing arts center, which is funded by the government and private donations, and took over as chairman before appointing his envoy for special missions, Ric Grenell, as the institution’s president.

“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 cultural center represents. … Our show simply cannot, in good conscience, participate and be a part of this new culture that is being imposed on the Kennedy Center,” the show’s producer, Jeffrey Seller, posted on social media Wednesday.

The musical’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, echoed those concerns to The New York Times Wednesday, saying, “This latest action by Trump means it’s not the Kennedy Center as we knew it. … 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.”

“Hamilton” was slated to do its third run at the center from March 3 to April 26, 2026, though tickets hadn’t gone on sale, according to The Associated Press.

Mr. Grenell responded to the cancellation on social media, writing that “Seller and @Lin_Manuel first went to the New York Times before they came to the Kennedy Center with their announcement that they can’t be in the same room with Republicans. This is a publicity stunt that will backfire. The Arts are for everyone — not just for the people who Lin likes and agrees with.”

The team behind the show said the cancellation is related to actions connected to the Kennedy Center rather than the Trump administration.

“‘Hamilton’ was proudly performed at the Kennedy Center in 2018 during the first Trump administration. We are not acting against his administration, but against the partisan policies of the Kennedy Center as a result of his recent takeover,” Mr. Seller wrote in his social media post.

Mr. Grenell contended in his post that “it’s clear [Miranda] and Sellers don’t want Republicans going to their shows.”

The cancellation isn’t the first time “Hamilton” has run afoul of Mr. Trump. 

In 2016, just a couple of weeks after Mr. Trump was elected the first time, Vice President-elect Mike Pence was in attendance at a showing on Broadway where the show’s cast asked him during the curtain call to “work on behalf of all of us” and “uphold our American values.”

Mr. Trump then wrote on X, called Twitter at the time, that “the cast and producers of Hamilton, which I hear is highly overrated, should immediately apologize to Mike Pence for their terrible behavior.”