Musical "Hamilton" Cancels Appearance at the Kennedy Center

The show's creators, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeffrey Seller, denounced the Center's "new spirit of partisanship"

Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the musical Hamilton, and lead producer Jeffrey Seller have announced that they will withdraw from a planned series of performances at the Kennedy Center — over concerns that representatives of the Trump administration are running the Center in a partisan manner.

Hamilton was first performed at the Kennedy Center in 2018, during Trump’s first term — and then again in 2022 during Biden's administration. The upcoming season was scheduled to take place from March 3 to April 26, 2026, as part of the Center's celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Tickets for these performances had not yet gone on sale.

Since installing himself as Chair of the Kennedy Center in February, Trump and Kennedy Center president Ric Grenell have made major changes to programming, including the cancellation of the children's musical Finn.

In a social media post, Grenell described the cancellation as "a publicity stunt that will backfire," adding that he thought Miranda was "intolerant of people who don’t agree with him politically" and that he and Seller "don’t want Republicans going to their shows."

"Our show simply cannot, in good conscience, participate and be a part of this new culture that is being imposed on the Kennedy Center," said Jeffrey Seller in a statement.

"We are not acting against his administration, but against the partisan policies of the Kennedy Center as a result of his recent takeover. These actions bring a new spirit of partisanship to the national treasure that is the Kennedy Center."

"It became untenable for us to participate in an organization that had become so deeply politicized," Seller added in an interview with the New York Times. "The Kennedy Center is for all of us, and it pains me deeply that they took it over and changed that."