About a dozen members of a tour company of the musical “Les Misérables” say they plan to sit on an upcoming performance that President Donald Trump should attend.
According to CNN, “at least 10 to 12 artists” will not take the front of the Kennedy scene for the June 11 show, when Trump is in the audience. Sources have declared to the point of sale that the main stars and the members of the overall distribution planned to skip the performance.
The appearance of the president also coincides with a planned fundraising of Kennedy Center, for which the sponsorship levels would sell up to $ 2 million.
The news from the boycott “Les Mis” made a scathing response from Richard Grenell, whom Trump appointed the acting director of Kennedy Center in February as part of a controversial purge of the organization.
“Any artist who is not professional enough to perform for customers from all walks of life, whatever his political affiliation, will not be welcomed,” reported Grenell’s declaration, Readation, reported Entertainment Weekly. “In fact, we believe that it would be important to release these useless and intolerant artists to make sure that producers know who they should not hire – and that the public knows what programs have political decisive tests to sit in the public.”
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“Les Misérables”, one of the most successful musicals of the 1980s and 90s, is based on the classic novel by Victor Hugo representing the uprising of Paris in 1832. The first production opened its doors in Broadway in 1987 and won eight Tony prizes, including Best Musical. In 2013, Anne Hathaway won an Oscar for her performance in cinematographic adaptation, which with Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman.
Grenell’s remarks are used only a few days after dynamic “American Idol” for having enlisted the actor and composer of “Hamilton”, Lin-Manuel Miranda, a long-standing critic of Trump, as a guest judge for the Disney evening event of two episodes of the show, which is scheduled for next week.
In addition to her theater references, Miranda wrote songs for Disney films “Moana” and “Encanto” and appeared in the live film “Mary Poppins Returns” with Emily Blunt.
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In February, Trump became president of Kennedy Center – traditionally a bipartite institution – and dismissed its longtime president Deborah Rutter with 18 members of the board of directors, former president Joe Biden, had appointed.
The news of the overhaul caused the production of “Hamilton” to eliminate its eight -week race at Kennedy Center in 2026.
Since then, Trump has continued to increase his attacks on artistic organizations nationally. Last week, the National Endowment for the Arts began to cancel the subsidy offers to many artistic groups after Trump proposed to completely eliminate the agency in its next budget.
