A few weeks ago, you made of heard or seen this hashtag not only trending on Twitter but news media as well. Vice President-elect Mike Pence attended the New York City Broadway production of Hamilton: An American Musical, a musical about the life of Alexander Hamilton, on November 18. According to “The New York Times” online article ‘Hamilton’ Had Some Unscripted Lines for Pence. Trump Wasn’t Happy, the audience met Pence with a mixture of clapping and booing as he took his seat (Nov 19).
Many theatergoers tweeted how emotionally charged the audience was during the performance. Christy Colburn, a reporter for The Times, tweeted how the audience have a standing ovation during Javier Munoz (Hamilton) and Seth Stewart’s (Lafayette) lines, “Immigrants, we get the job done,” during Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down). She also says that Nicholas Christopher who plays King George III had to stop his song You’ll Be Back twice due to cheers during the lines “when people say they hate you” and “do you know how hard it is to lead.”
Yet, this isn’t what President-elect, Donald Trump, is angry about. He’s angry about a statement made by Brandon Victor Dixon, who plays Vice President Aaron Burr in the musical, to Pence.
Mike Pence told CNN on November 20 that he took no offense to what the cast had stated to him and that it was “what freedom sounds like.” However, Trump took great offense to the statement and called it harassment. The following is the offensive statement:
“We, sir—we—are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights. We truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on the behalf of all of us.”
This statement was written for Dixon by the show’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, director, Thomas Kail, and the lead producer, Jeffery Seller. It was met by enthusiastic cheering and applause by the audience. Pence got up to leave but stood in the auditorium door to hear the entire statement. Reports say he left the theater smiling.
Trump made many angry triads on Twitter, including one ordering the cast to apologize for “harassing” Pence. The cast of Hamilton refused, believing they did nothing wrong and were practicing their freedom of speech by having a conversation with Pence. Dixon even tweeted a response to Trump stating that he appreciated Pence for stopping to listen. When no apology came, Trump sympathizers started the #BoycottHamilton campaign. Little did they know that both shows in New York City and Chicago are sold out until at least May.
It seems that this campaign has helped Hamilton, though. On December 2, CNN reported that the musical broke another record by making the most money in a single week by a Broadway show, earning $3.3 million. Is this due to the Pence-Trump hype? You be the judge of that one.