“I have been banned from THE KENNEDY CENTER,” the actor and playwright wrote in a post to Instagram. “A few folks have written to ask how I feel about Trump’s takeover of The Kennedy Center. How do you think I feel? The shows I’ve written are now banned from being performed in our premiere American theater. Those shows, most of which have been performed there in the past, include, KINKY BOOTS. LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, TORCH SONG TRILOGY, HAIRSPRAY, SAFE SEX, CASA VALENTINA, SPOOKHOUSE, A CATERED AFFAIR, THE SISSY DUCKLING, BELLA BELLA and more.”
In February, Trump appointed himself chairman of the Kennedy Center’s board and overturned the organization’s typically nonpartisan staff. Earlier this week, leaked audio from a board meeting saw the president complain about the “radical left lunatics” celebrated with recent Kennedy Center Honors, and offered alternatives: “You could do entrepreneurs, you could do people that, you know, that were really in charge of show business. I would say you could do politicians, you could do sports stars,” he said (per The New York Times). One suggestion he had for a recipient was Republican donor and casino mogul Steve Wynn. To host the ceremony, he suggested himself: “Believe me, I don’t want to do it, I don’t want to do it,” he said. “I have enough publicity. They’ll say, ‘Trump wants to be the host.’ I don’t want to. But I want this thing to be successful.” Meanwhile, his board brainstormed about new musicals they could program that are not “totally woke.”
In his post, Fierstein—just the latest among many artists who have protested the changes at the Kennedy Center—lamented the backtracking of the civil rights movement under Trump’s regime. “He does this stuff only to placate the religious right so they’ll look the other way as he savages our political system for his own glorification,” Fierstein wrote. “He attacks free speech. He attacks the free press. He attacks America’s allies. His only allegiance is to himself – the golden calf. My fellow Americans I warn you – this is NOT how it begins. This is how freedom ENDS! Trump may have declared ‘woke’ as dead in America. We must prove him wrong. WAKE THE HELL UP!!!!!”
