‘Your tired playbook reeks of incompetence’: Broadway reacts to Trump’s Kennedy Center shutdown

The announcement came after several artists pulled out of performances at the Kennedy Center — which serves as a memorial to President John F. Kennedy — to protest the president’s takeover.

While the president said the move will be “totally subject to board approval,” it hasn’t stopped theater professionals from weighing in on the potential closure, which would have a significant impact on the performing arts industry.

“Mr. President, We are not stupid you gaudy idiot,” two-time Tony Award-nominated actor and singer Rob McClure wrote on Instagram. “It’s painfully obvious. To cover up your massive artistic leadership failings, complete collapse of ticket sales, and the fact that no respectable artist will go anywhere near any venue that you plaster your valueless, bankruptcy guarantee of a name on, you think you can close it for the rest of your term, throw marble and gold at it like you do with everything else you ruin, and reopen it right before you leave office to claim it as some massive success.”

“Your tired playbook reeks of incompetence and your soul is as vacant as the seats have been in that once treasured American Institution,” McClure continued. “I can’t wait to see the tarnished letters of your despised name thrown in dumpsters around the country when this passes.”

McClure signed the letter “with zero respect” from “artists of integrity.”

That post, along with several others, garnered dozens of comments from theater industry professionals and fans alike.

Tony winner Stephanie J. Block, who performed in the Kennedy Center’s 2023 mounting of Sunset Boulevard, commented on one post: “It is already so beautiful. That is hallowed ground. Leave it alone.”

Wicked alum and activist Alexandra Billings wrote: “He’s not closing anything. No one likes him and will go within 109 feet of him.”

Natalie Charlé Ellis, currently on Broadway in Death Becomes Her, wrote: “Convenient it’s when they aren’t making any money and everyone is backing out…”

Trump’s closure threat comes just over a year after he dismissed several Kennedy Center board members and replaced them with his supporters. He was then named chair of the Kennedy Center — going so far as to add his own name to the institution’s title.

His takeover has prompted theatrical productions, musicians and other performing artists to withdraw from scheduled engagements at the Kennedy Center. Celebrated American composer Philip Glass, actor Issa Rae and musician Peter Wolf are among the latest to do so.

If his plan to renovate the center stands, Trump said on Truth Social that the center will open its doors again with a “scheduled Grand Reopening that will rival and surpass anything that has taken place with respect to such a Facility before.”

The Kennedy Center has had a significant impact on the theater industry, especially during the last decade.

Multiple currently running and upcoming Broadway and off-Broadway shows — including The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Schmigadoon! — were originally mounted at the Kennedy Center through the institution’s Broadway Center Stage program, founded and helmed by Jeffrey Finn in 2018. The producer was one of many staffers to step down from their positions at the Kennedy Center following Trump’s takeover.

Finn commented with just a single word on McClure’s post: “Broken.”