At a Friday evening performance of Hamilton at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York, the cast gave an impassioned speech to Vice President-Elect Mike Pence, who was in the audience that night. One person who didn’t take too kindly to this was President-Elect Donald Trump, who said the cast should apologize because he believes Pence was “harassed.”
After the performance, members of the Hamilton cast took to the stage for their curtain call. They weren’t oblivious Pence was in the audience, thanks to the chorus of boos and cheers before the performance began, and they took this as an opportunity to address him. Actor Brandon Victor Dixon, who plays Aaron Burr, told the vice president-elect he hoped viewing this show inspired him to “uphold our American values and work on the behalf of all of us.” It was a heartfelt speech that was cordial, as opposed to some of the booing, but Trump didn’t seem to think so. Trump did what he did best and tweeted about his dissatisfaction with how Pence was treated:
Our wonderful future V.P. Mike Pence was harassed last night at the theater by the cast of Hamilton, cameras blazing.This should not happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2016
The Theater must always be a safe and special place.The cast of Hamilton was very rude last night to a very good man, Mike Pence. Apologize!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2016
Trump seemed to merely be sticking up for his future vice president, who wanted to enjoy a broadway show. And after the grueling election, they endured, a little R&R seemed just fine. But many seemed to believe “harassed” was an over exaggeration, as videos showed the cast did their best to simmer down the rowdy crowd and addressed him in an adult manner. Naturally, Trump’s tweet elicited a number of responses from people, including Hamilton star Dixon:
conversation is not harassment sir. And I appreciate @mike_pence for stopping to listen.
— Brandon Victor Dixon (@BrandonVDixon) November 19, 2016
https://twitter.com/jamiechung1/status/800004099169284096
https://twitter.com/DanaSchwartzzz/status/800002438761562113
https://twitter.com/robfee/status/799994348842713088
Trump voters vowing to boycott Hamilton is like me vowing to boycott NASCAR and McDonald's.
— Rob Tannenbaum (@tannenbaumr) November 19, 2016
https://twitter.com/MattMinerXVX/status/800006734874103808
Tweets on Hamilton cast: 2
Tweets on Trump Univ: 2
Tweets feuding with @nytimes: 6
Tweets condemning racist attacks done in his name: 0
— David Mack (@davidmackau) November 19, 2016
Award for President-Elect Trump's first feud goes to: the cast of Hamilton!
— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) November 19, 2016
Without Trump's Hamilton tweets, we'd all be talking about the $25M he just shelled out to settle the Trump University lawsuit huh?
— 💀 damned sinker 💀 (@dansinker) November 19, 2016
This latest set of tweets may mean that Trump’s war on broadway has begun. Will Oh, Hello on Broadway be his next enemy or will he go after The Lion King and finally dethrone the Broadway giant? The Ken Burns documentary on this will be thrilling. But Trump is a fan of the theater.
Melania and I saw American Idiot on Broadway last night and it was great. An amazing theatrical experience!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2010
(Via Donald Trump’s Twitter)