When “Les Misérables” arrives at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on June 11, some patrons will have paid an unusual sum for the prime seats: $2 million to sit in a performance box, attend a VIP reception and take a photo with President Donald Trump. One hundred thousand dollars gets you all of the above, minus the box seat.
The event will be a fundraiser for the Kennedy Center, which Trump took over this year. Staff members at the performing-arts venue noticed something unusual about the timing, however.
“June 11 isn’t even opening night,” said one Kennedy Center staffer, who like many for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution. “That would be the June 12 evening performance, after two previews. They are trying to get people to buy $2 million tickets to the first preview.”
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Now it’s not even a true preview. A large portion of the principal cast plans to boycott the evening, as CNN first reported and several staff members confirmed — an absence that prompted a sharp response from Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell, a Trump ally who was appointed to lead the organization this year.
“Any performer who isn’t professional enough to perform for patrons of all backgrounds, regardless of political affiliation, won’t be welcomed,” Grenell said in a statement to the New York Times. “In fact, we think it would be important to out those vapid and intolerant artists to ensure producers know who they shouldn’t hire — and that the public knows which shows have political litmus tests to sit in the audience.”
“The Kennedy Center wants to be a place where people of all political stripes sit next to each other and never ask who someone voted for but instead enjoys a performance together,” Grenell added.
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The Kennedy Center did not respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment.
Grenell has routinely accused performers and audience members of not being accepting of those with differing political views, most notably when Vice President JD Vance and his wife attended a performance in March and were met with loud booing. He sent a staff-wide email addressing the incident and admonishing the audience.
“As President, I take diversity and inclusion very seriously,” he wrote. “I have met with many of you, and I love that we are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, agnostic, gay, straight, black, white, Hispanic and absolutely different.”
“Intolerance towards people who are politically different is just as unacceptable as intolerance in other areas,” he added. “Everyone is welcome at the Kennedy Center.”
Several artists — including Issa Rae, Rhiannon Giddens and the producers of “Hamilton” — have chosen not to perform at the center after Trump’s takeover. The rock band Guster protested from the stage during two performances in March.
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Conan O’Brien pointedly thanked David Rubenstein and Deborah Rutter — the former chairman and president, respectively, who were ousted during Trump’s takeover — while accepting the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor that month.
Some staff members say Grenell has it wrong: that artists and audiences are not objecting to Republicans writ large but to Trump’s unprecedented takeover of the center, as well as his criticism of past drag performances there.
“Artists aren’t protesting Republicans — they’re protesting the hostile takeover of the Kennedy Center by Donald Trump and his political cronies,” one staff member told The Post via text message.
Several people characterized the reaction among the remaining Kennedy Center staff as a collective eye roll to the fundraiser and subsequent boycott, even as employees continue to fear for their jobs. On Friday, at least 17 staff members, mostly from the development and education team, were terminated. Some who were fired were quickly rehired, according to several staff members.
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Friday afternoon layoffs have become something of a pattern at the center. Staffers nervously joke that they expect cutbacks on payday, which comes every two weeks. Often, staffers learn of layoffs through news reports rather than through companywide communication.
Two weeks before the latest layoffs, at least six people were let go, including the vice president of marketing, the vice president of government relations and protocol, and the director of campus planning.
The government relations, social media and social impact teams have been gutted.
It’s “extremely exhausting. Every time you think you can breathe and do your work without any emotional roller-coaster, another wave of these happens,” said one staffer.
