“There’s no way I would set foot in it now,” said the Oscar-winner, who was set to host an event there in May
Stephen Schwartz, the celebrated Oscar-winning composer behind Wicked and other hit musicals, is the latest artist to pull out of a scheduled appearance at the Kennedy Center in protest of Donald Trump’s takeover of the institution and its legally dubious name change.
Schwartz was set to host the Washington National Opera Gala at the Kennedy Center on May 16, but in an email sent to Newsday, said the Center “no longer represents the apolitical place for free artistic expression it was founded to be.” He added: “There’s no way I would set foot in it now.”
Many artists have canceled shows at the Kennedy over the past year. The first round was in protest of Trump’s moves in early 2025 to gut the Center’s board, fill it with cronies, and install himself as chairman. Then, at the end of the last year, another group of artists nixed shows after Trump’s board unanimously voted to change the institution’s name to the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.
Cancellations following the name change included the Kennedy Center’s annual Christmas Eve Jazz Jam, as well as shows by the New York Dance Company, the jazz band the Cookers, jazz musician Wayne Tucker, and folk singer Kristy Lee. In explaining his decision, musician Chuck Redd, who’s led the Christmas Eve Jazz Jam since 2006, said, “When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert.
The Kennedy Center’s interim executive director, Richard Grenell, has since threatened to take legal action against Redd, demanding $1 million in damages. He also issued a statement regarding the subsequent cancellations.
“The artists who are now canceling shows were booked by the previous far left leadership,” said Grenell (who was also added to Live Nation’s board last year as the entertainment giant continues to fight a Department of Justice antitrust suit). “Their actions prove that the previous team was more concerned about booking far left political activists rather than artists willing to perform for everyone regardless of their political beliefs. Boycotting the Arts to show you support the Arts is a form of derangement syndrome.”
