Ric Grenell Will Not Throw Away His Shot To Take A Shot At 'Hamilton'
History has its eyes on him, but not in a good way.
The Kennedy Center is not doing great. The best thing they’ve got at the moment is the touring production of Les Miserables — which I love, but which anyone anywhere near a medium-sized city can see at least once a year. Other than that, they’ve got performances from several acts that aren’t even well-known enough to have Wikipedia pages, a Dolly Parton concert with no Dolly Parton …
And The Lion King. Not the stage musical. The movie from 1994. Probably because a certain someone finds a certain song especially relatable.
However, last night, there was a rather impressive performance from live human people we’ve actually heard of before — because a group of Senate Democrats rented out the space for a Pride event that they didn’t tell Kennedy Center President Ric Grenell was going to be a Pride event, and which they definitely didn’t tell him was going to be produced by Jeffrey Seller, who produced Hamilton.
As you may recall, Ric Grenell is very, very upset at Seller and Lin-Manuel Miranda for canceling a planned 2026 run at the formerly politically neutral Kennedy Center, just because Trump purged almost the entire board and replaced them with random Republicans who would be loyal to him, and also announced that drag shows would be barred and nothing would be “woke.”
Anyway! The 90 minute concert was called “Love Is Love” and featured Hamilton alum Javier Muñoz singing “Satisfied,” Beth Malone (who originated the role of Alison Bechdel in Fun Home) singing “An Old-Fashioned Love Story” from Andrew Lippa’s off-Broadway musical The Wild Party, and Lippa himself performing a song from his oratorio I Am Harvey Milk with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington.
Also too, Tony Award winner Brandon Uranowitz, who played Mendel Weisenbachfeld in the 2016 revival of William Finn’s Falsettos sang “What More Can I Say?” from that show. Good choice, but not as good as if he had done Finn’s “Republicans.” Because that would have been perfection.
The evening ended, appropriately, with a rendition of “One Day More” from Les Miserables, sung by performers waving Pride flags, with a few lyrical changes like “Why is this his favorite show?” added in for effect.
The event was hosted by Senator John Hickenlooper of Colorado, in collaboration with Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Brian Schatz of Hawaii. Members of Congress are allowed to rent out the Kennedy Center, and they chose this week because June is Pride Month (not that they told Ric Grenell that).
Via The New York Times:
“What’s happening in the world is deeply concerning, but even in our darkest hours, we must continue to seek out the light,” Senator John Hickenlooper of Colorado, who hosted the concert, said in a statement. “The L.G.B.T.Q. community has long embodied this resilience, maintaining joy and creativity in the face of adversity.” […]
Mr. Hickenlooper reached out to Mr. Seller a few weeks ago, asking if he wanted to engage in some “guerrilla theater,” Mr. Seller said in an interview before the event. It was meant, Mr. Seller said, “to celebrate gay characters, gay culture, gay music and gay pride.”
“This is our way of reoccupying the Kennedy Center,” he said. “This is a form of saying, ‘We are here, we exist and you can’t ignore us.’ This is a protest, and a political act.”
Ric Grenell, himself a gay man, was displeased! So displeased that he wrote a long-ass response on Xitter, in which he once again aired his Hamilton-related grievances.
“I'm disappointed to learn that Hamilton Producer [Jeffrey Seller] and Hamilton Creator [Lin-Manuel Miranda] are working with Democratic Senators and the New York Times to boycott the Kennedy Center, refusing to perform for audience members who don't share their personal politics, and cosplay as victims of intolerance.”
It’s pretty obvious what Grenell is trying to do here. At no point did anyone say “We won’t perform at the Kennedy Center because the audience will be all Trump supporters and we refuse to perform for them!” No. Even though they don’t always know how to behave in the theater.
Seller and Miranda, like so many other artists, oppose what Trump and Grenell are doing with the Kennedy Center. However, conservatives are notoriously, hysterically sensitive about that kind of shit, a tendency that the Trump administration has run with to great success.
“I cannot begin to understand what business it is of Mr. Seller or Mr. Miranda how audience members vote or how it could possibly be relevant to the sacred relationship between performers and ticket holders, but they've made it clear that they won't perform for audiences that might contain Americans who disagree with them on matters irrelevant to the arts.”
Why would the audience be all Republican, Richard? Why would that be? Because it’s never been that way before.
“Earlier this month, Senator Hickenlooper’s staff asked to rent space at the Kennedy Center for what his team billed as a first annual Talent show. We were pleased to welcome them to the Kennedy Center in this capacity. We were only later notified by the New York Times that Senator Hickenlooper's event was instead an invite-only political stunt where, once again, the Kennedy Center was being used by political operatives to larp as victims of intolerance in order to get a story in the TImes.”
Except for how they literally are victims of intolerance. If we want to talk about who is “larping as a victim of intolerance,” I’m gonna say it’s the guy crying about the wholly imaginary cruelty of artists refusing to perform for conservatives, when, in fact, what they are boycotting is the fact that the Kennedy Center is now only for conservatives.
He continued:
“No one has been cancelled by the Kennedy Center; we welcome everyone who wants to celebrate the arts, including our compatriots on the other side of the political aisle. We especially welcome artists and audience members who come to the Kennedy Center not for partisan political pranks but to experience excellence in the performing arts.”
Pretty much the entire board was cancelled, actually. And they do not welcome everyone, because they do not welcome drag queens or artists or productions that Trump might deem “woke.”
“I am glad that Mr. Seller or Mr. Miranda have decided to perform at the Kennedy Center after having previously decided to boycott it entirely, but I hope they'll soon consider performing for all the families, school children, and others from across America who come to the Kennedy Center without imposing on them a political litmus test.”
Again, the only people imposing a political litmus test on the Kennedy Center were Trump and Grenell. And as gross as we might find that, we’re not deeply, personally wounded by it the way Trump voters would be — perhaps because we’re not the ones who are out here trying to get away with being shitty to other people without consequence.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
You know, this whining reminds me a lot of folks like Kirk Cameron or Kevin Sorbo complaining about how conservatives can't get jobs in Hollywood.
And my reply is always, "Motherfucker, Tom Selleck and Kelsey Grammar have been working in Hollywood consistently for 45+ years. People don't want to work with you either because you're a fucking asshole or because you don't have actual talent."
Ric, you're just a fucking asshole. That's why talent doesn't want to come perform for you.
I still think this is a long-con where the Kennedy Center becomes insolvent for lack of attendance and Trump bulldozes it for a tacky hotel.