Vice-president elect Mike Pence was greeted by boos when he showed up at a Hamilton show in New York City Friday night, and given a challenge when he left.
Things got very interesting at the Richard Rodgers Theatre late Friday night. Vice-president elect took some time away from his new job to have a night out on the town and check out the Broadway phenomenon Hamilton. In case you’ve been living under a rock, Hamilton is a Broadway musical about the life of American founding father Alexander Hamilton using Hip-Hop as the vehicle.
As soon as Pence was spotted, the crowd erupted in boos. Which is very understandable. The diverse crowd, and cast, all stand to be affected by Pence’s viewpoints and policies that many are assuming he will bring from his governorship of Indiana into the White House. Among them are being against abortion, sex education, and same-sex marriage. He is also against birthright citizenship of immigrants and LGBT civil rights as a whole and pro-mandatory minimum drug offense sentencing. So yes, people have a right to afraid of this man.
“Everyone’s looking for a distraction, and he shows up!” said one ticketholder to The Hollywood Reporter. Another added, “He’s sitting so close to me: my blood started boiling when I saw him. But I won’t let it ruin the show.”
The show went off without a hitch, but some of the lines did take on extra meaning with Pence in attendance. Especially ones like “Immigrants, we get the job done,” or certain parts about vice-president not being a “real job.”
The biggest highlight of the night came at the end of the show during the curtain call. That’s when co-star Brandon Victor Dixon pulled out a piece of paper and addressed Pence directly as he was leaving.
“Vice president-elect, I see you walking out but I hope you will hear us,” he said.
He continued:
“We welcome you, and we truly thank you for joining us here at Hamilton: An American Musical — we really do,” he continued. “We are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values, and work on behalf of all of us. We truly thank you for sharing this show, this wonderful American story told by a diverse group of men and women of different colors, creeds and orientations.”
The note was written by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and the cast at large. Here’s to hoping that art, especially in this case, can influence the minds and hearts of very powerful people to make America better, not “great again.”
The best thing about this is that the show has been sold out for a long time and even Pence couldn’t buy a ticket. He pulled rank and requested one. Hamilton staff decided to grant his request. So essentially, they let him in the show just to call him out. That’s hard as hell.
Many have responded to the event online either supporting it or complaining about how the cast took a moment of entertainment and made it political. #BoycottHamilton is now the top trend on Twitter. The fact is, this country is at a crossroads and nobody has a choice but to be “political” now. A lot of lives are depending on it.
Check out the scene for yourself in the video below.
Photo: Screenshot
