Ever since President Trump took over the Kennedy Center and installed himself as board chair, a number of artists have cancelled their shows, such as the Hamilton national tour. But that hasn't stopped the embattled Washington, D.C. institution from securing performances from several Broadway national tours for its 2025鈥�26 season.
Opening the Center's theatre season will be Spamalot (December 16, 2025鈥揓anuary 4, 2026). That is not a surprise considering that the 2023 Broadway revival of Spamalot originated at the Kennedy Center as a limited engagement.
Other announced Broadway musicals include Chicago (March 31鈥揂pril 5, 2026), Moulin Rouge! The Musical (June 16鈥揓uly 5, 2026), Back to the Future (July 7鈥�19, 2026), Mrs. Doubtfire (July 14鈥揂ugust 2, 2026), and The Outsiders (July 28鈥揂ugust 16, 2026). Kennedy Center's Senior Vice President of Artistic Programming and Executive Producer of Theater Jeffrey Finn is a producer on the Broadway production of The Outsiders, so that choice of venue for the Tony-winning musical is expected.
Other shows newly announced for the Kennedy Center is Shamrock Tenors (November 25鈥�30), Champions of Magic (November 18鈥�23), The Improvised Shakespeare Company (November 28鈥揇ecember 23), a family show called Bluey Returns! (June 24鈥揓uly 5, 2026), and the continuance of the Center's longtime improv show Shear Madness.
It is not clear how much input Trump or Kennedy Center's new president, Richard Grenell, had on the programming. Trump previously said he wanted to bring Broadway shows such as Phantom of the Opera and Cats to the Kennedy Center. At the same time, he also said he wanted to ban "drag shows" and "woke" programming; Mrs. Doubtfire is about a man dressing in drag to spend more time with his children, a programming decision that directly contradicts Trump's previous statement.
Said Finn in a statement, "There is truly a great theatre season of excitement and joy coming to the Kennedy Center."
In addition, the productions of Chicago and Mrs. Doubtfire are both non-Equity, meaning that the shows are not hiring union actors. Historically, the Kennedy Center has only produced shows with union actors from Actors' Equity. This choice to program non-union shows comes after a Kennedy Center board member the use of union actors, saying going non-union "opens us up for a whole bunch of more options as well as a lot more money."
This season announcement comes at the heels of the Kennedy Center staff forming the their own union, with demands that include "a return to ethical norms, freedom from partisan interference in programming," and "free speech protections."
Since Trump had taken over the Kennedy Center, the institution has cancelled numerous shows, including a number of Pride events and a children's musical called Finn, that featured themes which could be interpreted as queer. The Kennedy Center run of Broadway's Eureka Day, currently a 2025 Tony nominee for Best Revival of a Play, was also cancelled. The Jonathan Spector-penned work is about the anti-vax movement and its effect on discourse.
This change of leadership has garnered numerous responses in the artistic community. The Hamilton tour stop was cancelled by the production, while a number of actors are refusing to perform during the June 11 performance of Les Mis茅rables, where Trump will be in attendance. In response, Grenell, who was appointed by Trump, said those performers should be blacklisted: "We think it would be important to out those vapid and intolerant artists to ensure producers know who they shouldn鈥檛 hire."
Meanwhile, other artists are considering performing at the Kennedy Center to be an act of speaking truth to power, such as Michael Arden, whose Tony Award-winning production of Parade will play in D.C. August 19鈥揝eptember 7. Parade examines a true story in American history, when Leo Frank, a Jewish man living in Georgia, was accused of murder, given a sham trial, and then lynched by an angry mob. As Arden previously told 半岛体育, 鈥淚n some way, whoever is chair of the board is not really my concern. It's getting audiences to come see it, so that they can continue to ask questions and tell stories and search for the truth.鈥�
