Everybody is probably aware by now about the whole debacle with Broadway musical Hamilton and Vice President-elect Mike Pence.
If not here is a short summary of what went down. Pence went to a Hamilton show Friday night in New York. He was booed by the crowd when he made his way to his seat, and Brandon Victor Dixon, the shows Aaron Burr, spoke after the show saying,
“We, sir — 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,” he said. “We truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us.”
Hamilton has always been keen on representing a diverse America by having cast members of different races. The very principle of the show even is the story of an immigrant, Alexander Hamilton who was born in the Caribbean and came to America where he helped found the country and became its first Secretary of Treasury. Pence’s presence at the show presented an ample opportunity for the cast to address the stigma against different races but most noticeably immigrants that was present during Trump’s election.
A day after the show, Trump tweeted about it and its post-show message. He attacked the musical and called the cast rude for intruding in the theater’s safe-space telling the cast that they needed to apologize for their actions.
Many have addressed that maybe Hamilton's so-called attack on Pence was inappropriate and that someone should be able to go into the theater and enjoy the art at-hand without having to worry about being personally called-out.
While that is understandable in some sense, the theater is also a place of artistic expression, and sometimes, if not always, it wants to challenge the audience to think differently. Hamilton does just that. It is a political story, and while the story can speak for itself as the show does in many cases as it emphasizes Hamilton as an immigrant with lines like, "immigrants, we get the job done" it also can take the opportunity to speak out when it needs to.
In this case the opportunity was Pence. He was a chance for the cast and creators of the show to give perspective to a challenger of Hamilton's very message that the world is wide enough for everybody.
Dixon told Broadway.com that the cast saw the oppotunity at hand and decided that they couldn't give up the chance to speak of the elephant in the room saying, ""These are the opportunities that you die for".
Creator of the show Lin-Manuel Miranda also tipped his hat off to the crew for what they did.
Politics are messy and the people involved in them should always be prepared to deal with situations like this and keep a level-head when it comes to criticism. Trump hasn't really grasped that concept yet, but at least his VP has.
Pence went on FOX News on Sunday and when asked about the matter he said, "I did hear what was said from the stage and I can tell you I wasn't offended by what was said".
Pence went on to say that what the cast asked for was what Trump promised during Election night when he said, "Let's close the history books on the failures in Washington and let's open a new chapter of success and prosperity for all of our people. We have a divided nation, a seriously divided nation. All of our people -- that is how we will truly make America great again."
Whether what Trump says is an empty promise or not I give my gratitude to both the cast of Hamilton for making their voices heard loud and clear and making their show important in more matters than one and to Pence for being mature and professional about the critique given to his party. Now if only Donald would learn from this that matters can be handled without Twitter.
