Moments before President Donald Trump arrived inside the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts for Wednesday’s opening-night performance of “Les Misérables”, a couple of drag queens (and at least one drag king) entered the theatre and took their seats near the stage.
In February, after the president purged the traditionally bipartisan board of Washington’s premier cultural centre, he declared in a social media post that under his artistic stewardship, there would be “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA — ONLY THE BEST.”
“You can’t erase us,” said one of the people dressed in drag, who goes by “Vagenesis” (actual name: Anderson Wells). Wells, a 34-year-old theatre managing director in Washington, identifies as nonbinary and uses the pronouns they/them.
They were draped in what they described as a “lovely creamsicle flowy comfortable gown” and said their message to the president was an admittedly “cliché” one: “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it.”
In some sense, Wednesday night’s performance marked the culmination of the Trump takeover of the Kennedy Centre. Soon after taking office, the president appointed himself chair of the centre and restocked the board with loyalists. Some artists baulked, and some shows were cancelled, but not this production of “Les Misérables”, which had been booked before Trump was elected. The president’s allies turned out in force for the occasion. Cabinet members packed the balcony, and supporters from around the country came out for the show.
But there were cracks in the sheen of this elite MAGA black-tie affair. After parading down the red carpet, Trump was confronted with signs of sharp opposition to his administration as some boos and heckles bubbled up from an otherwise adoring crowd. The drag queens, for their part, drew scattered applause when they entered the theatre.
Trump once dreamed of being a Broadway producer when he was a young man. “Les Misérables” has long been one of his favourite productions. At his rallies during the 2016 campaign, when he was taking on both the Democratic and Republican establishments, Trump would sometimes play one of the production’s most recognisable anthems, “Do You Hear the People Sing?” After his rival Hillary Clinton referred to some of his supporters as “deplorables”, Trump threw a “Les Misérables”-themed rally and stood in front of a sign that said “Les Deplorables”.
Based on the 1862 novel by Victor Hugo, the story is premised upon an anti-government uprising in France after the indiscriminate persecution of the downtrodden. It was an interesting moment for the president to see the musical. The past week has been dominated by his decision to send soldiers into Los Angeles to quell demonstrations against his immigration raids and his administration. Protests have spread to other cities across the country, and Trump has warned that if people turn out to demonstrate against the military parade he has scheduled in Washington on Saturday, “they will be met with very heavy force.”
When the president arrived at the Kennedy Centre in his tuxedo and bow tie, with the first lady on his arm, he was asked on the red carpet whether he identifies more with Jean Valjean (the destitute protagonist of the play who was imprisoned for 19 years for stealing bread to feed children) or Javert (the villainous police inspector who dogs him cruelly and senselessly until his own hatred drives him to madness).
“That’s tough,” Trump said, turning to Melania Trump. “You’d better answer that one, honey. I don’t know.” She just smiled.
At 7:30 p.m., the Trumps took their seats on the box tier, looking out on the centre stage. Amid the cheers, there was a low but sustained booing. And there were more than a few seats left empty since some theatregoers arrived late and were stuck out in the hallway until they could get through security after the show started.
Upon the balcony with the president were various Cabinet members, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Vice President JD Vance was there, too.
Laura Loomer, who is viewed among some in Trump world as something like the merciless Madame Defarge of the MAGA movement, was stopped on a stairway leading to the VIP section and engaged in animated conversation with one of the president’s body men. A Kennedy Centre employee hurried up to attend to her as she paced back and forth. She waved off repeated entreaties from a reporter and stalked off.
Also, there was Matt Schlapp, a long-time ally of Trump’s who heads the Conservative Political Action Conference. “I’m here with my wife and our five girls, two of their boyfriends, and a bunch of CPAC board members,” he said. “The show is spectacular.” What did he make of the drag performers sitting up front? “I saw them walking in,” he said with a shrug. “Good for them; I’ve got no issue. Everybody should be able to buy a ticket.”
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Attorney General Pam Bondi strolled by Paolo Zampolli, an Italian businessperson and special envoy to the president who is on the Kennedy Centre’s board. Fox News personality Maria Bartiromo, who echoed many of the president’s conspiracy theories about a stolen election in 2020 and is now a board member at the centre, looked up and down the grand foyer. She said it was her first time seeing “Les Misérables.” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said he had at least seen the movie. The message he took away from it, he said, was “grace and redemption”.
The last time he was at the Kennedy Centre was seven years ago, and times were different. “That was the first time I got ‘the treatment’,” he recounted with a smile, “when I had someone screaming at me: ‘Shame! Jim Jordan!’” That didn’t seem likely to happen with this crowd. “No,” he said, laughing, “people have been asking for pictures.”
The president’s supporters who came out to see “Les Misérables” said they saw no connection between the show’s themes and what was happening across the country this week. “I don’t think that has anything to do with it,” said Ronnie O’Connor, 65, a retired nurse from Wilmington, Delaware, who had purchased her ticket after she heard Trump would be attending. “I do love him,” she said. “I think he’s a nice man.”
Others in the crowd couldn’t help but detect an echo of the current moment. “I wish there was a way to ask him, because he loves this show so much, to understand how connected it is to everything that’s going on right now,” said Anemone Domagala, 36, of Modesto, California. “And how much Jean Valjean represents the people that are being torn away from their families and being put into prison when they really don’t deserve it.”
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At intermission, the lights turned on and the Trumps could be seen in their seats, whispering to each other. A moment later, they stood up, and a clamorous cheer broke out in the now-packed theatre. But a few women began to yell. “Shame on you!” said one. “Convicted felon,” called out another. Trump kept pumping his fist in thanks to his fans.
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It is a perfectly normal, totally American thing for a president to get booed in public. President Joe Biden was booed and heckled repeatedly at his star-studded Radio City Music Hall fundraiser last year. But Trump goes to considerable lengths to avoid any chance of mockery or public defiance. Enveloped by admirers, Trump chooses to spend his downtime in the safest of spaces — Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts and NASCAR races, as well as golf courses that he owns.
His allies did their best to make sure Wednesday’s show was as welcoming as could be. The group of news photographers that is normally at the president’s side wherever he travels was not let into the show, and thus not on hand to capture the few moments of public dissent.
After CNN reported that a group of actors in the touring production were planning to boycott the performance, Richard Grenell, the centre’s Trump-appointed interim director, told Entertainment Weekly that “it would be important to out those vapid and intolerant artists to ensure producers know who they shouldn’t hire.”
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At 10:30 p.m., the cast came onstage to bow. The Trumps hopped up to give them a standing ovation.
Wells said afterwards that they had had a “pretty wonderful” night and were pleasantly surprised by the reception that they got from the pro-Trump crowd.
“Even people who, throughout different points in the night, were excited by getting a chance to see the president or vice president, were still also very excited to see us and take pictures with us,” they said. “They were complimenting us on our looks.
