Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda: ‘We have nothing to apologise to Donald Trump for’
Lin-Manuel Miranda. Photo: Helda Esteb/Shutterstock
Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda has ruled out apologising to Donald Trump, after the US president-elect accused the musical’s cast of “harassing” his vice-president pick Mike Pence.
Pence was booed when he saw the musical on Broadway two weeks ago, and was directly addressed at the curtain call by its star Brandon Victor Dixon, with a plea from the show’s writers to uphold the rights of “diverse America”.
The actor told Pence the communities the multi-ethnic cast represented were “alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us”.
Trump reacted angrily to the onstage statement on his Twitter account, accusing the “very rude” cast of “harassing” Pence and twice demanding an apology “for their terrible behaviour”.
Our wonderful future V.P. Mike Pence was harassed last night at the theater by the cast of Hamilton, cameras blazing.This should not happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2016
The Theater must always be a safe and special place.The cast of Hamilton was very rude last night to a very good man, Mike Pence. Apologize!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2016
The cast and producers of Hamilton, which I hear is highly overrated, should immediately apologize to Mike Pence for their terrible behavior
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 20, 2016
Speaking about the row at a screening for his new film Moana, Miranda was asked whether he would apologise to Trump or Pence.
He fired back: “No, I don’t think there’s anything to apologise for.”
He added: “I think we tried to be as respectful as we could, and basically asked him to lead on behalf of all of us. And Mike Pence took it in that spirit.”
Pence has since said publicly that he “wasn’t offended” by the on-stage plea, but added he would “leave to others [to determine] whether that was the appropriate venue to say it”.
Miranda claimed he now wanted to bring an end to the saga, saying: “Our cast silenced the boos in the theatre and said our piece. To me, that chapter’s over. I was really grateful he came to the show and got the words in the spirit in which we intended them.”
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