U.S. Vice President-elect Mike Pence was greeted by boos from the audience and an impromptu and impassioned plea from the cast as he attended a performance of the groundbreaking musical Hamilton Friday night in New York.
Here's Pence getting booed as he gets to his seats at Hamilton pic.twitter.com/IRQG68x1sB
— David K (@dkipke12) November 19, 2016
After the curtain call Actor Brandon Victor Dixon, who plays Aaron Burr, the nation's third vice president, addressed Pence on behalf of the cast saying the nation fears the Trump administration.
“Vice President-elect Pence I see you walking out, but I hope you will hear us just a few more moments,” Dixon said. “We have a message for you sir. We hope that you will hear us out. I encourage everyone to pull out your phones and tweet because this message needs to be spread far and wide.”
“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,” Dixon continued as Pence stood in the hallway listening to the remarks.
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Dixon continued, “We truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us. We truly thank you for sharing in this show, this wonderful American story told by a diverse group of men, women of different colors, creeds and orientations and we truly hope that you heard our message sir, because you all represent all of us.”
The message to Pence from the cast of Hamilton - right before he left pic.twitter.com/renU04Zhuo
— Noah Coslov (@NoahCoslov) November 19, 2016
Dixon ended his speech, which received a standing ovation, with a plea for the audience to donate to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Vice-President Pence is a noted homophobe and Christian extremist who opposes federal funding for HIV and AIDS treatment and signed a draconian anti-LGBTQ “religious liberty’ bill while Governor of Indiana.
Pence did not respond to Dixon´s plea and was quickly whisked away by his secret service detail.
The award winning hip-hop inspired musical, written by and initially starring Puerto-Rican American Lin-Manuel Miranda, has been hailed by many as offering an urgent social critique of U.S. society and history with the most diverse cast in Broadway counter-casting the white-supremacist founding fathers.