If they change cast, so be it.
Of they change songs or lines, so be it.
If they stop the play and lecture the audience about cellphones or Other ASSHOLISH antisocial behavior, like threatening Rowe vs Wade, so be it.
If they wish to communicate with members of the audience by (their choice) words, paintballs, rotten fruit, or half-bricks (just as hard as they can throw them), that is their right, and that is what the tickets paid for.
Audience members are free to leave, are free to TRY to make the case to ask for their money back, or to Shut Their Whiny Little Bitch Mouths The Fuck Up.
This is the time of year when most Broadway shows collect donations for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, and this is done by the cast giving a speech to the audience after the curtain call. They speak to the audience every night about giving money to AIDS charities, it would have been an absolute shame to ignore Pence being there. His speech was classy and respectful.
And please, I highly doubt Pence bought a ticket like a regular person.
“What Comes Next” being sung directly towards him, that’s hilarious.
Well there was that time when President Lincoln was publically called a tyrant by an actor when all he wanted was a quiet evening at the theatre with his wife.
Calling this a result of their politics simply being considered “wrong” wins the straw man of the year award. Quit pretending that these are just normal elected leaders with whom some people happen to disagree.
How many times has an incoming US administration created worldwide concern and doubt? How often do other world leaders need to “brace themselves” for what is about to come? How often in previous elections have other governments felt the need to reach out to their citizens living in the USA to tell them to remain calm and await further information as it becomes available?
The majority of Americans and the world are not just against their politics but outraged and disgusted by them in every way. Even their republican colleagues expressed not just concern, but disgust and shame at their ideas and divisive rhetoric right up until they actually got elected by the minority. Their election came as a shock to the entire world including the winning candidates and most of their supporters.
There are issues at stake here that go far beyond some partisan unwillingness to just accept things and treat them like legitimate leaders we don’t happen to agree with. They are dangerous and incompetent people who rode a wave of racism and frustration with the status quo to the highest office in the land. Paying the piper for that ride will now involve implementing bigoted and radical policies and anyone given an opportunity should speak out against them every step of the way.
If you think some actors in a play politely expressing their concerns to the VP is outrageous I would suggest disconnecting your cable and internet subscriptions and avoiding newspapers for the next 4 years. There is a lot of very justifiable concern and criticism to be expressed, and for the moment at least doing so is still within our rights.
Trump of all people doesn’t get to complain about decorum. Neither do those who elected him. You vote for destroying all decorum.
Pence is a traitor to America. He is part of an administration that is letting white nationalists run the country. Of course black people will fight back.
One side voted for a race war. If you think it’s bad now, just wait. They wanted to burn the country to the ground, well, the other side is not going to sit by and let it happen.
I believe people do not have the right to shoot paintballs at other people outside of a paintball range or to throw fruit or bricks at them. I believe this is against the law and could get them arrested
Don’t they do that year-round? We were in New York one April and saw a Broadway play. The cast did just that during the curtain call and after, advocated for fighting Aids and collected money as we left.
BTW, just because of the above doesn’t mean I actually think it was an insult. I was just working under the presumption given.
Personally, I can’t see how anyone parses it as an insult. I actually think it could be posted on this board without any response from the mods, and they are touchy of late. At no point does it say anything bad about Pence. It just says that some people are scared, and that they hope that Pence seeing the play is a good sign that their fears are unwarranted.
As I posted on Facebook, politicians are supposed to always be “on” in public, ready with a statement. He should have said “You do not need to worry. When we said ‘Make America Great Again,’ we meant for everyone.” He should have had that prepared if even a heckler said something. Heck, WTF was he at Hamilton without thinking of it as an outreach opportunity?
I mean, he’s supposed to be the one who actually can handle the presidency. And this is absolutely basic stuff here.
To be fair, Pence isn’t the one who just demonstrated his inability to handle the presidency; I agree that a statement like the one you described would have been a good idea, but simply letting the actor’s statement pass without comment isn’t a horribly bad one. The person who handled this really badly is Trump, who can’t seem to refrain from displaying his inability to take even the mildest criticism or reflect on the probable political consequences of his words before lashing out about an incident in which he wasn’t even personally involved.
I don’t find Hamilton’s actions remotely offensive - in fact, they were quite respectful.
However, when did lecturing anyone make any difference for anything? Sometimes I feel like liberals have abandoned ‘‘what actually works to effect social change’’ for ‘‘what makes me feel better.’’ I’m sure the cast really felt they needed to get that off their chest, but did it really do any good for anyone other than themselves?
Furthermore, did Pence really not already know that the cast of Hamilton is diametrically opposed to everything he stands for? The whole damned musical is a form of protest. Why the need to go out of the way and say that when it’s bleeding obvious? He might have been moved by the musical itself but the lecture may have totally turned him off to the message. Shaming people for their value system, regardless of how fucked up that value system may be, accomplishes exactly jack shit by way of changing hearts and minds.
When your politics are based on hate and discrimination, you really don’t have any high ground to stand on when other people tell you they feel otherwise.
You missed an option. The audience (the ones actually generating the money paying the cast) are free to interrupt the play at random until the cast figures it out and apologizes. Clearly the irony of a casting call for diversity designed to deliberately exclude people was lost on the them.
Because if there’s one constituency that is very concerned about, and ready to take action on behalf of, the welfare of straight white guys, it’s the audiences at Broadway musicals.