sexta-feira, 18 de novembro de 2016

Mike Pence booed at Hamilton performance, then hears diversity plea



Brandon Victor Dixon, actor in the hit musical Hamilton, addresses Donald Trump’s vice-president elect who was booed by the audience at the hit Broadway show in New York. The actor called on Pence to ‘defend us and uphold our inalienable rights … we hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and work on behalf of all of us’

Mike Pence booed at Hamilton performance, then hears diversity plea
After audience jeered vice-president elect at New York musical, actor addressed him from stage: ‘We are the diverse Americans anxious you will not protect us’

Joanna Walters in New York
Saturday 19 November 2016 06.32 GMT

The US vice-president elect, Mike Pence, was booed by a theater audience when he attended the hit hip-hop musical Hamilton in New York on Friday night – and then had a message about protecting diversity delivered to him from the stage after the curtain call.

As Pence, president-elect Donald Trump’s chosen deputy, turned up for the Broadway show at the Richard Rogers Theater and entered the auditorium, video taken by onlookers and posted to social media picked up some audience members cheering him, then more people booing him.

Pence walked down the aisle towards his seat and waved briefly as people in the theater clearly began to realize who he was. Then the boos began.

The show was occasionally disrupted by more loud booing at Pence. The irony of a strong conservative who opposes many gay rights attending a hip-hop musical with a pointedly diverse cast was not lost on patrons, as noted in an early report by Variety magazine.

At first it was thought Pence had left the show at the interval, but it later turned out that he had returned to his seat, possibly after the lights went down, at the beginning of the second act in an attempt to minimize disruption.

Pence ended up watching the whole show but as he was about to leave the theater at the end of the curtain call a member of the cast called him back.

Brandon Dixon, who plays vice-president Aaron Burr, stepped forward and took out a piece of paper.

He thanked the audience for seeing the show, then said: “Vice-president Mike Pence, I see you walking out, but I hope you will hear us, just a few moments.”

As some quiet boos emanated from the audience as it began to disperse, Dixon hushed the audience and delivered a message.

“There is nothing to boo here, ladies and gentlemen, we are sharing a story of love,” he said.

He continued: “Mike Pence, we welcome you here. We are the diverse Americans who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents.”

Many of the remaining audience began to cheer softly as Dixon, who is African American, pointed towards Pence.

“Or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights … we hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and work on behalf of all of us,” he continued, to rising cheers.

“We thank you for sharing this wonderful American story, told by a diverse group of men and women of different colors, creeds and orientations,” he concluded.

It was not clear whether Pence heard the whole address or made any response.

The show was created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, whom it turned into a superstar. He had a long run as the lead playing US founding father Alexander Hamilton.

Miranda relinquished the part earlier this year to the actor Javier Munoz, his understudy.


Munoz is openly gay and HIV-positive. He has made a point of speaking out about living with HIV since 2002 and how he hopes to diminish the stigma around HIV and Aids.

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