Was Vice-President-elect Mike Pence harassed at the Hamilton show last Friday night, when actor Brandon Victor Dixon gave him an “on onstage earful about equality” at the end of the performance?
We, sir, 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 said onstage after the curtain call, the CBC is reporting (see above link). “We truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and work on behalf of all of us. All of us.”
President-elect Donald Trump was none too pleased with it, and has demanded an apology from Dixon — which Dixon says won’t be coming.
Opinions on social media about the affair are mixed. Some people think Dixon was out of line, choosing the wrong time and place to speak up.
Other people think he has nothing to apologize for, that Pence was fair game at that moment in time.
The CBC is reporting that “Dixon said Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda had a hand in crafting the remarks, although Dixon said he “made some adjustments.” ”
Which means that if apologies are in order, Miranda would need to step forward as well.
Pence, incidentally, says he wasn’t offended. He actually showed some class in his comments about it all: “That’s what freedom sounds like,” he reportedly told Fox News Sunday. As for whether anyone should apologize: “I’ll leave it to others whether that was the appropriate venue to say it.”
What do you think? Was it the appropriate venue? Was Pence harassed?
— Jillian
Photo: Governor Mike Pence speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at the Mesa Convention Center in Mesa, Arizona. (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons)
Jillian Page 
What do you say about a guy who supports water-boarding? “The ends justify the means”? As they said when der Fuhrer was elected: “all bets are off”. That’s a bingo. Dark times in monkey city %(
LikeLike
What else do you expect from a thin-skinned bully?
LikeLike
Hell no!
Just because….
Hell can never actually freeze over.
LikeLike
Should they apologize? Certainly not. Sure in other places, like no one would dare speak publicly to Vladimir Putin this way, or imagine some group trying this in Turkey today, or to other totalitarian regimes. But, in the States we can and should speak to leaders openly. This incoming administration already is closing doors to public discourse, Trump hasn’t faced the press since the election, he just does statements by Twitter,(often in a very un-presidential manner,) and he’s shaken off his press pool multiple times. We’re not going to see openness from this administration, people will need to speak out wherever possible to reach these leaders, but not that there won’t be retribution against those who do so.
Should also be noted, the cast of Hamilton do speak with the audience, from the stage, after the curtain call. So they just were including the vice-president-elect in their normal practice. And, it was done so respectfully. Certainly not something the next leader of the free world should be so upset over.
LikeLike
As a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, I would fight to defend the actor’s right to act like an idiot. However, I would sooner fight to defend the right of producers who will refuse to hire him because he obviously lacks common sense in choosing an appropriate time and place to make his views known. Perhaps he thought it was worth sacrificing his career. God knows there are many who have sacrificed much more to secure the freedom to act stupidly. Dixon is paid from the proceeds of the audience who pays to see the show, and for this moron to “bite the hand that feeds him” tells me all I need to know about him.
LikeLike
What you say resonates with me. I agree: wrong time to be admonishing the vice-president-elect, who obviously knows his job is to represent ALL of the people fairly. He didn’t really need to be reminded of that, indeed, and humiliated in front of an audience like that.
LikeLike
Why should the theatre be wrong place, wrong time? People elected Trump because they’re tired of the same-old same-old from politicians and the bubble that surrounds them (OK, argue about the popular vote, but Trump still had an awful lot of people vote for him). It’s a pity it’s take someone like Trump to break the rut everyone is in, but it had to happen. And if part of the result is theatre actors breaking through the “fourth wall” when they get that once-in-a-lifetime chance to talk to one of the top brass, so be it.
peter
LikeLike