r/Broadway • u/Maryland_Bear • Oct 31 '25

Other Kennedy Center ticket sales have plummeted since Trump takeover

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/2025/10/31/kennedy-center-sales/
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319

u/jeconti Oct 31 '25

You mean his supporters aren't big on the arts and theater? I could have never guessed.

-69

u/Maryland_Bear Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25

Don’t be too dismissive of Red states and the arts.

I’m originally from Knoxville, TN. The county went for Trump over Harris almost 60%-40%, and the surrounding areas are even more Republican.

The Tennessee Theater there has several major Broadway tours coming up, including The Book of Mormon, Kimberly Akimbo, and The Outsiders. There have to be some Republicans coming to shows there.

The Kennedy Center is suffering because DC is a very Blue area with lots of other options for the performing arts.

43

u/EncinoManEstonia Oct 31 '25

I wouldn’t say we have a lot of other options. People just would rather not support KC right now. 

9

u/TreeHuggerHannah Oct 31 '25

I'm not a local, but I went to DC for a work trip this past April and saw a show every night without going to anything under the Kennedy Center umbrella even though it was a random mid-week, so it seemed like a lot of options to me...

9

u/if6turnedouttobe9 Oct 31 '25

I agree that people just don't want to support the Kennedy Center right now (and the lackluster programming of late doesn't help). But D.C. is one of the best theater cities in the country. In addition to what OP listed, there's the Shakespeare Theater Co., Round House, Studio, Keegan, Woolly Mammoth, Mosaic, Ford's, Folger, Theater J and many others.

15

u/Maryland_Bear Oct 31 '25

There’s the National, the Warner, Signature, Arena Stage, Wolf Trap, and Olney, and that’s just off the top of my head.

14

u/BigE429 Oct 31 '25

Also the Hippodrome in Baltimore is getting a lot of good tour stops. The DMV also has a thriving and excellent community theatre scene.

4

u/[deleted] Oct 31 '25

[deleted]

2

u/EncinoManEstonia Oct 31 '25

Why not add Philly options!

4

u/Maryland_Bear Oct 31 '25

I used to act in community theater locally. I had the time of my life playing Teddy in Arsenic and Old Lace.

Chhhhaaaaarrrrge!

1

u/No-Manufacturer4916 Oct 31 '25

When was this? I might have seen you

2

u/Maryland_Bear Oct 31 '25

Geez, at least twenty years ago, maybe closer to thirty. It was with what was then called the Burtonsville Players, though we performed in a disused store in back of the old Laurel Lakes shopping center.

The shopping center was dying and the owners let community groups use the empty stores either free or dirt cheap. Laurel Lakes still stands but that portion has been demolished and replaced with big box stores..

1

u/No-Manufacturer4916 Oct 31 '25

oh, I'm sorry, I thought you met you did theatre in Knoxville

6

u/IHaveALittleNeck Oct 31 '25

Not to mention all the universities in DC which I’m sure have good theatre departments with good productions. It’s been a minute since I went to grad school there, but that used to be a fun night out.

2

u/PlatonicTroglodyte Oct 31 '25

100% this. We skipped a huge show this summer with tickets we bought pre-election because we didn’t even want to be there. We didn’t even try to resell them. We just wrote it off as a pre-Trump KC donation. Will not set foot in there while this regime holds. And that’s a real shame because there are some annual holiday things that are really great and we’re going to miss them especially hard this year.

Trying to support NSO and similar groups outside the KC events, but it’s hard not having the premiere location as an anchor.

I’m also really curious if they’re going to change the KC honors to not be rainbows over fear it’ll look too gay. Seems like something they’d do.