Variety<\/em>\u2018s request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\tOn Jan. 16, the Martha Graham Dance Company said it was withdrawing from performing at the center in April. \u201cThe Martha Graham Dance Company regrets that, for a variety of reasons, we are unable to perform at the Kennedy Center in April,\u201d the company said in a statement. \u201cWe hope to perform at the center in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAmong others who have pulled out of shows since the politicized takeover are Stephen Schwartz, a production of \u201cHamilton,\u201d B\u00e9la Fleck, Rhiannon Giddens, Issa Rae, Sonia De Los Santos, the Cookers, Magpie, Kristy Lee, the comedy troupe Asian AF, Bal\u00fan and one of the Kennedy Center\u2019s anchor attractions for many decades, the Washington National Opera.<\/p>\n
\n\tFew big-name acts remain on the schedule for the rest of this year. The list of those still scheduled is led by right-leaning comic Adam Carolla, Jeff Foxworthy, Tony Hinchcliffe and R&B singer Tyrese.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe center\u2019s president, Richard Grenell, who regularly tweets his conservative positions on Twitter, has gone after other performers who have pulled out, saying they are the ones politicizing the venue.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen the banjo player Fleck canceled his appearance this month, he wrote, \u201cI have withdrawn from my upcoming performance with the NSO at The Kennedy Center. Performing there has become charged and political, at an institution where the focus should be on the music. I look forward to playing with the NSO another time in the future when we can together share and celebrate art.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tGrenell\u2019s heated response: \u201cYou just made it political and caved to the woke mob who wants you to perform for only Lefties.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIn December, when jazz musician Chuck Redd canceled a New Year\u2019s Eve appearance, Grenell sent him a letter saying he would be sued for $1 million in damages. There has been no subsequent indication that a lawsuit will be filed against any of the artists canceling shows.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe board recently voted to rename the facility the Trump-Kennedy Center, although many have argued that it would take an act of Congress to rename a national presidential memorial, so many continue to refer to it as simply the Kennedy Center, given questions over the legality of the name change.<\/p>\n
\n\tAudiences have been down since the Trump takeover, according to data acquired by the New York Times that showed single-ticket sales down 50%, and subscription revenue for theater down 82% and dance 57% during April and May of 2024 from the previous year.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe center\u2019s current president and representatives have in turn pointed to $130 million in fundraising since Trump took over, along with $257 million approved by Congress and directed by the president toward building renovations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kennedy Center has lost another one of the few remaining stars on its 2026 schedule, as the legendary soprano Ren\u00e9e Fleming has dropped out of an appearance at the embattled venue previously scheduled for May. Although many of the musicians who have bowed out of appearances there have made note of the political toxicity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2247862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[357063,312609,435229],"class_list":["post-2247861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-donald-j-trump","tag-kennedy-center","tag-renee-fleming"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Renee-Fleming-Becomes-Latest-Star-to-Drop-a-Kennedy-Center.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2247861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2247861"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2247861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2247863,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2247861\/revisions\/2247863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2247862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2247861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2247861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2247861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}