Stephen Schwartz, composer of the Broadway musical, Wicked, says he will not appear at the Kennedy Center after its board voted to change the name of the venue, calling the performing arts center “political.”
“The Kennedy Center was founded to be an apolitical home for artists of all nationalities and all ideologies,” Schwartz said, before claiming, “It is no longer apolitical, and appearing there has become an ideological statement.”
“As long as that remains the case, I will not appear there,” the Oscar and Grammy-award winning composer added in his statement, sent to multiple media outlets.
Schwartz’s announcement comes after the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees voted unanimously to add President Donald Trump’s name to the iconic Washington, D.C. venue.
The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will now bear the names of two American presidents, as the institution will be renamed “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
How it is considered “political” to have two presidents in the name of the performing arts center instead of one remains unclear.
On Friday, CNN reported that the center’s website removed Schwartz, who was listed as set to appear in a gala with the Washington National Opera in May.
But Richard Grenell, the president of the center’s board, denied that the composer had ever been scheduled to appear, calling reports about Schwartz “totally bogus.”
“The Stephen Schwartz reports are totally bogus. Shame on the woke high school reporters repeating it,” Grenell said in a Friday X post, adding that the composer “was never signed and I’ve never had a single conversation on him since arriving.”
“He himself said last February he hadn’t heard anything on it,” Grenell said. “People are literally plagiarizing a fake @RollingStone story.”
A spokesman for Schwartz told CNN that the composer and someone else associated with the Washington National Opera had been in communication about his “possible participation” in a May gala a year ago, but have not spoken since February 2025.
“Having not heard anything further after that point, he assumed — incorrectly, as it turns out — that the event was no longer moving forward,” the spokesman said.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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