Wicked star cancels Kennedy Center event amid Trump drama – Celebrity News | Music News

Composer Stephen Schwartz has turn into the latest celeb to cancel an look at the Trump-Kennedy Center.

The 77-yr-outdated, who wrote music for the musical Wicked in addition to the two-half movie adaptation, had been scheduled to host the Washington National Opera Gala on May 16. He announced his resolution to cancel his look in an e-mail.

Schwartz said the middle, beforehand called the Kennedy Center, “no longer represents the apolitical place for free artistic expression it was founded to be.”

In the e-mail, which Schwartz despatched to Newsday, the composer continued, “There’s no way I would set foot in it now.”

Schwartz’s resolution to cancel his look at the Trump-Kennedy Center comes after textual content bearing the president’s title next to John F. Kennedy’s was erected on the exterior of the Washington D.C. venue.

Following Schwartz’s e-mail, Kennedy Center public relations official Roma Daravi claimed he had not been scheduled to look at the event. Daravi told Entertainment Weekly, “Stephen Schwartz was never discussed nor confirmed and never had a contract by current Trump Kennedy Center leadership.”

However, a web page on the Trump-Kennedy Center web site beforehand listed an event titled, “Washington National Opera Gala: Featuring Stephen Schwartz.” The event was set to happen on May 16.

Schwartz is not the only musician to tug out of scheduled appearances at the Trump-Kennedy Center. Shows needed to be canceled across Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve as artists pulled out amid the ongoing Trump controversy.

Shows scheduled for January 14 and later in April have also been canceled.

Folk singer Kristy Lee is among those who’ve canceled appearances at the Trump-Kennedy Center and wrote on Instagram, “I’ve canceled my scheduled performance at the Kennedy Center on January 14, 2026. I don’t have much power, and I don’t run with the big dogs who do.”

Kristy continued, “I’m just a folk singer from Alabama, slinging songs for a living. Hell, my songs are really just my own diary set to music. They’re not polished or hit songs, but they’re my truth and nobody can take that from me. I’m proud of that.”

She continued, explaining why she couldn’t take the stage under the new title, “When American history starts getting treated like something you can ban, erase, rename, or rebrand for somebody else’s ego, I can’t stand on that stage and sleep right at night.

“America didn’t get constructed by branding. It bought constructed by people displaying up and doing the work. And the people who carry it don’t want their title on it, they just present up. That’s all I’m doing right here.”

Other artists have adopted swimsuit including the jazz band The Cookers.