Stephen Schwartz isn’t planning to set foot in the Kennedy Center ever again.
The Wicked composer and three-time Oscar winner has backed out of a Washington National Opera gala he was slated to host in May, telling Newsday there’s “no way” he would enter the venue now that President Donald Trump has plastered his name all over the iconic building.
“It no longer represents the apolitical place for free artistic expression it was founded to be,” the 77-year-old said.
Schwartz joins a growing list of artists cutting ties with the venue after Trump’s handpicked board voted on Dec. 18 to slap the president’s name on the building. Workers added “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts” signage within 24 hours, despite the board having zero legal authority to do so.
But Schwartz’s departure hits differently, as he helped to launch the venue with Leonard Bernstein in 1971. Now, five decades later, he’s walking away.
The legendary composer behind Godspell and Pippin said he’d been invited to the May 16 Gala “way before” the legally dubious name change, but hadn’t heard anything since February, when Trump first took over the board.
“I have assumed it’s no longer happening,” he said. “If it is happening, of course, I will not be part of it.”
On Wednesday, The Washington Post revealed that Trump’s stacked board quietly changed its bylaws back in May, more than six months before voting to add his name to the building.
But the artist exodus began months earlier. In February, Emmy-nominated actor Issa Rae announced she was canceling her sold-out March performance after Trump purged the original bipartisan board and installed himself as chair. A few weeks later, producers of Hamilton pulled the plug on a run of shows scheduled for March and April 2026. Musicians Ben Folds and Renée Fleming also stepped down from their advisory roles.
More artists followed once the controversial renaming was announced in December, including acclaimed jazz group The Cookers, dance company Doug Varone and Dancers, and legendary drummer Chuck Redd, who canceled his Christmas Eve Jazz Jam, an annual tradition since 2006.
Kennedy Center president Richard Grenell, a Trump loyalist, dismissed the cancellations as “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and even threatened Redd with a $1 million lawsuit.
But the cancellations have left a financial hole, with the Kennedy Center hemorrhaging ticket sales and struggling to fill seats. Last month’s Kennedy Center Honors, which Trump emceed himself, drew record-low television ratings, and the 2026 calendar shows gaping holes where performances used to be, particularly around the holidays when the venue is traditionally packed.
There’s also the legal problem: Congress named the Kennedy Center as a memorial to JFK in 1964, a year after his assassination. Federal law explicitly prohibits adding other names without Congressional approval.
Ohio democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, who is an ex-officio member of the board, has sued to block the name change, alleging she was muted on Zoom when she tried to object during the vote.
For Schwartz, the Kennedy Center he knew is already gone. “There’s no way I would set foot in it now,” he said.
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