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Watch The 'Hamilton' Cast's Message To Mike Pence
America's new vice president-elect was directly addressed about the concerns many people feel across the country as a result of his and Donald Trump's election victory. At the end of Friday night's performance, the cast of Broadway's Hamilton spoke to Mike Pence from the stage, expressing hope that their show inspired him to uphold the rights of all Americans:
We have a message for you, sir. We hope that you will hear us out — and I encourage everybody to pull out your phones and tweet and post, 'cause this message needs to be spread far and wide, OK? Vice President-elect Pence, we welcome you and we truly thank you for joining us here at Hamilton: An American Musical, we really do. We sir, we, are of the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us — our planet, our children, our parents — or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us. All of us. Again, we truly thank you for sharing this show, this wonderful American story told by a diverse group of men and women of different colors, creeds, and orientations.
You can watch the full video here:
Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton in July and agreed to a special performance of the show, which served as a fundraiser for the Democrat's campaign. Despite his own views, he praised the show's cast while insisting that everyone is welcome at the theater.
Trump took to Twitter on Saturday to express his distaste. "Our wonderful future V.P. Mike Pence was harassed last night at the theater by the cast of Hamilton, cameras blazing," he tweeted. "This should not happen!" He then demanded that the cast apologize, arguing that theater "must always be a safe and special place." His campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, implied Pence was disrespected.
Brandon Victor Dixon, the actor who delivered the message on behalf of the cast, responded to Trump's characterization of the matter as "harassment."
Here's to hoping Pence did, in fact, learn something from the Hamilton story.