Kennedy Center director encourages Republican attendance, says 'everyone is welcome'
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' interim director Ric Grenell joined "Hannity" on Thursday to preview efforts he and his team are making to transform the institution into a place where "everyone is welcome."
President Donald Trump, after firing and re-filling members of the center's board of trustees and announcing he'd been elected chairman, named Grenell as its leader on Feb. 10. Grenell previously served as acting director of national intelligence and is a longtime foreign policy adviser to the president.
"Look, the reality is, the Kennedy Center is open for business for everyone," Grenell told Fox News host Sean Hannity. "We just want an arts center that celebrates the arts — we want common sense art."
Grenell also addressed rumblings that shows at the center were being canceled due to the Trump administration.
"The new team at the Kennedy Center has not canceled anyone," he explained. "I know there are some rumors out there that, somehow, we were canceling shows. We have not canceled anyone. They've pulled out themselves, or they were told that, due to ticket sales, it wasn't financially good enough."
One popular show that canceled plans to perform at the Kennedy Center was the Broadway production "Hamilton."
The show's producer, Jeffrey Seller, released an official statement on social media Wednesday explaining the choice.
"This latest action by Trump means it's not the Kennedy Center as we knew it," said the show's creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, in a joint interview Wednesday with Seller, according to The New York Times. "The Kennedy Center was not created in this spirit, and we're not going to be a part of it while it is the Trump Kennedy Center. We're just not going to be part of it."
"I think that's intolerant," Grenell said. "And that's one of the things that Donald Trump has really brought back into Washington, into America, into the Kennedy Center — is to say everyone is welcome."
Grenell floated the possibility of organizing a show during the holiday season celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. He emphasized that under his guidance, the Kennedy Center will strive to host programs that will be "very popular."
"We can't continue to have an arts center that is making financial decisions that keep getting us into the hole," he said. "We need popular shows — we need shows that the public is going to come to."
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