Several months after Donald Trump fired the Kennedy Center’s board, named himself chair, and replaced the director with a loyalist in order to remove wokeness from its programming, the famed theater and performance venue announced its new season line up and it’s full of drag.

In February, Trump announced he would fire the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees and install himself as chair. He named out gay man and Trump loyalist Ric Grenell as the interim head of the Kennedy Center and promised “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA.”

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Trump later said that his takeover of the venue would result in a “Golden Age in Arts and Culture.” “Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP,” he wrote, calling the center’s programming “woke.”

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But even Trump and Grenell apparently couldn’t resist putting drag on stage. The Daily Beast reports that the upcoming season lineup has been announced, and it’s full of drag, including Chicago, Mrs. Doubtfire, Moulin Rouge! The Musical, and Spamalot, all of which involve actors performing in drag.

It’s unlikely that these will be de-dragged versions of these plays. Mrs. Doubtfire’s entire plot revolves around a man who wears women’s clothes to spend more time with his kids while his wife has custody of them.

In Chicago, Mary Sunshine is a female character who is usually played by a male soprano, and the character of Mama Morton was played by trans-femme nonbinary RuPaul’s Drag Race season 5 winner Jinkx Monsoon for several years on Broadway. Spamalot has scenes involving male actors playing women, mocking how plays were produced in Medieval times, including a damsel in distress who is played by a man. And one of the characters in Moulin Rouge! The Musical is a drag queen named Baby Doll who performs in the cabaret.

Trump and Grenell faced staunch criticism for the politicized takeover of the Kennedy Center. Tony-winning actor and out playwright Harvey Fierstein, who appeared in the film Mrs. Doubtfire, blasted Trump and Grenell, saying that he was banned from performing at the Kennedy Center.

“I have been banned from THE KENNEDY CENTER,” he wrote on Instagram in March. “A few folks have written to ask how I feel about Trump’s takeover of The Kennedy Center. How do you think I feel? The shows I’ve written are now banned from being performed in our premiere American theater.”

Fierstein listed several of his plays that he said were banned from the Kennedy Center, including musical adaptations of La Cage Aux Folles and Hairspray, all of which feature actors in drag.

“My fellow Americans, I warn you – this is NOT how it begins,” Fierstein wrote. “This is how freedom ENDS!”

Grenell responded that Fierstein was being “foolish” and that his plays weren’t banned. “Come do Hairspray or La Cage here at the Kennedy Center. This is your personal invite.”

It appears that Grenell was telling the truth: Trump was wrong, and drag performances would still be allowed at the Kennedy Center.

That said, while shows directed at straight audiences that involve drag appear on the upcoming season’s lineup, several shows directed at LGBTQ+ audiences have already been canceled. These include events associated with the 2025 WorldPride, including its Tapestry of Pride program that was scheduled for the first week of June. Several of the WorldPride events found new venues in D.C.

Also, a performance by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington DC, scheduled for May 21 and 22, was removed from the Kennedy Center’s website.

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