Four drag performers were greeted with applause when they showed up to opening night of Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday, while President Donald Trump arrived to a mixture of boos and cheers from the crowd.

According to NPR, local D.C. performers Tara Hoot, Ricky Rosé, Vagenesis, and Maria Con Carne attended opening night of Les Mis to protest Trump’s recent takeover of the Kennedy Center and his ban on drag performances there. The group acquired tickets to the show through the drag nonprofit Qommittee after season ticket holders donated tickets they no longer wanted.

Related

Ticket sales plummet at Kennedy Center following Trump’s MAGA take-over of the venue
Subscribers have “spoken with their wallets,” said a staffer who shared the data.

Videos shared on social media by New York Times White House correspondent Shawn McCreesh and social media personality Brian Krassenstein show audience members at the Kennedy Center Opera House erupting into spontaneous applause as the foursome entered and took their seats on Wednesday night.

Insights for the LGBTQ+ community

Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

“Half the theater just started clapping when a group of drag queens showed up to find their seats at opening night of Les Miserables, which Trump, Melania, Vance and their top allies have all come out to see,” McCreesh wrote in an X post.

“Drag queens are at the Kennedy Center to protest Donald Trump, who is in attendance for a performance of Les Misérables,” Krassenstein posted.

“It was protest by taking up space,” Tara Hoot told NPR. “We wanted to support the artists and bring attention to the drag ban at the Kennedy Center by showing up and being gorgeous.”

“I hope it delivers the message that we’re not backing down,” Vagenesis said. “We’re not allowing this kind of bigotry and erasure to stop us from doing what we want to do, or from existing.”

As both McCreesh and Krassenstein noted, Trump was expected to attend the performance, which marked his first time at the Kennedy Center since firing most of the arts institution’s leadership and installing himself as chairman in February, according to the Irish Star. Shortly after announcing his takeover, Trump said on Truth Social that there would be “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA” at the Kennedy Center, which has previously hosted drag brunches and other drag performances.

Video of the President and First Lady Melania Trump’s arrival at the Opera House posted by the Associated Press showed many in the crowd booing, while others cheered and chanted “U.S.A.” Vice President J.D. Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance, who were also in attendance, were previously booed when they attended a performance by the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in March.

“Getting a standing ovation followed by DJT getting overwhelmingly booed wasn’t on my bucket list, but we checked it off last night!” Ricky Rosé wrote in an Instagram post following Wednesday night’s show.

Ahead of Wednesday night’s performance of Les Mis, Trump had been widely mocked on social media for planning to attend a musical about the French Revolution in the midst of his own authoritarian crackdown on anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles. Perhaps proving that the show’s themes were lost on him, the president told a reporter on the red carpet Wednesday night that he wasn’t sure whether he identified more with its hero, Jean Valjean, or with its villain, Javert.

The president’s takeover of the Kennedy Center has reportedly led to a steep drop in ticket sales. “Ticket buyers, subscribers, and donors have spoken with their wallets,” one staffer told the Washington Post last week. “Not against a Republican being in charge, but against the hostile takeover of their performing arts center.”

Sure enough, videos from opening night of Les Mis showed rows and rows of empty seats inside the theater.

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.