'Wicked' Composer Stephen Schwartz Cancels Kennedy Center Appearance After Trump Changes Name

Stephen Schwartz is canceling his appearance at the Kennedy Center.

Two weeks after Donald Trump changed the name of the iconic performing arts center to the Kennedy-Trump Center, the 77-year-old Wicked composer announced that he will no longer be appearing at the upcoming gala with the Washington National Opera.

Keep reading to find out more…“The Kennedy Center was founded to be an apolitical home for artists of all nationalities and all ideologies. It is no longer apolitical, and appearing there has become an ideological statement. As long as that remains the case, I will not appear there,” Stephen shared in a statement, per CNN.

The center’s website had Stephen listed as appearing at the gala in May and included a link to buy tickets to the event, but it was removed from the website on Friday (January 2).

Despite the website listing Stephen‘s appearance, Richard Grenell, who is the president of the center’s board, denied that he had ever been signed to appear.

“He was never signed and I’ve never had a single conversation on him since arriving,” Richard tweeted as he called reports of Stephen‘s cancellation “totally bogus.”

“He himself said last February he hadn’t heard anything on it,” he added.

A spokesperson for Stephen said that the composer and a person associated with the Washington National Opera had been in communication about his “possible participation” at the May gala and that they had last spoke in February 2025.

“Having not heard anything further after that point, he assumed—incorrectly, as it turns out—that the event was no longer moving forward,” the spokesperson told CNN, adding that Stephen had only learned on January 1 that the event was still scheduled.

The Kennedy Center opened in 1971 and was designated by Congress as a living memorial to the assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Stephen attended the center’s opening.

Stephen now joins many other artists that have canceled appearances at the Kennedy Center since Trump took over.