Bruce Lee play and Vocal Arts DC join growing list of Kennedy Center cancellations

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NEW YORK (AP) — The producers of a stage play inspired by the life of Bruce Lee and the musical presenters Vocal Arts DC are the latest members of the arts community to call off shows at the Kennedy Center.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, Issa Rae, Bela Fleck are among the numerous artists who have withdrawn in protest of President Donald Trump's ousting of the leadership at the center and at the announcement last month by his hand-picked board that the Kennedy Center had been renamed the Trump-Kennedy Center, a change scholars say can only be implemented by Congress. Trump has placed the Kennedy Center, a Washington institution that for decades enjoyed bipartisan support, at the heart of his battle against what he calls “woke” culture.

Neither of the most recent announcements directly criticized Trump.

The Seattle Children's Theatre had been scheduled to oversee “Young Dragon: A Bruce Lee Story” for a two-week run in April. The theater announced this week on Instagram that it had made the “difficult decision” to cancel after “deep listening and extensive dialogue with the artists, community partners, and the Bruce Lee family and foundation.”

The Instagram post included a statement from managing director Kevin Malgesini, who wrote that the “landscape in which the production was originally created has changed to an extent” that going forward as planned was no longer possible.

Vocal Arts DC, which has held concerts for years at the Kennedy Center, issued an Instagram statement this week that cited “lower ticket sales, frequent refund requests, and a decline of donations” in making the “heartbreaking decision” to cancel upcoming appearances scheduled for February, March and May. Featured performers were to have included the renowned tenor Benjamin Bernheim and pianist Carrie-Ann Matheson.

In another apparent cancellation, the center's schedule no longer lists an April tribute concert to the late John Coltrane, who would have turned 100 this year. Representatives for two of the billed musicians did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A Kennedy Center spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.