According to an account in Broadway.com, the cast dialed up Lin-Manuel Miranda, the show’s writer and creator, and Jeffrey Seller, the producer, and together they crafted a message encouraging the incoming administration to uphold America’s values on behalf of people of different backgrounds, beliefs and orientations. The audience, however, did not know Pence was there until just moments before the curtain rose. Some speculated a VIP would be in attendance: As theater-goers arrived, they saw black Suburbans, Secret Service and an ambulance clogging the street outside. As they sat in their seats and waited in line for the bathroom, they speculated whether the VIP would be President-elect Donald Trump, or maybe first lady Michelle Obama, for a repeat performance.
“Hamilton,” a Broadway musical that has won 11 Tonys, usually provokes a loud and joyous reaction from its crowds. But that night, the reaction was heightened. “This particular show, there are a lot of scenes that are very antithetical to the ideas of the Trump-Pence campaign that they’ve been running on. So I think that was resonating with people, knowing he was in the room,” Stagman said.
