Triple-threat Neil Patrick Harris, for one, doesn’t think the Hamilton cast has anything to say sorry for. In an already-infamous controversy, the audience of Friday night’s performance of Hamilton booed Vice-President-Elect Mike Pence, prompting the cast at curtain call to ask them to hold their boos and address an emotional plea (reportedly penned by show creator Lin-Manuel Miranda) for Pence to uphold “our inalienable rights†and “our American values.†While Pence has stated that he was not offended by his reception, his running mate, President-Elect Trump, took to his favorite social-media platform to demand apologies from the cast and production and to say that theaters should be “a safe space.â€
“When you’re in the political spectrum and you go around on purpose proclaiming things, then karmically you may have to observe people who represent the things he’s against,†Harris told Vulture at a Cinema Society screening of Moana before going on to support the Hamilton cast’s response. “I didn’t find what was said [by the Hamilton cast] at all offensive or mean. In fact, their quieting people’s boos and their thinking about ways to articulate themselves effectively is a much different engagement than if they were just insulting someone. I know that Lin and that cast are intelligent and respectful and use their words with great intention. And so I think what was said was effective. I do worry about a President-Elect demanding an apology from people speaking their opinions.â€