On November 18, the Richard Rodgers Theatre was filled with its usual applause and cheer as cast members lined up for their curtain call. Just a typical night for the cast and crew of the Tony winning hit Hamilton.

As their curtain call ended, audience members we surprised with a post-show speech directed specifically to one controversial member of the audience. Actor and producer Brandon Victor Dixon started off by honoring the special guest of the night, Vice President-elect Mike Pence. He pleaded for Pence along with the audience to hang back for just few more minutes to “share a story of love”. He also encouraged members of the audience to use their social media accounts to spread the message. Dixon started out by thanking Pence for coming to see the show. He continued, “we, sir — we — are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir”. To support his assertive yet respectful message, Dixon concluded on a positive note with “but we truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us”. He once again thanked Mr. Pence for coming to the show, known for its diverse cast and crew.

Soon after, however, a chain reaction of both acclamation and outrage sparked throughout the audience and eventually the general public. The so-called “controversial” speech sparked both boos and cheers. Shortly after, President-elect Donald Trump called out the cast of the production on his now infamous Twitter account. “Our wonderful future V.P. Mike Pence was harassed last night at the theater by the cast of Hamilton, cameras blazing.This should not happen!”, he wrote. With that, Mr. Trump had sparked a revolution amongst Trump supporters who similarly expressed their renouncement in the form of Twitter and other platforms of social media. “#BoycottHamilton” was trending at number one on Twitter, harboring several twitter threads of arguments on if Mr. Dixon’s message was polite or a bit discourteous. The hashtag has since disappeared from Twitter’s trending list, but still remains to be a popular conversation. As for Mr. Pence, the VP-elect told Fox News Sunday that he “wasn’t offended by what was said” and believed that the crowd’s boos and cheers were simply sounds of “freedom”.