Two non-Fairness nationwide theatrical excursions – Mrs. Doubtfire and Chicago – are on the 2026 schedule of the John F. Kennedy Heart for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., marking a significant shift in Kennedy Heart coverage that comes simply two months after President Donald Trump complained about union prices.
A Kennedy Heart spokesperson stated in a press release to Deadline, “To ensure that the Kennedy Heart to be extra aggressive within the trade, we’re increasing our programming to incorporate each fairness and non-equity reveals in our theaters and sit up for offering world-class reveals to our patrons, no matter their fairness standing.”
Richard Grenell, the Kennedy Heart president put in by Trump earlier this 12 months, stated in a separate assertion, “The Kennedy Heart is the premiere establishment for the humanities in America, so we don’t wish to restrict the reveals out there to our audiences.The restrictive and costly nature of union-only reveals isn’t good for a various neighborhood. We wish extra choices, not fewer.”
Deadline has reached out to Actors’ Fairness Affiliation and can replace this submit with a response. The Mrs. Doubtfire and Chicago excursions are listed on Fairness’s roster of productions which are “Non-Fairness/No Union Contract For Fairness Members.”
When Trump, who has named himself the Kennedy Heart chairman, visited the humanities establishment in March he overtly complained about, amongst different issues, IATSE union guidelines and prices, telling reporters, “Lee Greenwood needed to sing a bit music at the moment, and due to the associated fee within the union construction for him to sing a music only for the board, simply the board assembly, it was going to price $30,000. They needed $30,000 simply to maneuver a piano. So you may’t have that.”
Fairness prohibits its members from performing in or stage managing productions with out an Fairness contract. “That’s rule primary on the again of your Fairness card,” Fairness’s web site states. Non-Fairness productions scale back prices by hiring non-union performers and crew who shouldn’t have the identical protections and advantages supplied by the union.
The Kennedy Heart’s 2026 theater line-up introduced at the moment additionally contains Monty Python’s Spamalot, Moulin Rouge!, Bluey Returns, Again To The Future and The Outsiders, all Fairness productions. The Heart’s web site doesn’t point out whether or not a manufacturing is union or non-union.
Information of the 2026 Kennedy Heart line-up was first reported at the moment by the right-wing Every day Caller web site beneath the headline “Trump-Run Kennedy Heart Takes The Air Out Of Infamous Broadway Union.”