The death spiral is continuing for the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts since Donald Trump’s takeover with ticket sales in free-fall, artist cancellations and now artists who are showing up are facing the prospect of rows upon rows of empty seats.
According to a new report from the Guardian’s Richard Luscombe, “Audiences are ‘voting with their feet to skip out’ on shows that would once have been packed,” with the popular Stuttgart Ballet faced with poor ticket sales that indicate only 20 percent of the seats will be filled.
The report notes that The Washingtonian is reporting, the ballet troupe is looking at “between 4 and 19% full based on reservations so far, and BodyTraffic, a Los Angeles troupe booked for two performances in the smaller Eisenhower Theatre at the end of the month, is only booked so far at 12% capacity.”
The venue has already been plagued by artists cancelling on the Kennedy, subscribers fleeing, after the president purged the board and installed loyalists intent on changing the type of entertainment being presented based upon the president’s tastes.
Speaking about the ticket sale collapse, one Kennedy Center employee could only utter “Yikes.”
According to Luscombe’s report, “The Washingtonian report paints a damning portrait of the health of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the months since its takeover by Trump, who last month announced he had ‘reluctantly’ agreed to personally host its annual arts awards signature show in December.”
The report notes that sources in Germany indicated the Stuttgart Ballet may cancel their appearance out of fear of poor turnout, adding, “The reported slump extends an already worrying slide in patronage. By June, the Kennedy Center had seen subscription sales fall by about $1.6m, or roughly 36%, compared with 2024.”
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