John F Kennedy News

Read Actors' Equity's statement on the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' vote to rename the venue the Trump-Kennedy Center. 

Members of the Kennedy family publicly criticized the board’s decision to rename the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as the Trump Kennedy Center, raising legal and historical objections.

Rise and shine, BroadwayWorld! It is December 19, 2025 and it's time to catch up on all of the theatrical happenings you may have missed in the last 24 hours.

New photos have been released from the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors ceremony, featuring Laura Osnes, Kelsey Grammer, David Phelps, Carrie Manolakos, and more as well as honoree Michael Crawford. Check them out now.

The board overseeing Washington’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted on Thursday to rename the venue the Trump-Kennedy Center, according to the White House.

Leonard Bernstein’s bold, genre-defying Mass returns to the stage of Theatro Municipal de São Paulo for two special performances on December 19 (8 p.m.) and 20 (5 p.m.). Conducted by Roberto Minczuk, the production brings together the São Paulo Municipal Symphony Orchestra, the Coral Paulistano and the Lírico Choir, with Tony Award–winning baritone Paulo Szot as the Celebrant. Blending traditional Catholic liturgy with rock, jazz, musical theatre and protest songs, Mass reflects the social unrest and spiritual questioning of the 1970s while remaining strikingly relevant today. The performances also mark the Municipal debut of musical-theatre star Beto Sargentelli, whose presence bridges the worlds of opera and contemporary musical theatre.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced the Kennedy Center Honors' medallions have been re-imagined and donated by Tiffany & Co. The 48th annual Kennedy Center Honors will be broadcast on CBS and streamed on Paramount+ on Tue., Dec. 23 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.*

The Country Music Association will return to London with the CMA Songwriters Series featuring a mix of artists and songwriters including Keith Urban, Aaron Raitiere, Ashley Cooke, Kristian Bush and Meg McRee.

Multi-Platinum rockers Chicago and Styx are joining together for their first-ever co-headlining tour, coming to venues nationwide with “The Windy Cities Tour - All The Hits…Your Kind of Tour” that kicks off July 13 in West Palm Beach, FL and wraps September 6 in Los Angeles, CA.

Folger Theatre at the Folger Shakespeare Library revealed the plays and playwrights for the fourth annual Reading Room Festival, a four-day festival of staged readings, panel discussions, workshops, and community celebrations.

There are terrible things going on in the world and specifically at the Kennedy Center, where the staff’s been decimated, attendance is way down, booked engagements have withdrawn, and others have been cancelled in a few weeks  to make way for activities related to the World Cup or maybe eventually the UFC.

American Ballet Theatre's 2026 Summer season at the Metropolitan Opera House was unveiled by Artistic Director Susan Jaffe. The season will feature a new staging of Don Quixote and more.

Creede Repertory Theatre (CRT) has announced Mallory Pierce as the theatre’s new Director of Development. She is a seasoned nonprofit leader with more than 30 years of experience in fundraising, marketing, and audience development.

Rubicon Theatre Company of Ventura and The Acting Company of New York will present a second-year “encore” collaboration on two new productions to be presented as part of Rubicon’s WINTERFEST, 2025.

Des Moines Performing Arts (DMPA) has announced Monica Holt, a nationally recognized arts leader and former Senior Vice President of Artistic Planning at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as its next President and CEO.

Ford’s Theatre Society has appointed Sarah J. Wilber as Director of Development. Wilber will oversee all development operations for Ford’s Theatre, including major gifts, institutional giving, membership, corporate partnerships and special events.

Full casting has been announced for the North American tour of the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Comedy Monty Python’s SPAMALOT. The production will launch at Playhouse Square in Cleveland, Ohio, beginning performances Monday, December 1.

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Tony Award-winning hit musical Monty Python’s Spamalot, the first-ever vinyl release of the original Broadway cast recording will be released featuring the never-before-released track, “The Cow Song.”

The Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts have announced two senior leadership appointments: Dr. Kobie Smith as Chief Philanthropy Officer and Jamie Shover as Vice President of Information Technology.

Winston Churchill was one of the 20th century’s towering political figures – a British statesman, military officer, and prime minister of the United Kingdom during World War II in 1940–45, and again in 1951–55, who spent over six decades as a member of the British parliament.