Hamilton cancels Kennedy Center performances amid Trump shakeup
The Broadway sensation “Hamilton” has canceled its planned performances at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., next year.
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Years after introducing himself to listeners as a veiled country crooner, Orville Peck’s mask is finally coming off.
In a new interview with The New York Times, Peck revealed he plans to perform barefaced during his Broadway debut in “Cabaret” later this month.
“The mask is part of my expression personally as an artist and a very big personal part of me,” Peck told the outlet in an article published Monday. “But I’m here to play this role and to bring respect and integrity and hopefully a good performance to it. It’s not about me. I’m not trying to make it the Orville Peck show.”
Peck will take on the role of the Emcee in “Cabaret,” a central character who serves as the master of ceremonies at the fictional Kit Kat Club, providing audience members with a cohesive (and at times chaotic) narration of events. Previous Emcees have included Billy Porter, Eddie Redmayne and Adam Lambert. The new iteration of the show will open March 31.
To fully embody the character, Peck told the Times that he would need to ditch his signature disguise − a move fans have anxiously awaited since he broke onto the scene in 2019 with his debut album “Pony.”
“I wouldn’t have necessarily done this for just anything,” Peck said of his decision. “But this is probably my favorite musical of all time.”
Even after the show begins its run, Peck’s face may remain a mystery to many fans as a large share of Broadway productions do not allow audience members to take photographs.
Throughout his career, the disguises (he opts for a rotation of bespoke face coverings) have allowed him to showcase vulnerability on stage while keeping his true appearance private.
“The irony is that if I put my mask on, I’m suddenly not anonymous anymore,” he told the Times. Peck is most recognizable as a pair of eyes behind a mask, often accompanied by a cowboy hat. His bare face, on the other hand, might be hard for a fan to pick out of a lineup.
“The weird part is for me to be anonymous, I just take my mask off and walk around like normal and then no one knows who I am,” he said.
Fresh off the heels of his third studio album “Stampede,” which featured high-profile collaborations with artists like Willie Nelson and Elton John, Peck’s turn to the theater is offering a welcome change of pace − and a chance to get political.
“Cabaret” follows the happenings at a Berlin nightclub during the Nazi party’s rise to power.
“Regardless of whatever your politics lean, I don’t think anybody can come see the show and not agree that it is frighteningly similar, if not exactly what is happening at the moment,” Peck told the Times.
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