Lifestyle
Want the ‘Rolls-Royce’ of holiday decorations? Call this L.A. team — and pay up to $50,000
It’s Monday afternoon in Madison Heights, a stately Pasadena neighborhood where the seasonal decor is as tasteful and predictable as a Hallmark movie.
Suddenly, like a strange wind, a U-Haul truck quietly pulls in front of an elegant home. Within minutes, a crew of black-clad workers begin emptying the truck’s contents, briskly lining the sidewalk with piles of leering jack-o-lanterns, disassembled gargoyles, bags of shredded rags and a line of gaping brown “skellys” in floozy gowns.
Dr. Halloween has arrived.
Chris Bryant and his wife, Jasmine, are big fans of Halloween and have hired the Dr. Halloween crew to give their yard a spooky makeover. Here’s a before photo of their Pasadena home.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
Skeleton figures are laid out in the front yard of the Bryants’ front lawn.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
In less than three hours, Dr. Halloween and his crew of eight will transform the broad front yard of this Fillmore Street home into a riotous Halloween fun house. It’s an annual tradition that Chris and Jasmine Bryant inherited when they bought their spacious home in 2018, and they were happy to continue after they moved in, with the help of the crew who creates a different spooky scene every year.
The job sounds fun, but this crew is all business, cranking giant bony fingers into the ground, styling the wayward hair of ghoulish girls, impaling skeletons — “skellys” — on tall garden rebar so they can be posed and wrestling with the assembly of a towering mummy, gruesome green witch and headless horseman on a rearing stead.
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They rarely talk and never stop moving, and amid them all is Dr. Halloween himself — Bob Pranga (a.k.a. Dr. Christmas after Oct. 31) — directing what goes where. Pranga, 63, claims he’s mostly a watcher these days, because he’s been decorating ritzy homes for the holidays since 1989. Also, his crew members are all pros, but really, he’s just as busy as the others, unconsciously pushing back the bangs of his blond, boy-band hair every few minutes as he rushes from the street to the yard, scrutinizing the effects, deciding the best orientation for the creatures, and sending crew members scurrying to assist another in need.
His longtime friend and business partner, Debi Staron, 67, quietly bustles around in a button-front Santa shirt (“We do Christmas too, so why not?”), pulling spooky accessories and body parts out of boxes so they can be assembled and placed. Her well-worn cycling gloves allow a peek at her perfect dripping-blood manicure, and a bulky knee pad helps steady a problem leg because she’s up and down so often.
Israel Cruz completes a stack of jack-o-lanterns while decorating Chris and Jasmine Bryant’s home in Pasadena.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
Cruz also assembles a giant warty-faced witch that looms nearly 12 feet tall.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
“I’m basically the nuts-and-bolts partner, especially when we do Christmas,” she says. “When we started, Bob was the one decorating inside the lovely house, and I’d be outside on a ladder in the driving rain, trying to hang lights in the bougainvillea. I also know how to fluff a tree properly after it comes out of a box. Most people just put up their artificial tree and wonder why it doesn’t look as good as it did at the store. They don’t realize you have to fluff out the branches — it usually takes at least an hour.”
Staron doesn’t linger long to talk. She makes sure all the crew keep hydrated, and then she’s back trying to install a brighter light in a giant plastic cauldron. Meanwhile, Pranga is all nervous energy.
A headless horseman looms above headstones and mouthy skeletons, big and small.
(Jeanette Marantos / Los Angeles Times)
“I’ve been doing this home so long, maybe I’m losing track,” he says, casting a critical eye at the headless horseman rearing above him. “I think it’s different this year? Did we have him before?”
“No, no,” his client Jasmine Bryant reassures him, pulling out her phone to show photos of last year’s underwater-themed display of ghostly divers, flirty mermaid skeletons and adorable baby shark “skellys.” “And before that, “ she says enthusiastically, “we had the creepy babies …”
“Oh yeah,” Pranga says, brightening. “We had a baby riding a giant spider! That was great.”
The Bryants aren’t the only ones smiling by the time the last strips of white and purple tulle are wrapped around the mummy and the giant warty witch is securely tied against a tree. Shortly after the work begins, pedestrians stop to admire and passing cars slow to a crawl, with cellphones poking out the windows for photos.
“And so it starts,” Pranga says, rolling his eyes, but clearly, this is attention he enjoys.
Bob Pranga stands near the outdoor Halloween display at the home of Chris and Jasmine Bryant in Pasadena, which Pranga, business partner Debi Staron and their crew of seven transformed into delightfully spooky Halloween decor.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
It may not be the audience he expected when he moved to New York City to become an actor in 1984, but he and Staron’s work creating holiday fantasies for well-heeled clients has nonetheless resulted in tons of applause as the “Tree Stylists to the Stars,” from regular appearances on local TV shows, decorating homes, hotels and TV/movie sets for everything, from “Elf” to “The Brady Bunch”; creating their own book, “Christmas Style,” in 2004; and 10 years later, their own TLC Christmas special, “Deck the Halls with Dr. Christmas.”
It’s not like any of this was planned, Pranga says. He was just a Midwestern boy from Sturgis, Mich., (“Not the famous one with the motorcycles — we’re the other one”) who fell in love with the idea of Hollywood and all its celebrities by watching TV shows as a child in the 1960s and 1970s.
“We were basically middle class so there weren’t a lot of big to-dos throughout the year, but Christmas was always a big deal,” he says, “Christmas by the pound. My grandparents always had a big Christmas Eve party and the weekend before there was always the American Legion Christmas party. We always had a giant blue spruce in the living room that my sister and I got to decorate. And on Christmas morning, we took forever to open presents because we didn’t want Christmas to be over. “
At Hope College in Holland, Mich., he studied theater and got an internship in New York City the summer before his senior year. Typically, theater interns swept stages, he says, “but I told them I wanted to work with a network, so I was assigned to work with Lorne Michaels on ‘Saturday Night Live.’”
Bob Pranga sneaks up behind crew member Susan Bratton while she dresses a line of gaping “skellys” in witch hats and satin floozy gowns. “I call them my party girls,” Pranga says, while in the background another crew member, Vicki Dimitri, arranges a tombstone in the display.
(Jeanette Marantos / Los Angeles Times)
Susan Bratton arranges a lacy shawl on a friendly “skelly” — Dr. Halloween’s shorthand for skeleton.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
His job mostly involved getting coffee and running errands, but the experience was everything a celebrity seeker could ask for, he says. Many years later, he actually decorated the homes of some of the celebs he met on “SNL,” such as Carrie Fisher and her mother, Debbie Reynolds. His most memorable moment though, he says, was accidentally walking into the dressing room of “SNL” cast member Gilda Radner while she was sitting inside.
“The rules were, if the celebrities were in the room, you couldn’t go in, and I was terrified,” he says, “but she said, ‘Honey, sit down and have some fruit. I have this big fruit basket and I can’t eat it all myself. You look tired, and you’ve got to take care of yourself in this business because otherwise, it will kill you.’”
He says he hesitated, worried about breaking the rule, but Radner insisted. “She said, ‘If you have any problems with them, tell them I asked you to help me, because after all, honey, I’m the star,’” Pranga says. “She wasn’t being egotistical. It was very businesslike, a moment of power, and I was like, ‘I want to have that power.’”
The following year, after he finished his degree, Pranga moved to New York with $100 in his pocket. One of his friends found an apartment “in a crack-whore neighborhood called Red Hook in Brooklyn. It’s gentrified now, but then, you walked over junkies in the morning to get to the bus,” he says. “People always ask me, ‘Weren’t you scared?’ and the answer is: ‘No, because I was in New York and I was starting this great adventure’ — I was trying to figure out how to be an actor.”
Vicky Dimitri fixes a black veil on one of the yard’s ghostly apparitions after creating hairdos for the other ghosts’ matted locks.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
As it turned out, the acting gigs were rare, but at least it’s how he met Staron, another aspiring actor who, like him, was attending Bob Collier’s Commercial Acting School. To pay the rent, he found work at Macy’s famous flagship department store working in various departments until he finally landed on the Christmas floor, finishing trees.
In the 1980 and ’90s, Macy’s was so prestigious “when I’d go home for Christmas, all people wanted was a Macy’s shopping bag,” he says. During his five years in New York, he worked other jobs too: window dressing at Bergdorf Goodman and leading tours around the city.
“It was all survival work, but being a city tour guide also taught me to hustle,” he says. “Hustle has a negative connotation, but it helped me figure things out. My foundation came from the Midwest, where you work hard, learn how to be nice to people and be happy with what you get. Being a New York City tour guide taught me how to survive.”
Debi Staron calls herself the “nuts-and-bolts” partner of Dr. Halloween and Dr. Christmas, usually wearing fingerless gloves and a bulky knee pad to make it easier when she’s assembling gear or “crawling around under Christmas trees,” but she still takes time for snazzy seasonal manicures from Paris Nails near her home in Chatsworth.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
By the end of 1988, Pranga and Staron were ready for a change. As he recalls, “She came to my Christmas party and said, ‘I’m thinking of moving to California in April,’ and I was like, ‘Well, I’ll go with you.’ And that’s pretty much how my life has been, all just happenstance. Nothing was planned.”
They found a small apartment in West Hollywood in the spring of 1989, which they shared with another friend to keep their costs low. “I came to L.A. with $300, so I felt like I was making progress,” Pranga says jokingly. Within weeks, he was working again as a tour guide, this time on tour buses in Hollywood. “I was literally making everything up,” and it became another kind of survival job, he says, since he had to keep changing tour companies until he found one whose paychecks would reliably clear.
Then in the fall of 1991, Pranga spotted a want ad for a Christmas shop manager at the Glendale Galleria.
“I called and said, ‘I have experience at Macy’s doing Christmas,’ and they literally gave me the job sight unseen over the phone because experience at Macy’s had so much clout,” he says. “Then I told them I had an assistant I worked with, and they hired us both over the phone. So I went home that night and told Debi, ‘I got this job over the phone to run a Christmas store, and you’re my assistant. Do you wanna?’ And she said, ‘Yes, I’ll help you,’ and that’s how it started.”
Mark Ilvedson, on the ladder, wraps raggedly strips of purple fabric and white tulle on a 12-foot-tall mummy, while Charly Sam, below hands him fabric and keeps his ladder secure. Debi Staron recommends adding shredded bits of cheesecloth, tulle or other lightweight fabrics to all Halloween displays because the movement gives the decor a spookier vibe.
(Jeanette Marantos / Los Angeles Times)
Things really started humming when businesswoman Bette L. Smith, then-owner of Completion Bond Co., walked into the store. “She said, ‘I love that Christmas tree’ and asked me if I knew anybody who decorates. ‘I do,’ I said, and that was my first job,” Pranga says. “I had no clue what that meant other than bringing a Christmas tree to put up for her. There were no guidelines to being a Christmas decorator in Los Angeles. I had to make everything up.”
Later, Pranga and Staron worked for a Christmas store that was bought by Paris Hilton’s mother, Kathy Hilton, who opened the door to many other celebrity introductions. “I remember Kathy pulling me aside the very first year and saying, ‘Honey, if you want to make it in this town, you watch me,’” he says. “I will always be grateful because I learned so much working for her.”
By then, Pranga was calling himself “the Christmas Guy.” That changed after he told someone he worked 24/7 during the holidays, “and they said, ‘Oh, like a doctor? You’re like a doctor of Christmas!’ So then I started calling myself Dr. Christmas,” he says.
Jasmine and Chris Bryant have been hiring Dr. Halloween to create spooky scenes in their Pasadena front yard since the bought their home in 2018. The displays are pricey, and attract hundreds of trick-or-treaters, but they keep doing the decor, Bryant said, “because it’s so much fun.”
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
As his clientele grew, Pranga says he knew “if you want to make any money in California, you have to have a little bit of fandom, which meant getting on television, so I just started calling around. Nobody told me I needed an agent.”
It was part luck and part chutzpah that landed him a spot on the “Leeza” syndicated talk show. “I just called and said, “This is Dr. Christmas and I’d like to speak to Leeza Gibbons,‘” he says. “The receptionist thought I was her real doctor and put me right through. Leeza said, ‘Who is this?’ and I said, ‘I’m Dr. Christmas and I think it would be fun to be on your show,’ and she went, ‘… OK,’ and that developed into a lasting friendship. She always called me when she needed a holiday fluff piece.”
Ultimately, he and Staron collected so much holiday decor, they opened a prop rental business called Dr. Christmas Rents in Burbank and began decorating sets for movies, TV and commercials. Around 2015, they noticed all the interest in Halloween and branched into spooky decor as well.
Now their season runs from mid-September to mid-January. For some clients, that means taking down their Halloween gear and putting up Christmas the same week.
His fees vary from $5,000 to $50,000, depending on the location and amount of decor. “Some people even do their bathrooms — I had one house where we put a lit Christmas tree in a beautiful glass shower stall. I’m more than happy to decorate whatever room they want to do,” he says.
He never quotes prices over the phone. “I meet with people and ask what kind of experience do they want — a Honda, a Lexus or a Rolls-Royce? “ he says. “They never choose the Honda experience. The majority of the folks choose the Lexus, and a lot choose the Rolls-Royce, but each client is different. We have a lot of corporate clients, but we also have people who want to have their home done while they go shopping. And what really sells it is, once we give them the movie-set experience, we come back and take it all down. And if it needs any maintenance, we come back and make it right. It’s all part of my Midwestern ideals.”
A cyclist ogles the Bryant’s fully Halloween decorated home, just a couple hours after Dr. Halloween’s crew began. Here’s the finished look of the Pasadena home.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
Chris and Jasmine Bryant — he a software engineer, she the director of Caltech’s Center for Teaching, Learning, & Outreach — were cheerfully mum about what their Halloween extravaganza cost. “A decent amount,” Chris Bryant says, smiling.
They keep things simple for Christmas — just a string of lights around the outside of the house, but their Halloween decor “goes into our annual budget because it’s so much fun,” Chris Bryant says. “We probably got 2,000 trick-or-treaters last year, an endless stream. It seems to make people very happy, and that’s something we enjoy. It’s a big part of why we do this.”
Those kind of comments are music to Pranga’s ears, a win-win for his business and his Midwestern “be nice to folks” ideals. His goal is always to make people happy, he says, even with a client load that, after Halloween, will likely have he and his team decorating at least one house or business every day until Dec. 25. But don’t let that stop you from calling, he says, laughing. He’s the doctor, after all, a master at making things work, “and I’ll keep taking money until I fall down.”
Actor TK Carter arrives for the premiere of “The LA Riot” at the Tribeca Film Festival, Monday, April 25, 2005, in New York.
Mary Altaffer/AP
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Mary Altaffer/AP
DUARTE, Calif. — Veteran actor T.K. Carter, who appeared in the horror film “The Thing” and “Punky Brewster” on television, has died at the age of 69.
Carter was declared dead Friday evening after deputies responded to a call regarding an unresponsive male in Duarte, California, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Police did not disclose a cause of death or other details, but said no foul play was suspected.
Thomas Kent “T.K.” Carter was born Dec. 18, 1956, in New York City and was raised in Southern California.
He began his career in stand-up comedy and with acting roles. Carter had been acting for years before a breakthrough role as Nauls the cook in John Carpenter’s 1982 horror classic, “The Thing.” He also had a recurring role in the 1980s sitcom “Punky Brewster.”
Other big-screen roles include “Runaway Train” in 1985, “Ski Patrol” in 1990 and “Space Jam” in 1996.
“T.K. Carter was a consummate professional and a genuine soul whose talent transcended genres,” his publicist, Tony Freeman, said in a statement. “He brought laughter, truth, and humanity to every role he touched. His legacy will continue to inspire generations of artists and fans alike.”
Kylie Jenner
Cosmic Cleavage …
Flaunts Boobs While Pushing New Fragrance
Published
Kylie Jenner‘s full-bodied new fragrance is out … and, she’s using her bust to promote it — pushing up her cleavage for the ad.
The model posed in the sleeveless red leather top which perfectly matched the fragrance bottle she held against her head.
Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media.
The star’s looking away from camera … though we imagine if she could see fans looking at the pic, she might tell them her eyes were up about a foot or so!
She captioned the post by telling fans the new smell is called COSMIC INTENSE … a spin-off of her original “COSMIC” which feels “warmer, creamier, and even more addictive.”
KJ’s gotta promote the perfume now because she’s not going to have much time to work on her business in upcoming weeks … as we imagine she’ll attend every awards show with her man, Timothée Chalamet.
As you know … Chalamet got handsy with Jenner shortly after winning the Critics Choice Award for Best Actor — grabbing her backside while sitting in the audience. He’d just said he loved her in his acceptance speech as well.
Maybe Chalamet will grab a bit of her cosmic cleavage if he wins a Golden Globe this weekend!
A view of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which the current board is calling the Trump Kennedy Center, in Washington, DC, on Dec. 26, 2025.
Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images
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Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images
The Washington National Opera is leaving the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, its home since 1971.
Friday’s news, shared with NPR in a statement via email from the opera company, comes in response to new policies which the 70-year-old performing arts group said strain its financial model.
The Washington National Opera stressed the “amicability” of its decision to end its longtime residency at the Kennedy Center. But it said the center’s new business model, which requires productions to be fully-funded in advance, is incompatible with the usual mix of ticket sales, grants and donations that cannot all be secured ahead.
“Opera companies typically cover only 30-60% of costs through ticket sales, with the remainder from grants and donations that cannot be secured years ahead when productions must be planned,” the statement said.
The company added the model also does not accommodate its artistic mission, which aims to balance popular works such as West Side Story, slated for May 2026, with more obscure and experimental operas, such as the little-known Scott Joplin work, Treemonisha, scheduled for March. “Revenue from major productions traditionally subsidizes smaller, innovative works,” the statement said.
Artistic director Francesca Zambello, who has led the company for 14 seasons, shared her regrets in a statement with NPR, while also looking to the future.
“I am deeply saddened to leave the Kennedy Center,” Zambello said. “In the coming years, as we explore new venues and new ways of performing, Washington National Opera remains committed to its mission and artistic vision. Our repertory will continue to include diverse offerings, from monumental classics to more contemporary works, presented in bold visual productions with first-class musical values.”
In addition to a continued presence for now on the Kennedy Center website, the opera company launched its new independent website within a few hours of its announcement.
“After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to part ways with the Washington National Opera due to a financially challenging relationship,” the Kennedy Center wrote in an email to NPR on Friday. “We believe this represents the best path forward for both organizations and enables us to make responsible choices that support the financial stability and long-term future of the Trump Kennedy Center.”
On social media, Kennedy Center executive director Richard Grenell said it was the center’s decision to sever ties with the opera company — and not the other way around.
“The Trump Kennedy Center has made the decision to end the EXCLUSIVE partnership with the Washington Opera so that we can have the flexibility and funds to bring in operas from around the world and across the U.S.” Grenell said. “Having an EXCLUSIVE relationship has been extremely expensive and limiting in choice and variety.”
Grenell reposted his message on Saturday after he was alerted that his X.com account had been hacked and the original message had been removed.
President Donald Trump was named chairman of the Kennedy Center’s board in February 2025. His name was added to the Kennedy Center in December following a vote by the Trump-appointed members of its board. Since the power of the venue’s board to rename the center is currently in dispute, NPR continues to refer to the Kennedy Center using its legal name.
A string of exits
The Washington National Opera’s departure is the latest and perhaps most significant in a string of artist exits from the cultural institution since Trump took over the institution.
Backlash from ticket-buyers, slated performers, and certain board members—including Shonda Rhimes—was swift.
Artists are continuing to cancel performances. But one of the first to do so was a touring production of the musical Hamilton. In a statement on X in March 2025, producer Jeffrey Seller said he opposed the Trump administration’s ousting of many Democratic board members.
“The recent purge by the Trump Administration of both professional staff and performing arts events at or originally produced by the Kennedy Center flies in the face of everything this national center represents,” wrote Seller.
Actress and writer Issa Rae followed suit with a post on Instagram, cancelling her sold-out March performance.
A slew of additional artists and performance companies canceled after the board’s vote to rename the center “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” Congress has not yet authorized the name change.
Grenell has responded to many cancellations on social media, condemning the artists. After Banjo player Béla Fleck canceled his performance because he said the center had become “political,” Grenell wrote on X, “You just made it political and caved to the woke mob who wants you to perform for only Lefties.
“This mob pressuring you will never be happy until you only play for Democrats. The Trump Kennedy Center believes all people are welcome—Democrats and Republicans and people uninterested in politics. We want performers who aren’t political—who simply love entertaining everyone regardless of who they voted for.”
Find a running list of these cancellations below.
Sonia De Los Santos
On Jan. 8, singer-songwriter Sonia De Los Santos announced on Instagram that she was canceling her upcoming February concert at the Kennedy Center. “As an artist,” wrote De Los Santos, “I treasure the freedom to create and share my music, and for many years I have used this privilege to uplift the stories of immigrants in this country.”
De Los Santos, who was nominated for a Latin Grammy for best children’s album in 2018, stated that “I do not feel that the current climate at this beloved venue represents a welcoming space for myself, my band, or our audience.”
Béla Fleck performs onstage during the 67th Annual Grammy Awards Premiere Ceremony at Peacock Theater on Feb. 2, 2025 in Los Angeles.
Leon Bennett/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
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Leon Bennett/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Béla Fleck
Performing at the Kennedy Center “has become charged and political, at an institution where the focus should be on the music,” wrote American banjo player Béla Fleck about his scheduled appearance with the National Symphony Orchestra in an official statement posted to Instagram on Jan. 7. “I have withdrawn from my upcoming performance with the NSO at The Kennedy Center,” he wrote. “I look forward to playing with the NSO another time in the future when we can together share and celebrate art.”
The 18-time Grammy winner has performed at the Kennedy Center in the past.
Stephen Schwartz
The composer and lyricist for the beloved musicals Wicked, Godspell and Pippin was expected to host a gala fundraiser for the Washington National Opera in May 2026. On Jan. 2, Schwartz announced his withdrawal. According to NBC News, Schwartz reflected that the Kennedy Center was “founded to be a political home for free artistic expression for artists of all nationalities and ideologies.” Today, he said, making an appearance “has now become an ideological statement.”
Richard Grenell quickly responded to Schwartz’s withdrawal, calling it a “bogus” report in a statement posted on X and saying reporters were plagiarizing a “fake @RollingStone story.” Schwartz was “never signed,” Grenell wrote.
Reports from NBC and other outlets, including Variety, have refuted this claim, publishing screenshots showing that Schwartz was promoted on the Kennedy Center’s website prior to his cancellation.
Stephen Schwartz attends the 2025 Songwriters Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony at Marriott Marquis Times Square on Jun. 12, 2025 in New York City.
Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Songwriters Hall Of Fame
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Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Songwriters Hall Of Fame
The Cookers
The seven-piece band of veteran jazz musicians announced shortly before Dec. 31 that they would not perform at the Kennedy Center for “A Jazz New Year’s Eve:”
“We know this news is disappointing,” reads the statement on their website. “We are not turning away from our audience, and do want to make sure that when we do return to the bandstand, the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it. Our hope is that this moment will leave space for reflection, not resentment.”
The statement went on to say, “We remain committed to playing music that reaches across divisions rather than deepening them.”
Chuck Redd
The American jazz drummer and longtime host of the Kennedy Center’s annual Christmas Jazz Jam chose to cancel his 2025 appearance when he “saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building,” according to a statement sent to the Associated Press.
On Dec. 27, the Kennedy Center announced its plan to file a $1 million lawsuit against Redd. “Any artist canceling their show at the Trump Kennedy Center over political differences isn’t courageous or principled—they are selfish, intolerant, and have failed to meet the basic duty of a public artist: to perform for all people,” said Kennedy Center spokesperson Roma Daravi.
In a letter shared with NPR, Richard Grenell condemned Redd: “Regrettably, your action surrenders to the sad bullying tactics employed by certain elements on the left, who have sought to intimidate artists into boycotting performances at our national cultural center.”
Doug Varone and Dancers
“The renaming for me has kind of pushed me off a cliff,” said choreographer Doug Varone on Dec. 31, when he spoke with NPR’s Morning Edition. Varone, who was set to showcase members of his Doug Varone and Dancers company at the Kennedy Center in April 2026, pulled the performance.
John F. Kennedy, for whom the Kennedy Center was established as a living memorial, “believed in the arts as kind of the beating heart of our nation,” said Varone.
“I believe that the level of artistry has dropped drastically since the administration change, and the employees that were responsible for the quality of the work at the center have all been let go.”
After canceling, the company started a crowdfunding campaign to help offset its financial loss. It raised over $42,000, exceeding its $40,000 goal.
Magpie
In a statement posted to Facebook on Jan. 5, Greg Artzner of the American folk duo Magpie announced the decision to pull their Feb. 28 concert, set to play on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage.
“There isn’t really anything defensible” about Trump, said the statement from Artzner and Magpie’s Terry Leonino. Although they had planned an evening of songs with messages of unity and hope, “We are personally and philosophically in agreement with the belief underlying the growing boycott,” they said. “The stand being taken by fellow artists we respect and admire has created a moral picket line. We stand with them in solidarity.”
An update on Jan. 9 said that Magpie would now be performing a longer version of that concert on Feb. 21 at Seekers Church in Washington, D.C., now called, “The Traveling John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restoration Roadshow.”
Kristy Lee
Folk singer Kristy Lee canceled her Jan. 14 Kennedy Center performance due to “recent efforts to impose political branding on the Center,” according to a statement posted on her website.
“Public arts spaces should be free from political influence,” Lee said in her statement. “I step back out of respect for artistic freedom and the Kennedy Center’s founding mission, not in opposition to its staff, artists, or audience.”
On Jan. 14, Lee plans to host a live-streamed concert instead, titled “Showing Up: From the Kennedy Center to the Couch.”
Low Cut Connie
Philadelphia rock and roll band Low Cut Connie pulled their concert, set for February 2025, “Upon learning that this institution that has run non-partisan for 54 years is now chaired by President Trump himself and his regime,” according to a statement posted on their Facebook page.
“Maybe my career will suffer from this decision,” wrote band frontman Adam Weiner, “but my soul will be the better for it.”
Rhiannon Giddens
In Feb. 2025, folk singer Rhiannon Giddens announced her departure from the Kennedy Center lineup in a social media statement. “I cannot in good conscience play at The Kennedy with the recent programming changes forced on the institution by this new board,” wrote Giddens.
Giddens transferred her May 11 concert, “Old-Time Revue,” to The Anthem concert hall, also in Washington, D.C.
Balún
The Puerto Rican band, based in Brooklyn in New York City, canceled their Kennedy Center performance, which had been set for Feb. 27, 2025.
According to a statement posted to Balún’s Instagram account, “recent events made it clear that the space no longer aligns with our values. Our safety, integrity, and commitment to justice come first.”
Issa Rae attends HBO’s final season premiere of “Insecure” at Kenneth Hahn Park on Oct. 21, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.
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Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Issa Rae
“Thank you so much for selling out the Kennedy Center for ‘An Evening With [Me],’” wrote Issa Rae, the acclaimed star and creator of HBO’s Insecure, on her Instagram stories page in Feb. 2025. “Unfortunately, due to what I believe to be an infringement on the values of an institution that has faithfully celebrated artists of all backgrounds through all mediums, I’ve decided to cancel my appearance at this venue.”
“Hamilton”
In March 2025, Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller announced on X that the Tony-award winning musical phenomenon would no longer run as scheduled at the Kennedy Center. According to the statement, the decision was made both for political and for business reasons. Not only was there “a new spirit of partisanship,” the statement read in part, but “it would be “financially and personally devastating to the employees of Hamilton if the new leadership of the Kennedy Center suddenly canceled or re-negotiated our engagement. The actions of the new Chairman of the Board in recent weeks demonstrate that contracts and previous agreements simply cannot be trusted.”
The Kennedy Center was swift to respond to Hamilton‘s cancellation. On X in a now-deleted post, Richard Grenell accused Hamilton star and creator Lin Manuel-Miranda of being “intolerant of people who don’t agree with him politically,” and stated that the decision was “a publicity stunt that will backfire.”
In the months since the show’s cancellation at the Center, Hamilton has continued to sell out theaters on Broadway and in venues nationwide who host its North American touring company.
U.S. Marine Band
The U.S. Marine Band announced in February 2025 that the Marine Band would not perform in the Equity Arc Wind Symphony event, a collaboration between Marine Band members and selected high school musicians.
The U.S. Marine Band, known also as “The President’s Own” was founded by an Act of Congress in 1798, making it the country’s oldest professional music organization.
Composer Kevin Charoensri, whose music had been scheduled to be performed by the band at the event, stated in a Facebook post that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) orders resulted in the cancellation of the Equity Arc concert:
“It has come to my attention that the program, one based on equity and diversity of voices, is no longer supported at the federal level under this administration,” Charoensri wrote. “It was for this reason that the program and performance were canceled.”
The U.S. Marine marching band performs in the 120th Tournament of Roses Parade January 1, 2009 in Pasadena, California.
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
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Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
Jennifer Vanasco edited this story.
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