Why the Boos at Broadway’s Beloved ‘Hamilton’? Because Bibi.

Image by Facebook
Getting in to see “Hamilton” is hard enough. But on Saturday night, the ticket line turned into a security check at Ben-Gurion Airport, as Benjamin Netanyahu attended the Broadway hit.
Visiting New York for a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, the Israeli premier detoured to Richard Rodgers Theater to see the famed musical, and brought with him a retinue of handlers.
That irked some of his fellow spectators, who suffered through long wait-times at the door and had to go through body scanners. “The show started late because of his arrival — the heightened security slowed down seating,” kvetched one to the New York Post. “But he still entered and sat down before the lights went down, so everyone was focused on him. There was a lot of applause when he walked in, but definitely a few loud boos.”
Some of those boos, it appeared, had to do with the fraught situation in the Middle East. The Daily Mail reported that two women stormed out of the venue when he came in, screaming “Free Palestine.”
Other V.I.P.s have snaked the line at “Hamilton,” a show that celebrates the rags-to-riches ascent of the United States’ first treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton. With the Secret Service in tow, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton attended performances earlier in the year, when the musical still featured its original cast.
Contact Daniel Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @danieljsolomon
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Deborah Lipstadt says Trump’s campus antisemitism crackdown has ‘gone way too far’
-
Fast Forward 5 Jewish senators accuse Trump of using antisemitism as ‘guise’ to attack universities
-
Fast Forward Jewish Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky reportedly to retire after 26 years in office
-
Culture In Germany, a Jewish family is reunited with a treasured family object — but also a sense of exile
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.