A supporter of President Donald Trump interrupted a performance of Frozen the Musical on Broadway, but it was the show’s wise troll who ended up trolling him.
A real troll getting trolled by a fake troll is pretty much on par for this Mad Hatter’s tea party of a year we call 2018. As the performers of Frozen the Musical were taking their bows during the curtain call, a man wearing a Make America Great Again visor in the front row stood up and unfurled a large Trump 2020 banner.
However, he had the misfortune of standing in front of Frozen’s wise troll Pabbie, who wasn’t having any of his disrespect. Timothy Hughes immediately yanked the banner out of the real troll’s hands and bundled it up, tossing it backstage, then rejoins his fellow cast members as if nothing happened. Smooth!
Hughes posted a short video of the incident on his Instagram on Wednesday night (it was unclear when the incident took place):
NBC New York, which first reported the incident, got footage from another person seated just behind the protester, who seems annoyed at first but turns his back on the performers again after realizing his opponent is a shirtless man who’s awfully well-muscled for a troll.
For his part, Hughes saw the act as a protest of the show. “What does it say about our country and politics when a man at the show tonight felt the need to protest Disney’s Frozen on Broadway with a pro Trump flag??” he wrote on Instagram. “How frightening is it that our show’s messages of love, acceptance, and diversity have become the opposition to supporting Trump?”
He described the curtain call at the end of the show as “a thank you between actors and audience, a final connection to end a shared experience. I will not apologize for how I responded to the disrespectful man trying to interrupt this moment with a pathetic political platform. Not at our show! Not in front of my beautiful, diverse, talented cast at @frozenbroadway. I appreciate everyone’s support. #resist #lovewins #lovetrumpshate.”
Frozen is not the first Broadway show to oppose the Trump administration
What the Trump supporter was hoping for is anyone’s guess. Was he retaliating for Vice President Mike Pence getting called out by Vice President Aaron Burr during the curtain call at Hamilton? Or maybe someone else was filming his stunt and they assumed no one would stop him, so it would appear the audience was cheering for him?
We made no attempt to identify the man in the video or reach out to the production about it, because frankly these are already too many words about a petty little man interrupting a sacred space of escapism and love. Aren’t Republicans supposed to pride themselves on being the party of civility?
