Clinton gets lots of love from Broadway | Photo: Wikimedia/Gage Skidmore
Audience members seeing Hello Dolly! on Broadway last night (26 July) were treated not only to legend Bette Midler in the lead role, but Hillary Clinton in the audience.
Showtime Communications head Johanna Fuentes happened to be in the audience.
She posted a video of Clinton arriving to her seat on Twitter, complete with a standing ovation from the rest of the audience.
Finally saw Bette in #HelloDolly and was rewarded with a visit from Hillary. #nothingbutrespectformypresident pic.twitter.com/AlJcrvG1p5
— Johanna Fuentes (@jfuentes) July 27, 2018
Since her defeat in the 2017 Presidential election, Clinton has taken in numerous shows on Broadway, both musicals and plays.
At almost each and every one, the audience greeted her with a standing ovation.
One of the first ones happened the night she saw The Color Purple on Broadway.
After that, any audience in Times Square who saw Clinton greeted her much the same. There was the Sunset Boulevard audience. Then came the Come From Away audience. It happened at War Paint, too, with Patti Lupone, and so many other shows.
The Hello Dolly! audience weren’t the only people excited to see her either.
Midler tweeted how happy everyone was to see her.
#HILLARYCLINTON CAME TO #“HELLODOLLY TONIGHT!! What a thrill! The crowd stood, clapped and chanted her name until the lights went down😂. It made us all unbelievably happy to see her…
— Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) July 27, 2018
She also posted an adorable photo of her and Clinton after the show.
What a night @HillaryClinton !! A thrill of a lifetime!
📷 Bruce Glikas for @HelloDollyBway pic.twitter.com/ugJf6xcGD8— Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) July 27, 2018
A political space
Broadway has always been political, both in various shows’ content and also with the discourse around it.
One of the most memorable moments in recent history was Vice President Mike Pence’s trip to see Hamilton.
The audience ended up booing him, and then the cast addressed him directly from the stage at the end of the show. Cast member Brandon Victor Dixon (Aaron Burr) spoke to him.
‘We welcome you, and we truly thank you for joining us here at Hamilton: An American Musical — we really do,’ he said.
‘We are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir.’
