Stephen Schwartz, the composer of “Wicked,” announced on Friday that he would no longer host a long-planned gala at the Kennedy Center, claiming that the center “no longer represents the apolitical place for free artistic expression it was founded to be.”
Schwartz, who also composed popular musicals “Pippin” and “Godspell,” said in an emailed statement to Newsday that appearing at the Center would be an “ideological statement.”
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