“Hamilton” Facing New Lawsuit From Fired Cancer Survivor

by Chris Peterson

I take this one personally.

When you have had family members fight cancer, you see how it strips someone down to their most vulnerable self and how long the climb back actually takes. You also see how precious it is when someone gets back to doing the thing they love. So reading that Hamilton wardrobe stylist Kimberly Mark, a woman who survived stage 3 breast cancer, was fired not long after returning to work hit a nerve.

According to the lawsuit, Mark spent decades working in wardrobe, and after fighting through chemo, surgery, radiation, and endless recovery, she came back on a modified schedule working four shows a week instead of eight. It is a completely normal accommodation in theatre. And by all accounts, she was doing her job well. But when her body still showed signs of fatigue and pain from treatment, which is completely normal, Hamilton told her the work was too physically demanding and showed her the door.

That is not compassion. That is cowardice dressed as concern.

And what makes it worse is that this was not some faceless corporate office. This is Hamilton, the crown jewel of the we are all in this together theatre narrative. The show that built its entire brand on representation, revolution, and rewriting history for the people who never got their due. But apparently, if you are a woman recovering from cancer and you are backstage instead of center stage, those ideals do not apply.

That contradiction is infuriating.

Broadway loves to talk about empathy, about family, about how the show is nothing without the crew. But when someone’s body gives out because of what it took to survive, suddenly there is no room for them. And that is the part that cuts the deepest. Because behind every costume, every quick change, every seamless performance, there is someone like Kimberly Mark, the invisible hands keeping the magic alive.

But let’s be honest. The industry does not celebrate those people. It uses them. And when they cannot perform at superhuman speed, it discards them.

It is the same pattern over and over again. Broadway wants your devotion, not your humanity. It will applaud your courage onstage, then quietly replace you when you show it offstage.

I keep thinking about the timing. She was fired on the anniversary of her recovery. Imagine that. You fight for your life, you survive, and then the very place that is supposed to welcome you back turns your survival into a liability. That is not a bad HR decision. That is cruelty.

And it is not just about her. This happens all the time in entertainment. Crew members, stagehands, designers, the people who literally keep the curtain up, get pushed aside the second they become inconvenient. The same people the industry calls family when it wants to post a feel-good tribute are disposable when it comes to the bottom line.

If what is alleged in this lawsuit is true, Hamilton did not just fail Kimberly Mark. It failed the very values it claims to represent. How can you market a show built on empathy, on rewriting the story of who gets to belong, and then turn around and do this? How do you sing about revolution when you cannot even make room for a woman who just beat cancer?

This story should be a wake-up call, not just for Hamilton, but for every producer, manager, and decision maker who hides behind policy to avoid decency. The industry does not need more statements about inclusion. It needs to actually live it, especially when it is hard.

Kimberly Mark deserved better. Every crew member who gives their body and heart to this business deserves better.

And if Broadway really wants to call itself a family, maybe it is time it started acting like one.