5 More Musicals That May Trigger You, If You Support I.C.E.
by Chris Peterson
I tried to retire after Part 1. Truly. I thought we’d reached peak “I love musical theatre, but I also think the government should treat human beings like suspicious luggage.” And then this past week happened and, like a bad encore nobody asked for, here we are again.
Because while some folks are still out here insisting theatre should be a “safe space” from anything political, the real world keeps barging in through the stage door. From a federal judge ordering the release of a five-year-old child, to a Chicago mayor signing an executive order telling police to document and investigate alleged illegal activity by federal immigration agents, it’s been quite a week for those “less oversight, more cages” types who cheer on basic rights getting steamrolled.
So yes. Welcome back. This is Part 2 of my ongoing public service announcement for anyone who supports ICE and yet insists musical theatre is their safe space.
With that in mind, here are five more musicals you may want to avoid if you support ICE, complete with the kind of trigger warnings that would absolutely get me banned from a Facebook group run by someone’s aunt.
1. Come From Away
Photo: Matthew Murphy
Trigger warning: Unsolicited compassion, people being treated like humans, and a town that doesn’t respond to strangers by calling security.
This show is basically two hours of “what if we met fear with empathy instead of policies and paperwork?” If your preferred response to “unexpected arrivals” is “detain first, ask questions later,” this musical is going to feel like a group hug you didn’t consent to.
2. Hamilton
Photo: Broadway Inbound
Trigger warning: Immigrants. Founding Fathers. “America” as an idea that actually includes people. Also, history with the audacity to be complicated.
If you support ICE and also love Hamilton, I regret to inform you that you may have been vibing to the wrong thesis statement this whole time. It’s literally a musical about outsiders building a country, dreaming big, showing up loud, and refusing to be told they don’t belong here. There’s an entire number called “Immigrants (We Get the Job Done).”
3. Cabaret
Trigger warning: Fascism with jazz hands, the “just following orders” starter pack, and polite society pretending it’ll all work itself out.
Cabaret is what happens when a room full of people keeps saying “it can’t get that bad here” until it does. If your worldview relies on the comforting myth that “order” is always moral and authority is always right, this show will drag you by the collar into the uncomfortable realization that evil rarely shows up wearing a villain cape.
4. Hairspray
Trigger warning: Civil rights, teenage girls with a conscience, and the radical belief that integration is good, actually.
This is the musical equivalent of a glitter cannon that shoots straight into systemic injustice. If you’re the kind of person who says “I’m not political” but mysteriously only gets mad when the politics involve equality, Hairspray is going to ruin your day in the most upbeat way imaginable.
5. Les Misérables
Trigger warning: Prisons, poverty, moral awakening, and a cop who confuses obedience with righteousness until it eats him alive.
If you love punishment, love carceral systems, love the idea that suffering builds character, and think mercy is “soft,” Les Mis is going to spend three hours singing directly into your soul like a disappointed teacher who stayed after class just for you. It starts with someone being destroyed for stealing bread and never really stops asking why society is so horny for punishment and so allergic to grace.
In all seriousness, the reason this lands right now is because none of this is theoretical. Theatre doesn’t fix any of this by itself. But it does one thing extremely well: it refuses to let us call cruelty normal. And if that makes people uncomfortable, honestly, good. That’s kind of the job.