'Artists must pick a side': How Israel's assault on Gaza is shifting the culture on Broadway

Six months into Israel's assault on Gaza in March 2024, when more than 120 Palestinians were being killed in air strikes each day, Broadway performer Allie Trimm was approached by the writer of a project she had just been fired from. "You and I are not so different. We both don't want to see innocent people get hurt," the writer told her. "We just have a different idea of who's innocent." Trimm, an actress and singer since the age of nine, had become an advocate for Palestinian rights after images of children torn apart by US-supplied weapons flooded her social media feeds, as they had for countless other Americans since the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023. Just under 1,200 people - Israelis and foreign nationals - were killed that morning, including some by the Israeli military . New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Israel's subsequent assault on the Gaza Strip, later assessed to be a genocide by the United Nations and Holocaust scholars , has killed 74,000 Palestinians to date, with more than 22,000 children among them. Researchers with the Lancet Global Health Journal have said those figures are likely a severe undercount . Trimm told Middle East Eye that industry professionals called her a "jihadist" and "antisemite", and warned her that she was putting people in danger through her advocacy. "How is humanising Palestinian people being equated with antisemitism?" she said. "This is the first issue that I've really experienced with such intense silencing around [it], and... Well, why? Why is it this thing that we can't talk about?" 'Censorship' In November 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders who were assassinated by Israel. The move upped the ante on Israel as international condemnation of its conduct in Gaza escalated. The US has since vowed to dismantle the ICC " brick by brick ". Trimm told MEE she wasn't employed for some nine months that year before she landed a leading role on Broadway's smash hit Wicked in 2025 - where she was previously a standby, or emergency fill-in - playing Glinda, the "good witch", now recognised globally through Ariana Grande's portrayal in the two-part film. Allie Trimm as Glinda at the curtain call for her first show as a principal cast member in Wicked at the Gershwin Theater in New York City, on 4 March 2025 (Conor Clancy) That contract ended in March of this year, six months into the US-brokered ceasefire announced on 10 October 2025, and at the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran, which drew headlines away from the wasteland that Gaza had become. It took nearly half a year before Trimm came forward publicly about the pressure she faced to stay silent on Palestinian rights while performing in one of the most lucrative and long-running musicals in the world. On 15 September, she posted a video on Instagram , emboldened by how rapper Macklemore handled his own firing from Ed Sheeran's tour by billionaire Robert Kraft . "While I worked at Wicked , I was told that there's an 'if' and a 'then'. If I keep talking about Palestine or Palestinian human rights on the internet, then I can expect the phones to stop ringing and all of the perks that should come with my contract to cease," Trimm said in her video. While the show's producer, Marc Platt, never had a one-on-one meeting with her, Trimm expressed concern with views he espoused on a podcast that include suggesting criticism of Israel is "Jew hate", and that actors in Hollywood who have called for a ceasefire in Gaza are "not completely informed". When the man at the top holds that position, the chilling effect trickles down to the company, Trimm told MEE. 'If I keep talking about Palestine or Palestinian human rights on the internet, then I can expect the phones to stop ringing' - Allie Trimm, Broadway performer "I started experiencing kind of pretty intense censorship," she said. "I reached out to the union for help when I was experiencing this. I also retained a lawyer. I was extremely distraught during the entire ordeal, and the union told me that I should double-check because the government has changed the definition of antisemitism, and I might very well be being antisemitic." The Trump administration has adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. Critics of the IHRA definition say it conflates antisemitism with anti-Zionism, including criticism of historic and current policies that led to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes. MEE repeatedly reached out to Actors Equity, the union representing 51,000 professional actors and stage managers, but did not hear back. Platt had most recently made headlines for reprimanding stage and screen star Rachel Zegler for posting "Free Palestine" on social media, which his son said hurt the box office returns for Platt's film, Snow White , in which she played the titular character. "I was singled out in this process" at Wicked , Trimm said in her video, which has garnered nearly 60,000 likes. "I was singled out, and I was the only employee that was subjected to this censorship and this monitoring." To look at how this industry has been impacted by the global fallout from Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza, MEE spoke with more than half a dozen performers, directors, and writers who have worked or continue to work in New York City's musical theatre scene, either on Broadway - meaning one of the 41 venues that seat at least 500 people in midtown - or Off-Broadway, including some regional theatres. 'The most Zionist of all' In June, 26-year-old Ali Louis Bourzgui won Broadway's highest honour - a Tony - for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical for the vampire rock musical The Lost Boys . It was by many accounts a major upset, given 80-year-old André De Shields was widely expected to get the trophy for his performance in Cats: The Jellicle Ball . "The people of Palestine," Bourzgui said in his speech , "deserve a free life, a full life, without occupation." The room responded with raucous applause. In this country's for-profit entertainment industry, it was a stratospheric shift. And that shift may have been inevitable with the changing demographic. "For Arab theatre makers and artists: May we continue to tell our stories and show our faces so our humanity becomes undeniable and our families can no longer be written off as merely collateral damage," Bourzgui, whose father is Moroccan, continued. "May they know the beauty of our kisses upon each cheek and the romance of a language rooted in passion for love and life itself." Ali Louis Bourzgui poses with the Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical award for The Lost Boys at the Tony Awards on 7 June 2026 in New York City (Mike Coppola/Getty Images) The Tony Awards Instagram account typically posts videos of the speeches minutes after they take place. With Bourzgui, the clip was posted three days later, on 10 June, following an online outcry. "There was a lot of drama above the surface and under the surface in the theatre world about this speech, which clearly called for a free Palestine and end to the genocide," Nick Laparra , a social impact adviser for artists and the co-founder of Broadway Voices for Palestine , told MEE. The group had been holding a demonstration outside Radio City Music Hall, the venue for the awards in New York City, as they were handed out. CBS, owned by Paramount Skydance and pro-Israeli tycoon David Ellison , has the exclusive rights to broadcast the Tonys. "There was disagreement on whether the video should have been online, because it got taken down, and it was down for several days until the Tony Awards official account posted the entire clip, and then, and only then, did The Lost Boys , their official account, accept the collaboration on Instagram and post the full video." MEE reached out to Bourzgui's team for this story, but his publicist, Lisa Goldberg, said he would not be available for comment. Laparra called Broadway "the most Zionist of all the entertainment industries". "As soon as [performers are] posting about a 'Free Palestine', 'Stop the Blockade', 'All Eyes on Rafah', all these different ebbs and flows of the genocide over the last three years, there's been relentless pushback," he said. 'Most of everybody is pro-Palestine. They just can't speak up. They need this job. This is their dream job' - Nick Laparra, Broadway Voices for Palestine "Artists must pick a side," he added. "Palestine is the moral issue that separates." Laparra acknowledged that awareness and education on Palestinian rights have grown exponentially. "We have a lot of the biggest shows on Broadway represented in our group, and a lot of Off-Broadway, and a lot of the smaller shows," he said. Of the stagehands and performers he meets, he continued, "Most of everybody is pro-Palestine. They just can't speak up. They need this job. This is their dream job. So many [have] to navigate the complexities of this." "The problem... lies with the management. It lies with the investors." But "they can only do so much", which is why the tide is turning, one performer who is about to embark on a prominent role in one of next year's most highly anticipated shows on Broadway told MEE. The performer has chosen to withhold their name to speak more freely on the issue. "We're having conversations now that would have been a dream to have five years ago," they said. "I think people are existing too much in cognitive dissonance. I think the industry is reflective of what's happening in the country... it can only be defended by the media and by the levers of power for so long before people stop. We will continue to see progress as time goes on. Israel now has never been so unfavourable." Function Like any cultural institution, Broadway holds up a mirror to society. "Broadway reflects changes in the culture, and reflects political attitudes and changes in the city culture," Adam Feldman, a veteran theatre critic for TimeOut and president of the New York Drama Critics' Circle, explained to MEE. "One of the things that happened after the Covid shutdown was the Black Lives Matter movement became much more of a focal point for American discourse, and so in response to that, when the theatre came back, you did see a lot more plays... by black playwrights," he added. "That does, to some extent, push or reflect a political viewpoint." Two shows attempted to tackle Israel's wars and occupation this season: Giant , starring John Lithgow, which closed in June on Broadway; and Birthright , a play with a young ensemble cast that closed in August Off-Broadway. Giant largely centred on criticism of Israel falling into antisemitism. Birthright examined Zionism and landed on how no side is actually right. "Audiences don't like being lectured to," Feldman told MEE. "Yes, even when it's politics that they share, or maybe even especially when it's politics that they share, because it seems a bit redundant... one of the things that art does particularly well is set up space for exploration of complexity." The 2025-2026 season on Broadway saw 14.5 million attendees and brought in a whopping $1.91b while still operating at a loss , despite the ever-increasing cost of a night out at the theatre, and amid an affordability crisis in the US that is dominating the discussion ahead of the November midterm elections. The Broadway League, which is the trade association that represents producers and theatre-owners, has said a quarter of all ticket