CHICAGO — An audience member who disrupted Saturday night's performance of the musical "Hamilton" with an expletive-laden political outburst was arrested, police said.
John Palmer, 56, was arrested around 9:30 p.m. after he caused a disruption to the performance at the PrivateBank Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St., and refused to leave when asked, said officer Kevin Quaid, a Chicago Police spokesperson.
Palmer, of the 100 block of East Illinois Street, was charged with one misdemeanor count of criminal trespass to land, Quaid said.
According to Jeff Grider, an audience member at the show Saturday, the performance was briefly interrupted when Palmer allegedly stood up and shouted, "Our side won! Our side won! F*** anyone who didn't vote for Trump, you don't belong here!"
"He proceeded to make derogatory comments to several women in the audience, and uttered many ethnic and homophobic slurs," Grider wrote on a Facebook post shortly after the performance.
Grider's Facebook post also includes a video of what appears to be Palmer shouting obscenities as he is escorted away.
According to the Tribune, the reportedly intoxicated man began his profanity-ridden tirade after the cast sang the line, "Immigrants / We get the job done" — during one of the show's politically charged moments.
Other audience members at Saturday's show also shared on social media about the incident:
I'm at a Hamilton showing in Chicago and this trump supporter in the middle of the show started screaming and ranting... he was escorted out
— BT (@btomato) November 20, 2016
Chicago Hamilton play - guy yells, "I'm a Trump supporter. We won. F^*+ you." Threatens to toss ppl off balcony. Arrested. Crowd cheered.
— Suttman-Heinz (@CathyMHeinz) November 20, 2016
The Chicago disruption happened one day after a cast member in the Broadway production of "Hamilton" delivered a statement directed to Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who attended the show in New York.
Tonight, VP-Elect Mike Pence attended #HamiltonBway. After the show, @BrandonVDixon delivered the following statement on behalf of the show. pic.twitter.com/Jsg9Q1pMZs
— Hamilton (@HamiltonMusical) November 19, 2016
The comments directed toward Vice President-elect Pence happened amid a week full of protests against Donald Trump's presidential victory, as well as the same day Trump agreed to pay $25 million to settle a series of lawsuits that accused his real estate school, Trump University, of swindling thousands of students out of millions of dollars.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here.
