NEW YORK (AFP) - Vice President-elect Mike Pence was booed at a performance of the award-winning Broadway musical Hamilton, whose "alarmed and anxious" cast made an unusual call for Donald Trump's incoming administration to work on behalf of all Americans.
The President-elect later complained that the cast had been rude to Pence and harassed him during the late Friday performance.
"This should not happen!" Trump tweeted.
The wildly popular hit musical, which won 11 Tony Awards in June, follows young colonial rebels who became America's founding fathers, celebrating diversity and immigrants' contribution to the nation.
The show's lead actor, Javier Munoz, is openly gay, HIV positive and a cancer survivor.
Activists worry that the Trump administration will be hostile to gay rights.
Brandon Victor Dixon, who plays former vice-president Aaron Burr, read a statement to Pence during the curtain call that echoed some of the main concerns critics have voiced since the Republican firebrand won the election on Nov 8.
With that, a performance about a revolution and dawn of a young nation became even more political.
Pence is a stalwart Christian conservative from the Midwest.
Thanking him for attending the performance, Dixon asked him to "hear us out."
"We, sir, we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir," Dixon said.
"But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and work on behalf of all of us. All of us."
Hamilton, Dixon told Pence, was performed by "a diverse group of men, women of different colours, creeds and orientations."
The audience cheered and loudly applauded.
The crowd had greeted Pence with a mix of boos and cheers when he entered the theatre before the show.
During the performance, the audience gave a standing ovation at the line "immigrants we get the job done," theatre-goer Christy Colburn tweeted.
"Crowd went NUTS at King George's lines 'when people say they hate you' & 'do you know how hard it is to lead?' He had to stop the song."
Although Pence was leaving the auditorium when Dixon began reading his statement from the stage, he stood by the entrance to hear the entire message, the New York Times reported. He made no comment.
Trump complained in a tweet on Saturday morning.
"Our wonderful future V.P. Mike Pence was harassed last night at the theatre by the cast of Hamilton, cameras blazing," he wrote. "This should not happen!"
"The Theatre must always be a safe and special place," he added in another message. "The cast of Hamilton was very rude last night to a very good man, Mike Pence. Apologise!" Trump has deployed polarising rhetoric to describe immigrants, vowing to build a wall along the US border with Mexico and ban Muslims from entering the United States.
The bombastic real estate billionaire - who faced widespread condemnation within and outside his party during his campaign when a video emerged of him making lewd boasts about groping and forcing himself on women - has so far appointed staunchly conservative older white men to major posts in his future administration.
