NATO is suffering an existential crisis as it tries to figure out how to effectively deal with an aggressive Vladimir Putin in eastern Europe.  The alliance has been meeting the last few days in Poland to discuss the future.

But U.S. secretary of state John Kerry had more important things to do.  Kerry left the summit early in order to take his daughter to a performance of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton.  He was seen at the theater on Saturday night while President Obama was still in Poland.

The Hill:

The State Department on Monday pushed back against allegations that Secretary John Kerryskipped out early from a NATO summit in Poland to catch Lin-Manuel Miranda’s final appearance in the hit Broadway show “Hamilton” this weekend.

Kerry did go to the musical sensation with his daughter on Saturday evening, the department confirmed, even as President Obama and other world leaders were finishing up a key security meeting in Warsaw.

But the top diplomat had already finalized his work at the summit, spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

And Kerry’s early return to the U.S. was planned for the wedding "of a very dear personal friend of his back in New England," Kirby maintained. The play was merely extra.

“He did go to the musical on Saturday night. That is a fact,” Kirby said. “He did [so] as a private endeavor, something he wanted to do with his daughter.”

“But that had nothing to do with his Warsaw agenda whatsoever, and it had no effect whatsoever on the work that he was able to get done in Warsaw.”

“Press reporting and speculation out there that he left Warsaw to attend a play is just patently false,” Kirby added.

Kerry’s attendance at New York’s Richard Rodgers Theatre on Saturday evening caused a brief stir over the weekend, as critics suggested Kerry ditched NATO to catch Miranda's final bow. 

“John Kerry left the NATO summit early so he could hang out [with] Jane Fonda, JLO, & Charlie Rose,” tweeted Michael Doran, a former White House official under President George W. Bush. Fonda, Rose and Jennifer Lopez were also present at the Saturday evening show.

The State Department claims are idiotic.  What more important job for the secretary of state is there than advising his boss, the president or the United States?  With Obama in Poland and Kerry at a musical in New York, perhaps the State Department would like to explain how Kerry was able to perform the primary duty of his office in advisinjg the president?

At least Obama didn't duck out for a few hours to play golf.

Kerry's Broadway sojourn raises the question of whether he's just tired of playing the role of secretary of state and would rather be doing something else.  Perhaps that would be the best way he could serve the country as his disastrous tenure as America's top diplomat draws to an end.