One thing Donald Trump is good at: celebrating mediocrity. He appeals to the masses, the Wal Mart crowd.
So his first Kennedy Center Honors fulfilled the mission. He went straight for the lowest common denominator.
The show was taped before Trump renamed the Center in his own honor, so the graphics still read “Kennedy Center Honors.”
But the CBS announcer voiced “Trump Kennedy Center Honors” as the show began.
Immediately there were two glaring differences in the Trump era. There was no mention made of President John F. Kennedy, for whom the theater complex is named. In every year since this began there has been an introduction explaining how we all got here. That was gone.
Then, the traditional backdrop wall with all the names of past recipients was replaced by a Las Vegas type set. There was no reference to past winners with one exception. Garth Brooks, appearing for KISS, wore his real Kennedy Center medal. He included the multi colored ribbon that Trump has ditched. Trump thought it ooked too gay. Brooks thumbed his nose in a very subtle way.
Even though members of the National Symphony Orchestra did their best to make the show look good, there were some other omissions. For Sylvester Stallone, no appearance from his long time “Rocky” wife Talia Shire. Also, nothing from Ryan Coogler, who revived “Rocky” with his “Creed” movies.
“Phantom of the Opera” star Michael Crawford looked shocked all night. He’s really a British star, which was evident when his clip reel included scenes from things we don’t know about. “Phantom” is his American credit. He was a young star of “Hello, Dolly!” so a singer sang his song from the show. But she was female, even though the song is a duet. Why didn’t they have a male singer to play his character?
The George Strait section will play big time with MAGA and Trump backers. All the participants are country stars. They’re the Cracker Barrel audience, the meat and potatoes of MAGA.
Gloria Gaynor? Nice lady, I’m sure. But it’s hard to sing a medley of her hits, when she basically had one, maybe 1.5. Good for her. She also looked surprised. But Trump — who seemed to be sleeping through the show — did seem energized by “I Will Survive.” He’s hoping he can considering what’s going on with Epstein, etc.
Assuming Trump will be back next year, who can we expect? Lee Greenwood, Jon Voight, Johnny Mathis or anyone else who’s professed fealty to the orange monster.
