A year ago next week, the Kennedy Center Honors were announced.
The recipients ranged from weird to strange, with Sylvester Stallone. country music icon George Strait, legendary rock band KISS (Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss, Ace Frehley), Tony Award-winning star Michael Crawford, Grammy-winning disco pioneer Gloria Gaynor as the group.
Crawford, nice as he is, is known for one show: “Phantom of the Opera.” Gaynor had one hit — “I Will Survive,” but it turned out later she’d been donating to Trump and the GOP for a long time. KISS was the shopping mall equivalent of a rock group. Stallone’s whole career was based on “Rocky.”
Unlike the four prior decades, there was no independent artists committee that weighed the nominees. Trump’s then-henchman, Ric Grenell, brought the culturally deprived president a list, and he approved it. Then Trump hosted the show in December.
This time around it will be the same, except Grenell has been replaced, and the Kennedy Center is closed for renovations. Liza Minnelli told me exclusively that she would accept the honor even under Trump because she’s 80 years old, and the time is now. But who will else will accept? More Republican country singers? Trump acolytes Dennis Quaid or Mel Gibson? Anyone from Broadway or classical music?
And then there’s the matter of where this would be filmed for TV. The only other theater in Washington of this size is the National. They’re booked in November and December with Broadway shows “Hell’s Kitchen,” “Waitress,” and “Hamilton.” The latter, ironically, moved from the Kennedy Center when Trump took over. Ford’s Theater would cause a lot of macabre jokes, but it only seats 600.
Whatever happens next week, it’s going to cause a ruckus. And if Trump doesn’t leave office until the end of the term, there will still be two more years of this debacle.
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