The Kennedy Center Honors inductees for 2021 are heading to Washington DC this week. Dick van Dyke, Midori, Debbie Allen, Garth Brooks, and Joan Baez are on their way to tape segments for the June 6th broadcast on CBS.
The KCH will take the place of the Tony Awards, usually shown on the second Sunday of June. The Tonys will resume this fall. The whole calendar is upside down thanks to the pandemic!
The inductees usually get a weekend blowout of parties and receptions including a visit to the White House. But this year the festivities will be curtailed. The show will be taped without a big audience, just high rollers and donors to the Kennedy Center, the inductees, their guests, and the celebrities participating in the show.
On the upside, we will see White House involvement for the first time in five years. The Bidens will most certainly be part of the action, happily. The former president had no interest in the arts or culture, and vice versa.
The Kennedy Center is under the gun this year for dismissing the National Symphony Orchestra among other things. Their bad publicity is notable.
But the Honors show on June 6th should do a lot to resolve bad feelings. It’s good group of inductees. And frankly, having the show in June and not buried on December 29th is a relief. Maybe people will watch it.
I am particularly thrilled about Dick van Dyke, who I interviewed a few weeks ago. Here is the link.
