33rd Annual Kennedy Center Honors: A Brilliant Review

Every year shortly after Christmas Day and right before New Year's Eve is a cultural event called the Kennedy Center Honors that oftentimes gets little recognition. Perhaps it has something to do with the vast wasteland of nothing exciting on primetime TV during the remaining weeks of the year. Whatever the reason for its little publicity it should receive a lot more attention in the coming years. This is something worth watching if you appreciate the performing arts.

I must confess I have only watched it briefly in years past. The times I had watched the Kennedy Center Honors it was far superior then many of the overly-hyped award shows and other events. Maybe that's why this extraordinary program is able to go under the radar. It's so different yet fascinating without the fanfare. The Kennedy Center Honors started in 1977 with its first telecast was in 1978 honoring Marian Anderson, Fred Astaire, George Balanchine, Richard Rodgers and Arthur Rubenstein.

This program was devised in the U.S. because in Europe there are many award ceremonies honoring their entertainers and athletes from the respective monarchies. In England they have command performances for the Queen every year. The Kennedy Center Honors features the President and the First Lady receiving the five honorees at the White House and a gala performance. All the honorees sit with the President and the First Lady in the Presidential Box at the Kennedy Center Opera House.

Tuesday night the five Kennedy Center Honorees, along with President Obama and Michelle Obama, were entertained by fellow celebrities and musicians in a tribute format. Caroline Kennedy opened the ceremonies with a speech. These are the five artists in order of presentation. The ones I wasn't familiar with I learned a great deal about. The one who was my favorite got a rousing music tribute

Oprah Winfrey

Julia Roberts introduced her with a delightful speech on how a typical conversation would start off with "Did you see what was on Oprah yesterday?" It was followed by a fascinating biographical film. Here is where you learn a lot about the honoree. Sidney Poitier gave an excellent speech saying "Oprah's show is how all social networks should be". I completely agree with him. There were some great comic sketches with John Travolta, Barbara Walters and Chris Rock. The best part of all was Jennifer's Hudson highly-emotional vocal performance from the Broadway musical Oprah produced of "The Color Purple."

Bill T. Jones (Dancer and Choreographer)

The actress Claire Danes reminisced about dancing in one of his street programs in New York City. She was sharing her experience working with him. His biographical film was truly fascinating to me since I love dance. Instead of telling stories his dances are about social issues. The one thing that stood out in my mind was the powerful production from the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. It started off with the narrator talking about the face, neck, hair, ears and on and on about various parts of the body while the dancer emotes this through dance. At the end do you realize it was to represent a slave being examined before he was sold.

Jerry Herman (Composer/Lyricist - Broadway)

Angela Lansbury introduced Jerry Herman, since she was the star of one of his biggest Broadway musicals. He has composed some of the most remarkable Broadway musicals in the history of the Great White Way. "Hello Dolly", "Mame" and "La Cage aux Folles", with the latter currently a revival on Broadway. The magnificent musical tribute to Jerry Herman was like a Broadway production in itself. Carol Channing, the star of "Hello Dolly" and Angela Lansbury, the star of "Mame" performed along with other famous Broadway stars including Matthew Morrison, the star of the hit TV show "Glee."

Merle Haggard (Country Music Singer/Songwriter)

Oftentimes opera singers have been honored in years past, so it was an interesting change of pace to see someone from country music instead. Besides Bill T. Jones, I was not familiar with the career of Merle Haggard. I had heard of him by name, but his music has been completely foreign to me until now. He is without a doubt a traditional, hardcore country and western musician.

Haggard makes today's country artists seem tame in comparison. Vince Gil introduced him with a humorous speech. It seemed the elite of country music came to pay tribute to Merle Haggard. There was Miranda Lambert, Kris Kristofferson, Brad Paisley and Willie Nelson. One of the songs that stood out for me was the one about being married and having nine children.

Paul McCartney

Naturally they would save the cute former Beatle for last. Alec Baldwin introduced Paul with a hilarious monologue. What I was looking forward to was hearing the tributes of Paul McCartney's music. No Doubt opened with singing the McCartney compositions of the famed Lennon/McCartney team. First it was "Hello, Goodbye" and "Penny Lane." David Grohl and Norah Jones sang from his solo venture with Wings "Maybe I'm Amazed." This is one of my favorite songs by McCartney.

Steven Tyler was truly awesome in his rock star/frontman style singing "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" (which is about a real-life fan who did just that) and "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight." James Taylor sang "Let It Be" and closing out was Mavis Staple singing "Hey Jude." By this time the entire crowd was up on their feet holding what looked like a glowing torch as they swayed to the music. What an incredible way to close the program. The Kennedy Center Honor musical tributes were the best I have seen in a very long time.

Caroline Kennedy closed the show with all five honorees standing up for the last time. From now on I am going to make an effort to watch the Kennedy Center Honors, because it truly is entertaining, unique and cultural.

SOURCES:

Hank Stuever, "'Kennedy Center Honors' on CBS, strangely chilled", The Washington Post

Kennedy Center Honors, Wikipedia

33^rd Annual Kennedy Center Honors, Kennedy Center.org