KENNEDY CENTER HONORS 2024

Even though I have a funny personal story about the Kennedy Center Honors, (which I’ve never shared publicly before, and you’ll understand why when you read it on here in a few minutes,) it came to my attention yesterday that I have never reviewed the TV special in this e-zine! I’m not on Facebook very often, except to post my article links on my Facebook Fan Page, (which is It’s Not About Me TV, if you’d like to follow it in order to never miss any of my bon mots,) but, out of post-Christmas ennui, I was on there today, and noticed that one of my Facebook friends, Richard Zimmerman, gave his own fabulous mini review of the recent show. I only wish I could be so succinct! (I began this diatribe because of my brief, although longer than usual for FB, ten-sentence comment on his post. So that’s what I was expecting this review would be. It appears I was wrong. Oh well.)

Richard had some questions about a couple of the performers, so as I was writing that comment on his post, to clear a bit of it up for him, I realized that I would like to share those thoughts, and more, with you guys, as well! So here I am.

This 2024 version of the Kennedy Center Honors seemed to lack a lot of the usual pizazz and pathos. I can’t quite put my finger fully on the problem, but a big part of it for me is that this was one of the few times that I’ve seen this presentation done in the absolute wrong order. The production usually ends with whichever honoree will provide the most rollicking musical moments, to make the show go out on a huge high. So I was positive that the tribute to the Apollo Theater would occur last because you know that that one would feature some rousing music. But they put that segment second in the show! That was just crazy.

And they ended the whole shebang with the tribute to the Grateful Dead!!! I have no idea why they did that. It couldn’t be to attract younger viewers because the Dead is basically a baby boomer band, with two of the main dudes already deceased. That segment just lay flat the whole time. They didn’t even have anyone perform two of the group’s biggest songs, Truckin’ and Casey Jones, (the only ones with which I’m familiar.) I was really surprised. I’ve never been a fan of the Dead, and I’ve always been a fan of soul acts, so that order was just really perplexing to me. And Miles Teller trying to dance to ‘60s and ‘70s music, in a tie-dye T-shirt, no less, was sort-of painful to witness.

But there were some wonderful performances in other parts of the show. The first of the two best acts was Brandi Carlyle singing I Can’t Make You Love Me during the tribute to Bonnie Raitt. Wow. Just wow. She was just perfect in the easiest way possible. Her heartbreaking voice made me almost wish that some guy had broken my heart in the way the lyrics portray. (Almost, mind you—Mr. X is difficult enough!)

A wondrous part of that performance was Sheryl Cole playing the piano for Brandi’s song! She didn’t take even a small part of the words for herself, nor even harmonized; she just played the musical accompaniment for Brandi! With glasses on and relying on the sheet music, looking like an elementary school music teacher who had just received the music that day! But it was actually glorious!

Speaking of glorious, that’s exactly what married soul duo War and Treaty’s rendition of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s You’re All I Need to Get By was in the tribute to the Apollo Theater. (This was the first time in the Kennedy Center Honors’ forty-seven year history that an institution was one of the honorees, as opposed to people.) We had heard them before, but Mr. X and I became big fans of theirs that night. (The genuine-love kiss at the end of their song sealed the deal for me.)

By the way, I have never been a fan of comedian Dave Chappelle because of his constant smoking on stage, which is rude to not only everyone around him who has to breathe it, but to the possibly-impressionable audience members whom he makes think that smoking is not only okay, but cool. But he did not smoke in this show, and his speech was really good and sincere here, talking about losing at the Apollo when he was just a teen and what it meant to him. So now I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt. (Perhaps he laid-off the cigs because the producers forbade him from doing it. But either way, it was good to see him not smoking.)

I was actually pretty sure that someone playing the Apollo’s famous Sandman would come out for a second, not to really sweep off a “loser,” (because there are no losers in this show!,) but just to make people be so happy to see that humorous act in person. (I know that I would have loved it!) But as far as that iconic little bit is concerned, they did a little tribute to Howard “Sandman” Sims, (the original “Sandman,” who passed away twenty-three years ago,) in the body of the presentation. I was glad to see that, at least.

As much as the famous people who are getting the tributes are being honored, there’s something else very interesting about all Kennedy Center Honors presentations. And that is that they often book sort-of obscure talent to perform. I’m sure that a lot of those artists are well-known in their particular genres, (such as Cuban and Latinx artists performing for honoree Cuban jazz-trumpeter-extraordinaire, Arturo Sandoval,) but they are not familiar to the public at large. So it’s wonderful exposure to new audiences for the musicians. I love that.

Actually, one of the best discoveries that night was during the tribute to Mr. Sandoval. And that is that Andy Garcia…is a percussionist!!! Who knew?! He played the bongos, along with everyone’s favorite instrument—the cowbell, with the happening jam sesh band.

So my Facebook pal with the mini review didn’t know who the blonde girl singer who began the tribute to Francis Ford Coppola is. So for those of you who are also in the dark as to her identity, I’m here to enlighten all of you. (Mr. X did not realize who she was while seeing her, but when I told him who it was afterwards, he was amazed.) She is Grace VanderWaal, who won America’s Got Talent in 2016, when she was just twelve. She was a really good singer back then, but what everyone loved about her was that her voice and delivery were beyond her years, and also that she was such a sweet girl. I didn’t know why she was on Kennedy Center Honors when they announced her at the top of the show, but it turns out that she’s in Coppola’s most recent film, Megalopolis, (which I believe was a complete bomb.)

Grace is twenty now, and obviously an actress as well as a singer. But I’ve got to be honest here and tell you that her performance on this show was pretty bad. Even worse than her singing that night was what she did afterwards. Just to make this all-talking tribute, (outside of Grace, of course,) more interesting, they had all the presenters sit around a table that was on an elevated stage, to emulate the dinners that Francis hosts at his northern California vineyard. After each person spoke, (or in Grace’s case, sang,) they sat down there while the rest of the people gave their little speeches. Since Grace was the first one up, she had to sit there through eight speakers. And she was moving her leg and foot, in the way that connotes absolute boredom, the entire time!!! So all during those heartfelt speeches, you could see how bored she was. It made her look so immature, and semi-rude, actually. I kept hoping that someone would get a message to someone on stage to lean over and tell her to stop it. I’m sure she had no idea she was doing it, as happens to all of us, but her whole appearance there was just brutal. Grace was not a good representative for Gen Z performers. By the way, no one ever explained why she was singing, (or trying to,) The Impossible Dream from The Man of LaMancha in honor of Coppola; we were left to ponder the significance for ourselves. [Note: She’ll turn twenty-one on January 15th, the day after my own January 14th bday, so I feel a tad bad for ragging a bit on my fellow Capricorn. But you know I always tell it like it is.]

Now to the supposed host of the evening. As far as I know, Queen Latifah, is a rapper, and now in her older years, a successful TV actress, but she’s not really a singer. So that was a little strange to have her on there singing. The only reason she was hosting is because she stars on a CBS series*, and the Kennedy Center Honors is on CBS, as well. *(That series is The Equalizer, and trust me, I’m not saying anything bad about Latifah because I’m the only person I know who watches that show. Mr. X has seen a tiny bit of it over the years, and he always makes fun of it. She’s not a particularly good actress, and, since she plays a former CIA agent who still beats-up the bad guys, which means she should be at least somewhat in shape, she could definitely benefit from a few shots of Ozempic. Just sayin’. And the show is pretty stupid, but it’s the kind of mindless entertainment that I enjoy. So there’s that.)

I just have to mention a few more people on there. Al Pacino’s head was so close to the podium when he was speaking that I thought he was sitting down! He did not look very good, but I’m giving the guy a break because he’s eighty-four-years-old! And even though Jackson Browne looks like a handsome older man, I did not recognize him at all! When did he become such a grown-up??? Raye is always a great singer, but I feel she was a bit nervous, and that the audience didn’t “get” her enough.

One big thing I missed throughout all five of the tribute segments is that after the first person spoke about each honoree, they used to show a brief visual bio of their life/lives. And this time they did not. They offered just a bit of each one’s history, but not enough and not in linear order.

Still, it’s an always-entertaining show, and though this year was one of my least favorites, I’m always glad to see such a classy presentation in this crazy world.

Now here’s my personal Kennedy Center Honors tale. For the last decade or so of his life, I was friends with the incredible tap dancer, Fayard Nicholas, (who had actually introduced me to Savion Glover back then, and Savion performed in this year’s show! I love a full circle situation.) He and his brother Harold had been honorees in 1991, and when his precious wife died at the end of that decade, we started hanging-out more often. He was eighty-five-years-old at the time, and I considered him to be sort of a grandfather figure to me, which I loved. He introduced me to his whole family, and we met a lot of each other’s friends. We even tapped-danced together on my TV show back then! What an honor that was!

All Kennedy Center honorees are invited back each year for the new festivities, with their flights and accommodations all taken care of, as well as those of their guests. So when he was planning to attend that first year he was widowed, guess who he asked to be his “date” to the event? Yours truly, of course! I was so excited because getting to be at that classiest of events would have been a dream come true. But checking on what the accommodations would be, I asked him, “We wouldn’t have to share a room, would we?,” to which Fayard answered a definitive, “Oh yes!” I couldn’t believe it. I had no idea that my little pal was such a lusty old man.

I laughed internally, but I said, “Oh Fayard, you know I can’t share a room with anyone but my own boyfriend!” He’d actually met Mr. X a few times, including when he had guested on my show. So I hoped that perhaps he’d say something like, “No worries, dear, I’ll get you your own room.” I had actually thought of saying that I would just pay for my own room, but by the way he said that “oh yes,” I knew that would not be an option.

So, of course, I had to give up that beautiful opportunity. The idea of the adorable and unbelievably talented Fayard Nicolas chasing me around a hotel room in Washington, D.C. was just not my idea of a great time. But during every annual Kennedy Center Honors telecast since then, I start feeling bad that I missed-out on that unique experience, wondering if there was some other way I could have handled it to still attend with him. I know that there wasn’t, so then Mr. X and I have a laugh picturing what that week-end would have been like for me. So maybe I’ll get there some other way some other day. But I always hope that Fayard is up in heaven, looking down and having a little bit of a chuckle with me about it every year.